P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 10.3.23

Good afternoon.

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘th’ sound. This is a really tricky sound to say and hear! We have to be rude (!) and stick our tongue out and put our teeth on top of our tongue. We read The Cat in the Hat and made our own Things. For writing this week, Thing 1 and Thing 2 sent us a letter asking us to design a new bath for them! Our starter was ‘My bath is…’. We had gold baths, two-storey baths, hot tubs and rainbow baths!

We enjoyed another new reading book this week that we took home on Thursday. Please remember to return this book on Monday! This week, we also started our Block 2 tricky words with ‘go’ and ‘said’. We all did a fantastic job of writing ‘go’ during dictation, but we need to do more practise of writing ‘said’. We have been chanting ‘s-a-i-d said!’.

writing with Mrs Imrie in the salon in the background!
finding the ‘th’ things in Things’ bath!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we continued with our money topic. We worked on adding coins, usually up to the value of 20p. We need to remember that we count a 2p twice because it has 2 1ps in it, and we always start counting from the coin that has the most value. 

Other Areas

This week, we continued with our gymnastics block in PE. We had a station rotation in the hall with upside down benches for balancing, benches and mats for landing practice, mats for balancing on one leg and a bench leading up to the big box that we jumped off (onto a crash mat!).  We worked on landing safely on two feet with our knees bent.  On Thursday, we continued with Creative Dance with Mrs Conlin, focusing on changing our move when we heard a change in the music. With Mrs Conlin, we also talked about personal space yes/no as part of our RSHP topic this term.

Our hairdressing salon/barber was very popular this week. Mrs Imrie even came for a hair appointment! In this area, we’ve seen appointment bookings, customer service calls, sharing and some fantastic hairstyles. We also had a fantastic sunny Loose Parts session on Wednesday afternoon.

choosing to play teachers and teach our new tricky words!
using the small bricks to make a village!

Our reporter on Monday took some nice photos of a typical morning in P1B!

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’, counting on with our fingers, number bonds to 10

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising symmetrical shapes/structures, using tally marks to count items/collect data, recognising coins, which coin is worth more?, adding 1-10p coins together

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, confidence in blending when reading books, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z with q as qu, ck, ee, oo, sh, ch and th.)

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

Any donations of empty shampoo bottles for a little product shop (or hairdressing gowns if we have any hairdressers!) would be most welcome for our hairdressing area.

Keep all the junk coming in – it’s amazing how quickly we run out!

We have Loose Parts on Friday next week.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Croal

P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 3.3.23

Good afternoon, Bright Sparks!

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘ch’ sound. We made chains and practised blending ch words. We make sure we say ‘ch’ rather than ‘chih’! We enjoyed another new reading book this week that we took home on Thursday. Please remember to return this book on Monday! We also individually came to the teaching table to practise reading and writing our tricky words. The ones that were the hardest were ‘want’, ‘saw’, ‘was’ and ‘his’. Please practise reading these at home with the blue sheet flashcards if you ever have a few spare minutes – repetition is key! For World Book Day, some of us brought in our favourite book and we showed this to the class. Our P6 buddies then came to our classroom in the afternoon to read with us!

mark-making table – writing postcards

Maths and numeracy

This week, we continued with our money topic. We worked on adding coins, usually up to the value of 10p. We had to work out how much money was in the money jar. We remembered that if there is a 2p, we have to count that twice as it’s the same as 2 1ps. We will continue with this next week, going beyond 10p if we are able to.

Other Areas

This week, we continued with our gymnastics block in PE. We used the benches to practise balancing, and then turned them upside down so that it was trickier but we all did a fantastic job! We also made sure to bend our knees when jumping off onto the mats for our dismount. On Thursday, we did some yoga to relax and stretch our bodies. Our shoe shop remained popular this week as a roleplay opportunity, so next week we are going to transform it into a hairdressing salon which the children have asked for. Any donations of empty shampoo bottles for a little product shop (or old hairdressing gowns if we have any hairdressers!) would be most welcome.

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’, counting on with our fingers, number bonds to 10

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising symmetrical shapes/structures, using tally marks to count items/collect data, recognising coins, which coin is worth more?, adding 1-5p coins together

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, confidence in blending when reading books, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z with q as qu, ck, ee, oo, sh and ch.)

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

Our shoe shop remained popular this week as a roleplay opportunity, so next week we are going to transform it into a hairdressing salon which the children have asked for. Any donations of empty shampoo bottles for a little product shop (or hairdressing gowns if we have any hairdressers!) would be most welcome.

Keep all the junk coming in – it’s amazing how quickly we run out!

We have Loose Parts on Wednesday afternoon. It’s to be cold next week so please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for being outside!

Have a great weekend,

Miss Croal

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 24.2.23

Good afternoon.

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘sh’ sound. We had a shoe shop, and had great fun measuring our feet, trying on shose and paying for them with coins. We had another new reading book this week, and we are very excited to have our reading book at home to share our learning with our family. This week, our writing prompt was “At the shops I got…”. We bought many things such as unicorns, squish mallows, dinosaurs, sweeties and notebooks!

measuring our feet
this is a shoe shop here at Comiston Road
customer services at the shoe shop!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we started our money topic. We talked about where money comes from and what we use it for. We practised recognising the different coins, thinking about their colour, shape and size. We talked about the word ‘value’, and how 1p would buy you the least amount of sweeties, but £2 would buy you the most. We found out that there is 100p in £1! We practised ordering the coins from the smallest value to the biggest value. We will continue with our money topic this week, and practise adding coins to the value of 10p.

Other Areas

This week, we started our gymnastics block in PE. We used the mats to practise different ways of travelling such as jumping and landing, and rolling. We shared our ways of travelling with the class! On Thursday, we did Creative Dance with Mrs Conlin – we absolutely loved it! We also had really creative modelling with junk and lego including a hot air balloon, a dance floor and a lego castle. Our lego table was back by popular demand too. Some of the girls also wanted a photo of their tidy book corner.

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’, counting on with our fingers

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising symmetrical shapes/structures, using tally marks to count items/collect data, recognising coins, which coin is worth more?

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, confidence in blending when reading books, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z with q as qu, ck, ee, oo and sh.)

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

We are looking for donations of any unwanted shoes and little purses to add to our shoe shop in the classroom. Please hand them to me at the door or into the office if you have any – thank you!

Your junk donations are always welcome, please keep them coming!

Thursday is World Book Day. Although we are not dressing up this year, please bring in your favourite book or story to share with the class.

Please see below for photos from the week beginning 6th Feb.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Croal

P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 10.2.23

Good afternoon!

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘oo’ sound. We make two Os with our hands then hold them up like binoculars to looook. We made lovely moon pictures using a foil stamp to create the craters. Some of us made our own book! We had another new reading book this week, and our writing prompt was “I look at the moon. It is…”. We had pink moons, moons surrounded by shooting stars and moons with people on them!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we looked at data handling. We learned about and analysed ways of presenting data, such as pictograms and bar charts. We used language such as ‘most’, ‘least’ and ‘equal’. We made our own class pictogram about our favourite places to learn in the classroom. The P1 Area was the most popular with 6 votes! We also looked at tally marks as a way of collecting data.

Other Areas

This week, we used hOOps in PE and came up with our own activity to share with the class. We had a wide range of creativity with the hoops, including hula hooping, the floor is lava, rolling, chasing and some dance routines! Everybody had the chance to show the class what they had come up with. We learned about Scottish inventions, including the fridge, toaster and flushing toilet!

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’ for 13-19, counting on with our fingers.

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising symmetrical shapes/structures, using tally marks to count items/collect data.

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, confidence in blending when reading books, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z with q as qu, ck, ee and oo).

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

We are looking for donations of any unwanted shoes and little purses to create a shoe shop in the classroom. Please hand them to me at the door or into the office if you have any – thank you!

We are really sorry but due to technical issues there are no photos on the blogs this week. We hope this will be sorted by next time, and I will add the extra photos from this week.

Have a great midterm holiday,

Miss Croal

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 3.2.23

Good afternoon.

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘ee’ sound. We pretend to be mice and go ‘ee ee ee!’. We made sheep and practised blending ee words.  We had another new reading book this week and did very well with our blending. Some of us just need to be more confident at taking time to sound out each sound in the word and then blend it together. We played fasted finger to see who could find the tricky word or the sound first!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we revisited symmetry and used our fingers and paint to create symmetrical butterflies. There were also some fantastic symmetrical structures made around the room. We were able to tell when our creations were symmetrical by just shape, or by colour and shape.

Other Areas

This week, we finished our Scottish Country Dancing learning by using some of the steps we have learned to choreograph and create our own dances! Each of us performed our routine to the class, and we all had a turn at giving feedback. We had another great loose parts session on Wednesday afternoon with lots of imagination, problem solving and team work. A couple of us even made a computer station! We enjoyed having the magnets back this week, see below for some of our our amazing creativity and imagination!

a magnetic village!
a granny holding a walking stick!
a modern museum!
using the fabrics in the area – here comes the bride!

Ideas to do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30 (the trickiest ones are 12, 13 and 20), counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’ for 13-19, counting on with our fingers.

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising symmetrical shapes/structures.

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, confidence in blending 3-4 letter words, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z with q as qu, ck and ee).

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

Next Friday, we are going to go on a trip to the woods!

Please make sure your child has a spare change of clothes in school.

It was lovely to see some of you on Wednesday. Have a great weekend!

Miss Croal

P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 27.1.23

Good afternoon.

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘qu’ and ‘x’  and ‘z’ sounds. We found ‘qu’ quite tricky to remember that after a q there is always u!  We practised filling in the sound spaces for qu words. We found words around the room that end in x, like mix and box, and on Friday we found zoo and Zoë!  zoo We had a new reading book this week and did very well with our blending. We played fasted finger to see who could find the tricky word or the sound first!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we worked individually at the teaching table to practise our counting (especially backwards!), doubles and using our fingers for sums. The most common things to practise at home are at the bottom of the blog.

Other Areas

This week, we continued with our Scottish Country Dancing, but In PE on Monday, we did dancing to celebrate Chinese New Year. We had to make up dance moves for cleaning the house, opening the windows, hanging up lanterns and cooking a yummy meal! We made Chinese dragons, and worked on our fine motor skills with cutting and folding the dragon body. We had a fantastic loose parts session outside too!

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30 (the trickiest ones are 12, 13 and 20), counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’ for 13-19, counting on with our fingers.

Literacy: being able to recognise and write our tricky words (we are good at recognising them but need practise to write them!), blending 3-4 letter words by saying the sounds slowly in one big breath, being able to write (as well as recognise) all of our sounds we have covered (A-Z plus ck with q as qu).

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats.

General Information

We have loose parts on Wednesday next week, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.

Please make sure your child has a spare change of clothes in school.

Please ensure your child is coming into school with a waterbottle.

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the drop-in on Wednesday morning,

Miss Croal

P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 20.1.23

Good afternoon.

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘v’ and ‘y’ sounds. To make the ‘v’ sound, we put our top teeth over our bottom lip and it almost sounds like buzzing! We can hear the vvvvvibrations. We practised building and blending words that start with the ‘v’ sound, learned all about the violin from Mrs Cross and design our own ‘van’ for writing! We created ‘y’ with all things yellow and did some yoga with a Chinese New Year theme. This week, we also explored our reading books. We used language such as title, author and page number. We counted the words on each page and followed along with our finger, even when someone else was reading!

v with lollysticks
volcanoes with playdoh
Mrs Cross showing us her violin!
reading books
volcanoes with lava
My van is…
My van is…

Maths and numeracy

This week, we continued with our SEAL work. We worked on counting backwards from 20 and played Splat to practise recalling the number before for 1-30. We also practised our number formation for 1-20.

Other Areas

This week, we continued with our Scottish Country Dancing, practising clapping to the beat and counting to 8. We practised the Gay Gordons again and parts of the Grand Old Duke of York. We also looked at some of the beautiful scenery we are lucky enough to have in Scotland such as the beaches, mountains and islands.

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-20 (the trickiest ones are 12, 13 and 20), counting backwards from 20, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’ for 13-19!

Literacy: being able to recognise and write our tricky words (please look out for the green sheet in the purple folder), blending 3-4 letter words by saying the sounds slowly in one big breath

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats

General Information

We have loose parts on Tuesday next week, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.

Please make sure your child has a spare change of clothes in school.

Please ensure your child is coming into school with a waterbottle.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Croal

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 13.1.23

Good afternoon and Happy New Year! Welcome to P1B’s first blog of 2023!

Literacy

This week, we learned the ‘w’ sound. We practised building and blending words that start with the ‘w’ sound, investigated some worms in the classroom, drew lovely pictures looking out windows and did some weaving on a wet and windy winter Wednesday! In writing, we all had a go at writing ‘I got wet…’. We got wet in swimming pools, puddles, dragon pools and in the garden! This week, we also learned the ‘j’ sound. We found items beginning with ‘j’ around the room, coloured jellyfish and built words that start with ‘j’.

Maths and numeracy

This week, we continued with our SEAL work. We had a recap of what we had learnt before the Christmas holidays and moved on from Chapter 5 to Chapter 6. Some of the activities we did at the teaching table included recognising and identifying numbers 1-20, saying the next number after for 1-30 and the next number before for 1-20.

Other Areas

This week, we started a topic on Scotland. We found out about Scotland’s place in the world, and how we live in a community which is in a city which is in a country which is in a continent which is on the Earth…phew! We looked at different tartans and then weaved our own for our school display board. This was great for our fine motor skills too! In PE, we did Scottish Country Dancing. We learnt the Gay Gordons and had lots of fun! We will continue with our Scotland topic next week. We continued our Scottish Country Dancing with Mrs Conlin on Thursday, and Mrs Imrie came to watch! She was really impressed!

a pencil case!
We had new lego in the classroom this week. There has been lots of great problem solving and roleplay!

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-20 (the trickiest ones are 12, 13 and 20) and counting backwards from 20

Literacy: being able to recognise and write our 12 tricky words (I, to, he, me, no, saw, was, want, put, is, his, the)

General: being able to take off jumpers and zip up coats

General Information

We have loose parts on Thursday next week, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.

Please make sure your child has a spare change of clothes in school.

Please ensure your child is coming into school with a waterbottle.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Croal

P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal, P1 Master Minds - Mrs Bailey & Mrs Munro, P1 Whizz Kids - Mrs Cross

P1 Friday 6th January

.

Welcome back.

We have had a lovely short week settling back into school routines and looking forward to a busy term.

As always, we would happily receive your donations of clean card/plastic items for our STEM area. A little often is ideal.

In addition, if you happen to have any clean glass jars ( with or without lids) then we would love to have them too.

Finally, any donations of boxes of tissues for the classroom would also be greatly appreciated.

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Bright Sparks - Miss Croal

P1B Reflective Friday 16.12.22

Good afternoon! 

Literacy

This week, we revised our sounds, and created lovely pieces of writing. We created melted snowmen! We copied ‘My snowman….because’ to practise our letter formation, and then had a go at hearing the sounds in and sounding out ‘melted’. We used our art and cutting skills to create our melted snowman picture!

Maths and numeracy

This week, we introduced symmetry. We completed tasks at the teaching table, made symmetrical numicon boards and created symmetrical paintings with Mrs Conlin. It was amazing what we saw!

Other Areas

We listened to the story of The Nutcracker and did some dancing! We pretended to be clockwork dolls, nutcrackers, monkeys and snowflakes. In pairs, we all performed a snowflake dance to the rest of the class that we choreographed ourselves!

We had a fantastic time at the Christmas Party! We played games, had our yummy snacks and then had a surprise visit from Santa! Pictures below.

creating our snowflake dances
creating our snowflake dances
We now have 16 baubles on our advent tree!
Christmas sticking in the area
sorting the animals from smallest to biggest

General Information

Please return your child’s learning story next week with either a signature or comment.

On Monday, can you please send your child into school with a bag. This is because we will send home all shoes and spare clothes for the holidays.

We have Loose Parts on Monday, so please ensure your child is dressed appropriately.

Thank you for all your support as we come to the end of your child’s first term at school!

Have a fantastic Christmas holiday,

Miss Croal