Category: Buckstone Primary School

Spelling– we have named our spelling groups, your child should know which group they are working with.

Team Jewels– initial sounds (a and t)

Team Gold– revision of the igh/-y sound for example: fight, might, tight, night, sight, my, why, shy, by

Tricky words: come, said

Team Treasure– revision of ea words. Your child will have chosen either the core or challenge list in class.

Core list: tea, meat, east, steal, cheat, beast, beach, scream, speaking, reaching

Challenge list: dream, leaf, Easter, cheating, beastly, screaming, reached, cheater, steal, steel

Tricky words: little, down

At Buckstone Primary school, we want to make sure that all our children do as well as they can and achieve their full potential. The main way we achieve this is through providing quality first teaching day to day in the classroom, which caters for the varying needs of the children in the class.

Sometimes, an intervention may be necessary to further support a child’s development within a particular area of the curriculum or to help them develop their social skills or self confidence and self esteem. As a school, we utilise a range of specific interventions for the core subjects of Literacy and Mathematics and also for communication and pastoral care. These interventions may be one to one or in small groups.

Children are identified for intervention using a range of methods that include data tracking, (attainment and progress), teacher assessment, classroom observation and informal observations of the children in the classroom and in the playground.

It is important to note that children identified for intervention are not always lower attaining children. Children are identified across a range of groups and are selected when teaching staff and senior leaders believe they have the capacity for further or accelerated progress at a given point.

If your child is identified to work in one of our specific intervention programmes, you will be made aware of this by the class teacher and will be given an update on the impact of the intervention during parents evening. We may also invite your child to work as a supportive peer or role model in an intervention group, you would also be informed of this.

Good afternoon everyone.

Literacy

Our spelling pattern

• We are still focusing on adding suffix er / est.
• Remember to double the final consonant in the root word before adding er / est to keep the preceding vowel short (flat + t + er / est = flatter)
• Drop the final e before adding er / est (late + er / est = latest)

Here are the words

bravest              later

wiser                ripest

finer                 thinner

flattest              slimmer

fittest                hotter

Our tricky words were

Earth                 learn

Here are the children’s reflections from our busy week and ideas for home learning.

Have a great weekend

Another very busy week of learning in P6NM!

Parents consultations are starting on Monday 5th October and carry onto the following Monday. Everyone should now have an appointment slot for their child, please contact the school office if you do not have a slot. We are looking forward to catching up with you to discuss your child’s progress.

Thanks to Charlie who contributed to the blog post this week!

Maths

In maths, we have been doing decimal place, we learned about the tenths and hundredths column. We were introduced to how we can answer division questions using decimal answers instead of remainders.

We did an assessment (RRR) on our learning of whole number this term.

Literacy

In writing, we are focusing on different lengths of sentences. We wrote about a mini episode called the Black Hat.

In spelling, our rule was ‘sion’. Our tricky words were hole and whole.

In reading, we have been reading a bit more of our class novel, Friend or Foe. We also read more of our other book, a Boy in the Girls Bathroom.

Our literature circle task was ‘Illustrator’, we used Manga art to illustrate an importance scene from Friend or Foe.  We discussed the importance of this scene for the plot, the characters and us, the reader. 

Other areas of the Curriculum

In outdoor time, we have been testing out some maths week games for Mrs Imrie it see if they work. We have also been doing a mini maths treasure hunt. We have had loads of fun answering questions and figuring out the words. 

In ICT, we have been doing timelines on the computers. We have been making one of ww2. We have also been learning about microorganisms. We have been researching about them and made a word document about them.

In science, we have done a bread experiment testing out the conditions that will make the bread go mouldy because mould ins a microorganism. We all touched a piece if we wanted to, put one in a dark cupboard, taped on the window, scrunched one up, put one on the heater and more.  We will find out the results next week.

Home learning ideas

Topmarks – hit the button game for multiplication and division

Sumdog – take math in the maths week Scotland activities

Table mountain – times table practice ( only for PC/ laptops)

Spelling games – practice common words www.ictgames.com/littleBirdSpelling 

Find out about ‘useful’ microorganisms and make a poster

Illustrate an important scene from your group reading book practising manga art and write a few sentences to explain the importance of your chosen scene. 

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Nicholson

It has been another fun week in P3C! We have been really enjoying our class novel “The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me” using it to practice making predictions. We created pictograms in Maths to show the which of the predictions for what reward the animals were going to get was the most popular. We know we are getting better at making predictions because many of our predictions are happening in the story! There was a funny song about the Duchesses diamonds that we sang in Music and in Art we have drawn monkeys and pelicans this week.

“We can now draw giraffes, pelicans and monkeys!”

“We have been making good predictions”

“I really like the class novel”

“We predict that Billy will want a sweet shop”

We have been looking at images to make predictions about what is happening and what will happen next, then using what we can see and what we already know to explain why we think our predictions will happen. In our reading groups we have been learning to read with expression. We have also been learning to find information from a text to answer questions.

Things to try at home

• Try to research and find out interesting facts about giraffes, pelicans or monkeys!
• When reading together at home, use some of the questions in the link below to discuss the book

As well as making pictograms about our class novel we have done tally charts for favourite colours, animals and dinosaurs. We have continued learning about number bonds and have been playing “Around the World” and “Number Bond Bingo” to help us practice with number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.

In Circle Time we have been discussing how it feels when we are kind. We said kind comments to each other and talked about how it feels when we do kind things and when other people do kind things for us.

“We’ve been talking about feelings being kind”

“We have made posters to teach people how to do number bonds”

“I think I have improved in spelling this week”

“I’m better at writing now because my writing is smaller and neater”

“I got better at number bonds to 10 this week”

Things to try at home

• Practice number bonds (you could do this with playing cards like we have done in class)
• Do something kind for someone this week!

This week has been such a such a busy week:

Literacy

This week we have been learning to use characterisation in our writing. This means we describe someone by using our senses and adjectives. We’ve also practised using a variety of openers through blether stations. We up-levelled sentences by changing the opener.

In Spelling, this week’s rule is adding the suffix – er and -est. We know that if it is a long vowel then we drop the “e” and add the suffix (e.g. bravest) and if it is a short we double the consonant (e.g. thinner).

Activities to do at home:

• See the spelling document for ideas
• Write a short story and describe the characters
• Choose a character from your reading book and describe them
• Try to summarise your reading book

Maths and Numeracy

In Maths we have continued our learning about 3D objects. As well as reminding ourselves of the properties we have looked at nets of 3D objects.

In Numeracy, we have been reminding ourselves how to carry in chimney sums.

Activities to do at home:

• Use lego bricks to add and subtract objects
• Make your own nets
• Make 3D objects out of things in the environment (e.g. sticks)

Other areas of the curriculum

• In ICT we have been learning how to create a powerpoint and are trying to upload these to Teams.

Activity at home – try to create a powerpoint and upload to Teams (in the assignments)

• In Art we continued our work using Henri Rousseau ‘Tiger in the tropical storm’ as inspiration to create a piece of art focusing on depth and layering. We used collage to do this
• In IDL (Free the Forest) – We began to look at food chains and the importance of balance within these. We learned what a producer, consumer and decomposer are
• In French we were learning how to say and recognise colours in French.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Miss Martin

We hope you all had a fantastic week. We had been very busy learning new things every day.

Have a look and see what we have been up to:

Literacy

• We continue to introduce and reinforce some single sounds and have been using them to create and read words. This week’s letters were m and r, and we made words including mat, rat, man, Sam, art and ran.
• We have been working on learning the names of the characters of our reading books: Kipper, Floppy, Chip, Biff, Mum and Dad. The children took home on their purple folder a copy of these words to practice at home.
• We enjoyed listening to and discussing a wide range of texts.
• We continued to practise our scissor skills.
• We have worked on our fine motor skills. We loved our finger gym using our own pots of play dough!
• We drew detailed pictures about us doing up our coats.

Home learning ideas:

• Download the sheet below.  On the sheet you will find the letters we have been learning this week along with a list of words to create. You can choose to print the sheet, or simply write out the letters of small pieces of paper. Use the letter cards from this week and from the week before to create simple words and ask your child to firstly, identify each sound, count how many sounds (phonemes) they hear, then blend or squish the sounds together into one word. Next, say a word which can be made using the letters. say it slowly and clearly – asking your child to identify the sounds they can hear before they ‘make’ the word with the cards. Please take time to practice this every day

• Go on a letter hunt. Look around you for places where you can see the letters s, a, t, p, ,i,  n, m and r
• Ask an adult to write all the names of the people in your family. Who has an ‘i’ in their name….. who has an ‘ a’ (etc)
• Play a game of “I spy” with our focus sounds.
• Encourage your child to make their name in different ways: in the sand, with flour, play dough, etc.
• If your child cannot yet write their own name, please practise this at home. Lower case letter please ( apart from the initial letter of course)

Numeracy & Maths

• We had great fun learning all about patterns. We have copied patterns, continued patterns and create our own patterns.
• We have been exploring numbers to 10 or 20 with matching activities.
• We have been working on adding two collections using counters.
• We have been practising instantly making and recognising finger patterns. Doing it on our head ( the bunny ears game) makes it a bit tricky as we can’t see our fingers, we just have to feel the pattern.
• We have explored numbers to 10 (and beyond for some)
• We have worked on sequencing numbers.
• We have worked on counting forwards and backwards from different starting points.
• We have been naming the next number in a forwards or backwards sequence
• We are working on number formation. Numbers 0 to 9.
• Counting and number recognition.

Home learning ideas

• Count items using 1-1 correspondence. Put down a quantity of small items, for example raisins, buttons, counters, small stones or lego bricks. Ask your child to count them carefully, pointing to, or moving each one in turn. can they count the total accurately?Increase the level of challenge by using a larger collection. Can they count the steps when they go up and down the stairs?
• Number hunt: Ask your child to look for specific numbers in the street: buses, house numbers and ask your child to say the number that goes after and before that number.
• Practice number formation of the numbers 0 to 10 (or more if your child is confident with this already)
• You may choose to play this game. Please choose from sequencing or ordering (forwards) from 1- 10 or 1-20
• https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns You could play this game to help you to create and follow patterns.

Other areas of the curriculum:

PE:

We have been continuing to practise the tricky travelling  skills of hopping, skipping, galloping sideways, toe to heel walking and jumping with both feet together. We also have been learning to play some games which help us to develop our speed, travelling, and listening skills.

We have started to practice our throwing and catching skills using small and big balls.

Outdoor learning: 

We used items from the playground to create our own patterns and looking for patterns in the playground.

Independent learning:

These are some photos of the learning through play that we had the opportunity to experience this week:

Other things….

• Oxford Reading Tree books. We had a few queries about buying Oxford Reading Tree books to support reading at home. We would like to ensure parents that all children are working on reading at school every day. If children use the same books at home as the ones we use at school there will be certain skills that we will be unable to work on as children will know the story before we introduce it. Sometimes they will learn the book by heart but this will not mean that they can decode or that they understand what they are reading which could be misleading for parents and teachers. We would like to encourage you to work on single sounds, making words, blending sounds, etc. If your child is able to read please use different books to ORT to read at home.
• NUT FREE reminder: As we have a number of pupils in school with nut allergies, please help us to ensure their safety by keeping nutty snacks at home. This includes nut-based chocolate spreads in sandwiches. Many thanks.
• Purple book bags: Thank you to all parents who are only using this bag to bring things to school. It has helped the children to gain access to their items.
• The children’s spare clothes are kept in the classroom in the cubby holes close to their shoes.
• It would be really helpful if all your child’s items could be labelled (packed lunches and water bottles too)
• Please be mindful when choosing a snack for your child: make sure your child can open it independently.
• We still have no claimants for the lost property items which we posted three weeks ago, please have another look to see if you recognise anything.
• We are looking forward to meeting you online next week at our Parent Evenings. This is an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with us.

We are very proud of our Terrific Tigers!

Thank you for your continued support in your child’s learning.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Cross and Mrs de Bonrostro

A reminder that all pupils must complete their reading before Wednesday in order to participate in their Literature Circle meeting.  

Here is a summary of our learning this week: 

This was written by Josephine, Eve and Zayan. 

Spelling – The spelling rule for next week is: ous 

Super: nervous jealous poisonous enormous tremendous famous dangerous numerous generous miraculous serious joyous 

Fantastic: boisterous fictitious adventurous meticulous porous coniferous cautious suspicious continuous superstitious precious scandalous delicious 

Literacy:

This week we have been using commas in a list and as a parenthesis.

In writing we have been learning to identify ambitious vocabulary in our stories. We wrote a story called ‘’Chaos at the Art Gallery’’ and tried to add more detail and interesting vocabulary to our descriptions.

We have been practicing our handwriting with Mrs. Bailey.

Reading:

This week, each Literature Circle set the number of pages they have agreed to read for their next meeting on Wednesday. Here is a reminder of the pages: 

• Framed  – pages 207 –247
• Who’s a Big Bully Then? ch3 – ch4  
• Friday Forever – ch3 –ch4

• Our City – pages 82 –105
• The Accidental Time Traveller – chapter 30 to end 
• How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant – ch21 –ch26 
• Beetle Boy – ch16 –ch20

Home Learning Ideas: 

• Practice ‘sion’ words using some of the spelling activities we use in class.
• Find ambitious words in your reading books. Use a dictionary to find their meaning.
• Set reading books to be completed by Wednesday. Please bring your book back to school on Wednesday to meet in your Literature Circle. 

Maths:  

This week in maths, we have been learning about decimals and equivalent fractions (eg.  0.1 as an equivalent fraction would be 1 over 10). We have been learning about a tenth and a hundredth in a decimal.

We have been doing our Daily Tens and Beat That’s to practise our mental agility. 

Home learning:  

• Try some converting some decimals to simple fractions at home. 
• Use TopMarks to practise your mental agility.
• Saying your times tables our loud to get faster at saying them.
• SUMDOG  

Other:

We have been learning about pollination of bees and how we could not live without them.

We also made TAXONOMY posters and sorted bees, wasps, hornet and more.

We have been learning about French weather and remembering our French directions and learning German numbers up to twelve. 

We were making comic strips of the story of Moses and Joshua!!!!! 

We were sharing our Fitness Programs that we have been working on over the weeks (but I’m sure we are all fit from this). 

We shared our Beethoven listing maps with other people (in our class of course!)  

 

Have a lovely weekend! 

We hope you enjoy our most recent learning summary. Thank you to the pupils who created it this week.

Hello Magic Monkeys and Happy Friday!

In literacy we have covered:

• Single sounds of the alphabet
• Sounding out/blending/spelling CVC words
• Independent writing: ‘My Hobby’.
• Writing Star Step: use a connective (and, then, because)
• Sounding out and spelling ow and ou words
• Digraphs (ow and ou)
• ow words – cow, town, clown, flower, down, bow
• ou words – shout, loud, out, mouth, ground
• Dictation
• Tricky words (block 1 – 5)
• Letter formation – cursive and non-cursive (https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/writingRepeater/)
• Reading Groups – in class
• Reading sent home

In Numeracy we have covered:

• Number bonds to 10
• Number bonds to 20
• Addition to 10, 20 and beyond
• Addition with missing numbers (eg 5 + ? = 9)
• Exploring tens and units
• Partitioning Numbers
• Chilli Challenge addition
• Number Bingo
• Number formation

Reading

• Reading groups
• Reading out loud to the teacher
• Designing a new front cover
• Writing out our favourite part of the story
• Recalling information

P.E:

• Fitness – exercise video in class
• What skills are we developing during P.E discussions

Morning Starters:

• Monday – weekend whiteboard
• Tuesday – word building
• Wednesday – cursive letters
• Thursday – partner game
• Friday – Music activity

Learn Through Play Activities:

• Marble Run
• Block Play
• Role Play
• Arts and Crafts table
• iPads (literacy and numeracy)
• smartboard games
• Bingo – led by the children
• Listening and talking activities

Extra Information 

• We have some unlabelled uniform in class – a purple jumper and a purple cardigan. Let me know if you are looking for these!

Have a lovely weekend – have fun and stay safe!

Miss McGhee