Author: Staff..226

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a lovely week.

Information

• Next Wednesday (6^th September) we will have Loose Parts. Please ensure that your child comes appropriately dressed for this.
• As part of our topic on houses and homes we are planning to do a visit around the local area to identify different types of houses (we will be working on this in class). This will take place on the afternoon of 14^th September.  To comply with our outdoor learning ratio, we will need some volunteers. If you think you can help, please email the school office quoting P2 visit to the local area.
• Please ensure that you have returned your child’s KIC form (and it is signed!) or we will be unable to take them out of school grounds.
• Please ensure that all your child’s items are labelled.
• If you have any questions or worries about your child please don’t hesitate to speak to one of us at the end of the school day.

Here is a summary of our learning this week.

Maths

We are learning to continue a number sequence. We are working on reading writing, ordering and reciting whole numbers to 100, 30 or 10, starting from any number in the sequence. This could be forwards or backwards.  We have also worked on counting how many jumps are from one number to another number, e.g. how many jumps are from 14 to 17? How many jumps from 25 to 19?

We are working on number formation as we have noticed that children are not forming them properly or are reversing numbers. This is normal at this age however it is helpful to remind the children about how to correctly form each digit.

Homel learning ideas:

• It would be fantastic if you give your child two numbers between 0 to 10 (or up to 30 / 100 depending on how confident they are) and ask him/her to count forwards and backwards from one number to another. Look for numbers in buses, houses, car plates and use them as a starting point.
• Some children are finding hard to understand the concept of ‘number before’ and ‘number after’ therefore it would be helpful to emphasize this at home with routines: you put your socks on before your shoes, etc.
• https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares

Literacy

This week we have revised some sounds that after our initial assessment we thought the children needed some reinforcement with. We have worked on the sounds th, ch, sh, wh, oo and ee.

We have revised the spelling of tricky words (common words) from P1.

At story time our focus has been to explain preferences for particular texts and authors. We read books written by Nick Butterworth, which were very popular indeed!

Our piece of writing was “When I go home”. When writing, our focus is to use our knowledge of phonics and spelling strategies when spelling familiar and unfamiliar words.

Home learning ideas:

• Please continue to read stories to your child at home. This will help to increase your child’s vocabulary, prediction and summarising skills.
• Ask your child to think about words that have the sh, ch, th, wh, oo and ee sounds. They can try to write them too. Write words with those sounds and ask your child to find a given sound.
• For working with the above sounds:

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/forestPhonics/index.html

Other areas

Social Studies

We have started our topic on Houses and homes in our community. We have talked about what the school looks like and we have been out in the playground looking at our school building.

Wellbeing wheel

We have continued to learn about what to be safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured,   active, responsible, respected, included and achieving looks like in our class.

ICT

We have started to use the Ipads independently when leading our learning in the room. We now know how to log in and play a specific game. We are learning to share the Ipads using a timer so it is fair for all.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a fantastic first full week of P2! 

The children have been busy learning the names of their new classmates and developing new friendships.

A wee reminder that our PE days are Mondays and Thursdays. Children are invited to come to school dressed in their PE kit on those days.

The children have decided that our class identity will be the P2 Magical Dogs. M for McFarlane and D for Davidson. We have been exploring how to make paw prints with black paint. We have also taken our learning outdoors and used natural materials to make paw prints. 

We also enjoyed developing our team work skills in PE through various whole class games.

We read The Colour Monster book and discussed our feelings. We have also created a wellbeing check-in to use each morning related to The Colour Monster.

Numeracy

In our number work we have been revising concepts from P1. In particular we have been counting forwards and backwards. 

Suggestions for learning at home:

Count forwards and backwards using different voices (e.g. a squeaky mouse voice, a robot voice, a lion voice). For some children this will be in the range of 0-20,  others 0-30 or within 100. Play particular attention when your child is crossing the decades e.g. 31,30,29.If your child is confident in these sequences ask them to count forwards and backwards in 2s or 3s.

Literacy

In our literacy work we have been revising the sounds covered in P1 and blending these together to read words. 

Suggestions for learning at home:

Click on this link

Letters & Sounds Bingo (ictgames.com)

There is no need to print the bingo cards. Use the main menu to select a set of words (CVCs which are 3 letter words or if your child is more confident, words containing sh and ch sounds). 

Pressing the red button will generate words for your child to practise reading.

Here are a few photos from this week.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

As this is the final blog post for the year I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support this year. It has been a pleasure teaching your children and I will miss them very much! I look forward to seeing them around school when we return in August.

Things to remember for next week:

• Loose parts on Monday 26^th June
• School finishes on Wednesday 28^th June at 1.00 pm
• Please send in a carrier bag on Monday

We have had a busy week with transition activities. As part of this we have been working on the story: The Koala Who Could.

This is a story about a koala who is scared and a bit worried about things changing and trying new things. 

The link is below.

The Koala Who Could – YouTube

We are fast approaching the summer holidays which is exciting, but it can also be a nervous time for some as we are starting to think about moving onto our new teacher and classroom in August. 

As Kevin learns in the story, change can be scary but also exciting and fun. 

Have a chat with an adult at home about how you are feeling about moving into P3. What are you looking forward to? What are you unsure of? It is important to share how you are feeling with someone as that often makes us feel better. Can you think of another time where something new was happening or something was changing? How did you feel after it happened? e.g were you nervous to start Brownies but now you love it and can’t wait to go every week?

The end of term is also a time to look back and reflect on the year we’ve just had. 
Can you think of a time in P2 when you were really proud of yourself/really happy?
Can you think of a time in P2 when you found something tricky but you managed to overcome it? 
What are some of your favourite memories of P2?

You can talk to your adult, write down or draw some of your memories from Primary 2.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer!

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/ Carers, 

We hope you had a nice week. 

Here is a summary of our learning: 

Maths  

We have continued to learn about money: We are learning to identify and use all coins and notes to £20 and explore different ways of making the same total. We have noticed that lots of children are still not sure of how to write the £ sign. We have also been working on how to write different totals, for example with 75p the pence sign goes at the end but with £18 the pound sign goes at the beginning. 

At First Level your child should be able to recognise and use all coins and notes to £20.  

Try one of these activities at home. It is best if real coins can be used for these activities. 

• Present a simple shopping list, e.g. milk 86p, paper 75p, sticky tape £1.20. Ask your child to select the coins they could use to pay for each item.  

• 3 Coins Challenge 

Ask your child what values (up to 50p) that they can make using exactly 3 coins. 

Literacy 

We are learning to read and spell words with –ed. This week we will be finding out about words in which the ed letters make the sound ‘t’. For example wished.   

We have also been learning that if the root word has only one consonant after the short vowel then we need to add another consonant before adding -ed. For example flip becomes flipped. We must add an extra consonant or magic e will be able to work its magic and change the sound of the vowel!! 

In writing we have continued to work on descriptions and using adjectives. We have described an underwater scene. 

We continued to listen to the oral presentations. The children are doing a fantastic job at presenting and listening to others! 

Ideas to do at home: 

Ask your child to describe something and work on using interesting adjectives. 

Ask your child to change these words to the past tense by adding ‘ed’.  

• wish  
• poach 
• zip  
• kick 

Other areas 

In PE we are focusing on games and athletics skills. 

We enjoyed making Father’s Day cards. 

We had a great session of Loose Parts. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Mrs McFarlane 

Dear Parents/ Carers,

We hope you had a nice week.

Important Information

On Wednesday you received your child’s report and the learning story folder. Please return the Parents’ comment sheet (you should keep your child’s report) and the learning story folder as soon as possible. Thank you.

We have a session of Loose Parts on Friday 16th June.

Thank you for your support in helping your child to prepare for their talk. We have started to present these in class. We are doing just a few each day and it will take us a few weeks to get through them all.

This is a summary of our learning:

Maths

We have started to learn about money: We are learning to identify and use all coins and notes to £20 and explore different ways of making the same total. Some children are finding hard to understand the concept of value: two 1p coins is the same as one 2p coin. Please practice this at home if possible.

At First Level your child should be able to recognise and use all coins and notes to £20.

Ideas to try at home:

Give your child the opportunity to handle different coins and notes at home and ask them to add up different collections of coins and notes.

Your child should be able to make the same total in different ways, using different coins, recognising that finding the fewest number of coins is usually the best way to pay.

Money is a practical skill used in everyday life so the best way to support your child is to involve them as much as you can when dealing with money.

– Allow your child to pay for goods in shops.

– Talk to your child about where your money comes from.

– Teach your child how to budget spending.

If you don’t have coins at home, you could try this online game, however using concrete real material would be helpful to your child

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/toy-shop-money

Literacy

We are learning to read and spell words with –ed. This week we will be finding out about words in which the e in ed is silent. It just sounds like d!

Example:

hug

– If this happened in the past, then we need Old Uncle Ed.

– hug becomes hugged.

– Count the number of sounds: h – u – g – d (4 sounds)

– Even though the last sound sounds like ‘d’ it is written as ‘ed’.

In writing we have continued to work on descriptions and using adjectives. We have described Hansel and Gretel’s house.

We have started to listen to the oral presentations. All children are doing a fantastic job at presenting and listening to others.

Ideas to do at home

Ask your child to describe something and work on using interesting adjectives.

Look for verbs that have the sound d at the end ( when using the past tense).

Other areas

On Wednesday we attended the P7 show. It was brilliant and the children had a great time.

In PE we are focusing on games and athletics skills.

Our butterflies finally come out of their chrysalis and we released them outside! It has been amazing to be able to observe the life cycle the butterfly at school.

Here are some photos from our learning through play this week.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope that you have had a good week and enjoyed the lovely sunshine we have had!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Pupils will begin their oral presentations next week. We are aiming to do a couple each day. Please send in any pictures / props on Monday and we will keep them in the classroom until they have used them for their talk.

Here is a summary of our learning.

Literacy

We have been learning to add -ed to verbs to change them into the past tense. For example, walk becomes walked and climb becomes climbed.

Here is a short video clip we used in class.
Nessy Reading Strategy | Adding ‘-ed’ | Past Tense Verbs | Learn to Read – YouTube

In writing we wrote a setting description. We have been trying to include interesting describing words (adjectives).

In grammar we have been learning about nouns and verbs. We also looked at examples of lists and wrote our own lists of nouns.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: knew, cold, piece and told.

We have continued to work on spelling our tricky words.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Can your child change these verbs into the past tense by adding -ed?
talk, play, jump, open.
• Can your child write a shopping list or a list of items they need for an activity? Remember to include a title and bullet points!
• Please continue to practise the spelling of tricky words at home. Your child should know which block they are working on.

Maths and Numeracy

We have focussed on counting backwards mainly within the range of 100-0. But for some, we have been counting backwards with 3-digit numbers. We are becoming more confident at crossing the decades, e.g. 43,42,41,40,39. We have linked this skill to subtraction.

We have also been learning to use every day objects (e.g. cups) to estimate capacity. We have also looked at measuring jugs and cylinders and drawn attention to the scales on the side.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Roll 2 dice to generate a 2 digit number (or 3 digit if your child is working with these numbers). Count backwards from that number in 1s until you cross a decade. Try to do this activity several times.
• First, find a cup, a bowl and a jar. Collect lots of small, regular items, e.g. the same size of lego pieces, small building bricks, marbles etc. Begin by making an estimate of how many you think will fill the cup/bowl/jar, then fill it to the top to see how close your estimate was.
• Ask your child to complete one set of subtraction sums below.

Mild
• 12-4
• 8-2
• 10-3
• 5-1

Spicy
• 24-5
• 32-3
• 25-3
• 33-4

Hot
• 102-4
• 95-8
• 35-12
• 85-21

Other areas of the curriculum:
• We enjoyed learning about Mozart and listening to a live performance from two musicians playing the cello and the violin.
• We had another visit from Youth Music Initiative and enjoyed singing some new songs.
• In PE we have enjoyed team games and also learning to throw the javelins.
• Our butterflies have started to emerge from their chrysalides which has been very exciting to observe!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week.

Here is a summary of our learning:

Maths

We have explored measurement related to height and length. We have used non-standard and standard units to measure; we have learned how to use a ruler and measure in centimetres.

We have practised subtraction skills.

You can practice subtraction at home using this website:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

Literacy

In writing we have continued our focus on Poetry. We have written a diamante poem: cat to dog. We are learning what is an adjective (describing word), a verb (doing word) and a name.

In phonics we have been learning to add -ing to words that end with an e. If a word ends in ‘e’, drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘-ing’: fake / faking, slide/ sliding, etc. The first vowel is always long (says its name) because there is only 1 consonant to separate the vowels. There is only 1 guard!

In handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: complete, family, area and question. Please continue to practice at home the tricky words (children are aware in which block they are working at the moment).  Every week we mix the classes and we have groups based on the block of tricky words the children are working on; this has been very motivating for the children as they work hard to move up a block. Practising at home makes a huge difference!

Other areas

We had Loose Parts on Tuesday afternoon. It is great to see how the children are building more complex structures and  how they work as a team.

Science: we have learned about our senses; We have explored the senses and discussed their reliability and limitations in responding to the environment. We have discussed how we can use our senses to detect information and explained how they help to keep people safe.

RSHP: We have been learning about Privacy and the PANTS rule.

We hope you have a nice weekend and enjoy the Summer Fair !

Mrs McFarlane

Blog Post 19.05.23 

Dear Parents/Carers, 

We hope that you have had a good week.  

Important Information: 

• We have a session of loose parts  on Tuesday 23^rd May. 
• Please return Learning Stories to school ASAP. 

Here is a summary of our learning. 

Literacy

• We have been working on our reading books in class. These were sent home yesterday. 
• Our tricky words this week were: music, mountain, enough and almost. We have been learning to read these words.  
• We have continued to work on our individual block of spelling words. 
• In grammar we have been learning to use connectives. 
• In writing we wrote a poem based on the work we have been doing over the last few weeks in our poetry lessons. 
• We finished up our phonics block on the suffix -ing. Here are some photos which explain the rules we have been teaching the pupils. 

Learning at home 

Ask your child if they can add the suffix -ing to these root words.  

1. crawl 
2. float   
3. win 
4. boil 
5. end 
6. rub 

Can they explain the spelling rule which helped them? 

Please continue to read reading books at home and ask questions to check for understanding. 

Also, please remember that in June, the pupils in P2 will be asked to give a short talk on a subject of their choice.  This will begin Monday 5^th June. Information on this is provided below. 

Pupils can choose to talk about a hobby/interest, how they look after their pet, a favourite wild animal, favourite film etc. 

The focus is on selecting ideas and relevant information, organising these into a logical sequence and using words which will interest the audience. 

Please see guidance below on how best to prepare for this. 

1. Choose a topic. 

2. Think about the ‘W’ questions: Who (who is this about?) What (What do they do?) Why (Why is it interesting?) Where? When? 

3. You may wish to make cards for each heading with a picture and/or key words. Don’t write whole sentences to read out loud. 

4. Once the information is organised, practise delivering the talk to family at home. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Maths 

• We have been revising addition strategies.  
• We have been learning to estimate and weigh items using non-standard units.

Learning at home 

• There is an addition SumDog challenge which goes live tonight. 
• Choose an object e.g. a pen. Find 3 things that are heavier and 3 things that are lighter. 
• Choose 5 items from around the house and put them in order from (estimated) heaviest to lightest. 
• Draw attention to the weight of different items when you are cooking / baking. 

Other areas of the curriculum 

• As part of our equalities focus for this term, we had an interesting and informative talk on racism.  
• As part of the RSHP programme we have been talking about being confident in our bodies. We read a poem called ‘I’m glad I’m me’ and discussed the importance of being positive about your body and also the fact that your body is your body (body autonomy).

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Here are some photos from Health Week.

P2 Reflective Friday 12.05.23

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week. We have had an amazing one!

Health week has been brilliant and Sports Day has been our highlight!

This is a summary of our learning.

Other areas of the curriculum

What a great time we had at Sports Day! Thank you to those of you who were able to come and support your child.

On Tuesday we had an athletics session with Mr Segall ( our Active Schools coordinator). This focused on sprinting technique and the difference on our bodies when running for endurance.

On Thursday we had a Lacrosse session with Zoe Dickson and a dance session with Simon says Dance. The children had a fantastic time. We also enjoyed a brilliant session of Loose Parts in the sunshine!

On Friday we had a Multisport session.

We also have done baking.

Science: we have learned about inheritance by comparing dog breeds and generations of dogs. We are beginning to understand how characteristics are inherited. We had the opportunity to look at our teachers’ dogs and think about their characteristics.

RSHP: We have been learning about our body and to identify the correct words for body parts.

Maths

We have started learning about the concept of area and how to estimate it by using squares. We have noticed that different shapes can have the same area.

Literacy

We have continued our focus on Poetry. Thinking about what we feel and using different words (adjectives) to describe them.

In phonics we have been learning that when adding the suffix -ing  to words containing short vowel followed by just one consonant we need to double the consonant and add -ing: run – running, shop- shopping, cut-cutting, etc.

We liked listening to this song:

Double the Last Consonant Spelling Rule Song – YouTube

In handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

As you can see it has been a full-on week with lots of different experiences!! Some photos are added to the end of this blog.

Have a nice weekend!

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• Next week is Health Week so pupils are invited to wear PE kit all week.
• Sports Day will be held on Wednesday at the Waterboard Field from 10:30-12:00.
• We have a session of Loose Parts on Thursday afternoon. Please come dressed for the weather!
• No reading books were sent home yesterday, and no books will be sent home at the end of Health week. In class we are reading poetry books but there are not enough copies to send home.
• Learning Stories were sent home today. Once you have read the newsletter and term 3 targets please send them back in.

We are also looking for donations of picture frames for an art activity. If you have an old picture frame that you no longer need, we would be very grateful if you were able to donate it. Thank you in advance!

We have had a quick but very busy week! Here is a summary of our learning. I have also added photos from our Generation Science workshop last week to the very end of this blog.

Literacy

We have continued to read and spell words using the suffix -ing. For example: feel – feeling, wait – waiting.

We have been learning to read these tricky words:

• through
• always
• country
• young
• example

We have continued to work on our own list of common words for spelling.

We have started a unit of work on poetry. Pupils are learning to read, listen to, join in with and respond to poetry that captures sensory experiences. We have been outside to experience the weather then made a list of words and phrases to describe what we could see, hear, feel, taste and smell. We enjoyed Wind Ways by Judith Nicholls and When The Wind Blows by John Foster.

Ideas for learning at home:

Keep working on the individual list of tricky words for spelling.

Write the five tricky words for reading (above) on small pieces of paper. Hide them behind an object then slowly reveal the words one letter at a time. How quickly can your child read the word?

Here is a link to an online lesson with videos and activities which will explain more about poems and to try to learn and perform one.

Remembering and performing a poem – BBC Bitesize

Maths

We have been learning to estimate the area of a shape by counting squares. We have also been learning that different shapes can have the same area (conservation of area).

We have been rounding off our work on reading clocks. We have been reading digital o’clock and half past times. We have also been using quarter past / to on analogue clocks.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Please continue to practise number formation and make sure that numbers are not reversed.
• Talk about the different times of day. For example – what time does the alarm go off in the morning? Can your child write this as a digital time?
• There is a Sum Dog challenge to revise some of the concepts covered this week. It goes live tonight!

Other areas of the curriculum

• We enjoyed an outdoor learning session which linked to our unit of work on poetry.
• We have been preparing for Sports Day as part of our PE lessons.
• As part of RSHP and Health and Wellbeing we are learning about where living things come from and about how they grow, develop and are nurtured. As part of this we are going to see first-hand how the butterfly life cycle works. We have some class caterpillars which we will look after until they turn into butterflies. We will then set them free outdoors!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs McFarlane