We have been developing our ball skills and, so far, have been working on throwing, catching and bouncing.
You will need a ball / bean bag / soft toy / scrunched up piece of paper / light scarf or another object someone at home says is safe to throw and catch.
Catching
Activity 1
Throw your chosen object in the air and try to catch it with both hands.
Begin by only throwing the object slightly into the air, gradually throwing it higher as you become more confident.
If you feel really confident, try clapping once, twice or three times between throwing and catching.
How many times can you throw and catch without dropping the object?
Activity 2
Ask someone at home to throw your chosen object to you. Begin working closely together and move further apart as you begin to feel more confident.
Remember:
Keep your eye on the ball.
Make sure your arms are outstretched and your hands are ready to catch.
Throwing
Activity 1
Try throwing your object to a target. This could be, for example, a basket or box, another object placed on the floor, or a mark drawn in chalk outdoors. Use an overarm throw.
Before you throw, remember to:
Look to where you want your object to go.
Lift your arm (the one holding your object) back.
Point your other arm towards the target.
Activity 2
Throw and catch with someone at home. Try to throw the object so that your partner can catch it easily. This means throwing it towards them. Try to work out how much space you need between you and your partner to throw and catch more easily.
Cool down:
Listen and follow the instructions to help you cool down:
Please continue to send in your clean recycling. Many thanks
Our learning this week
Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.
Topics of pupil interest this week included hot air balloons and how they steer and land.
Literacy focus
This week we have been revising knowledge of, recognition of, and ability to blend of the 6 sounds focused on so far.
s a t p i n
Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.
Building a word. Using plastic letters or letters written on small pieces of card or paper an adult says a three letter CVC word ( consonant, vowel, consonant) and the child chooses the correct sounds to make the word.
Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our focus was “This is me. I like….”
Maths and numeracy focus
We have started our work on SEAL ( Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning) Pupils are working and challenged at a level appropriate to their individual development. These are examples of some of the skills we have been practising :
Counting in tens
Counting in tens off the decade
Recognising and ordering numerals to 20
Counting forward and back within 30 ( to 100 for some)
Establishing a collection.
Counting a collection with accurate 1-1 correspondence
Subitising ( recognising an amount without counting )
Watch THIS VIDEO and try to say the amount before you see the number
Other areas of the curriculum
We collected some sycamore seeds and enjoyed making them ‘fly’ like helicopters
In PE was have been playing games and doing activities to help us build skills in throwing, catching and hand eye coordination.
We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.
Looking ahead to next week
Monday morning is the last day to return a home made Christmas card design.
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Go on
Go on a letter hunt as you are out and about, see how many of a given letter you can spot in environmental print. Revise all sounds learned so far and build/read the words listed above.
Practise counting forwards and backwards within 20 starting at different points…
e.g. Count from 3 and stop at 9
Count backwards from 12 and stop at 7
Extend the range of number to provide challenge where required.
Please continue to send in your clean recycling. Many thanks
Our learning this week
Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.
Topics of pupil interest this week included, birds perched on trees, waterfalls and canyons, the titanic, and planes.
Literacy focus
We have focused on two letter shapes/sounds this week n, and i . As you support your child with learning their letters at home please always pronounce the pure sound of the letter ( e.g. S = sssssss and not suh or the letter name ‘ess’ ). This is very important as we begin to blend letters together to make words.
Some words to make/read
sat tap pat at as in pin sit sip (past)
Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.
Building a word. Using plastic letters or letters written on small pieces of card or paper an adult says a three letter CVC word ( consonant, vowel, consonant) and the child chooses the correct sounds to make the word.
Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week we were focusing on adding facial expression so our drawing prompt was ‘I was shocked ( or surprised) ‘
Maths and numeracy focus
We have started our work on SEAL ( Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning) Pupils are working and challenged at a level appropriate to their individual development. These are examples of some of the skills we have been practising :
Counting in tens
Counting in tens off the decade
Recognising and ordering numerals to 20
Counting forward and back within 30 ( to 100 for some)
Establishing a collection.
Counting a collection with accurate 1-1 correspondence
Subitising ( recognising an amount without counting )
Watch THIS VIDEO and try to say the amount before you see the number
Other areas of the curriculum
Scissor skills . We practised cutting along straight lines.
We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.
In PE we began to practise throwing, catching and timing skills. We have learned about underarm and overarm throwing.
Loose parts play was a little damp but we still learned lots !
Looking ahead to next week
Monday Holiday
PE days as before.
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Revise all sounds learned so far and build/read the words listed above.
Practise counting forwards and backwards within 20 starting at different points…
e.g. Count from 3 and stop at 9
Count backwards from 12 and stop at 7
Extend the range of number to provide challenge where required.
Please continue to send in your clean recycling. Many thanks
Our STEM area is a core part of our play curriculum in school. The end product may not look like much, but it is the process that matters. ‘Junk’ modelling helps to develop their imagination and creative abilities while challenging them to explore, investigate and problem solve as they bring their ideas to life.
Children can work on their own or co-operate with others, learning to negociate and share ideas. When they create something new it can give their confidence and self-esteem a big boost. They can also consider how their plans have worked out as they think about what they might have done differently or how they might improve their model.
With these materials they practice complex skills from fine and gross locomotor skills to higher order executive functioning; higher order thinking skills such as sequencing, hypothesis testing, divergent problem solving, analysis and evaluation.
If they don’t take their model home at the end of the day it doesn’t matter – the learning has already happened. If it does come home, please value the process your child has gone through more than the product itself. Thank you.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.
Literacy focus
We have focused on two letter shapes/sounds this week p, and s . As you support your child with learning their letters at home please always pronounce the pure sound of the letter ( e.g. S = sssssss and not suh or the letter name ‘ess’ ). This is very important as we begin to blend letters together to make words.
Some words to make/read
sat tap pat at as (past)
Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.
Building a word. Using plastic letters or letters written on small pieces of card or paper an adult says a three letter CVC word ( consonant, vowel, consonant) and the child chooses the correct sounds to make the word.
Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.
Our handwriting pattern this week was zig zag lines, with pointy corners showing control as our pencil changes direction.
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our drawing prompt was ‘I change my shoes ‘
Maths and numeracy focus
Other areas of the curriculum
We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.
In PE we practised following instructions, taking turns and using different ways of travelling, We have been learning how to warm up our muscles and enjoy choosing different exercises to demonstrate to the class. Skipping and hopping continues to prove quite tricky for a few of the children, so please practice this at home. We also enjoyed some games such as ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Messy Bedroom’
PE is tiring !
PE is tiring !
We have shared all memory boxes that have been brought in so far.
Outdoor play is important for our development. Proprioception is the sense that tells the body where it is in space, and it plays a big role in self-regulation, coordination, posture, body awareness, the ability to focus, and speech.
Looking ahead to next week
PE days as before.
Loose parts play on Thursday. The weather forecast doesn’t look great, but we will go out anyway unless the weather is exceptionally bad, so we would ask that the children come appropriately dressed for a good Scottish autumnal day.
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Revise all sounds learned so far and build/read the words listed above.
Practise counting forwards and backwards within 20 starting at different points…
e.g. Count from 3 and stop at 9
Count backwards from 12 and stop at 7
Extend the range of number to provide challenge where required.
Thank you for the donations of notebooks and fancy pens. This week’s special request is old ( clean) socks ! We would love each child to bring an old sock on Monday – it can have holes, be child or adult sized.
Much appreciated.
Thanks also in anticipation of your continued donations of resources to support learning, in our STEM area ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)
Our STEM area is a core part of our play curriculum in school. The end product may not look like much, but it is the process that matters. ‘Junk’ modelling helps to develop their imagination and creative abilities while challenging them to explore, investigate and problem solve as they bring their ideas to life.
Children can work on their own or co-operate with others, learning to negociate and share ideas. When they create something new it can give their confidence and self-esteem a big boost. They can also consider how their plans have worked out as they think about what they might have done differently or how they might improve their model.
With these materials they practice complex skills from fine and gross locomotor skills to higher order executive functioning; higher order thinking skills such as sequencing, hypothesis testing, divergent problem solving, analysis and evaluation.
If they don’t take their model home at the end of the day it doesn’t matter – the learning has already happened. If it does come home, please value the process your child has gone through more than the product itself. Thank you.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.
Literacy focus
We have focused on two letter shapes/sounds this week t, and a . As you support your child with learning their letters at home please always pronounce the pure sound of the letter ( e.g. S = sssssss and not suh or the letter name ‘ess’ ). This is very important as we begin to blend letters together to make words.
Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.
Building a word. Using plastic letters or letters written on small pieces of card or paper an adult says a three letter CVC word ( consonant, vowel, consonant) and the child chooses the correct sounds to make the word.
Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.
Our handwriting pattern this week was circles, starting from the top and then drawing in an anticlockwise direction
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. We are learning to This week our drawing prompt was ‘I am reaching ‘
Maths and numeracy focus
We have been doing our numeracy baseline assessments. Some skills we assess include numeral recognition; counting forwards and backwards; counting a collection of items; establishing a collection of a given amount; showing an amount on our fingers.
Other areas of the curriculum
Our loose parts play session was successful, providing lots of opportunities for a wide range of skills development. Please refer back to the email sent on Tuesday if you would like to learn more about the opportunities provided by loose parts learning.
We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.
In PE we practised following instructions, taking turns and using different ways of travelling, We have been learning how to warm up our muscles and enjoy choosing different exercises to demonstrate to the class. Skipping and hopping continues to prove quite tricky for a few of the children, so please practice this at home. We also enjoyed some games such as ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Messy Bedroom’
We continue to share memory boxes, developing our talking and listening- it may take a few days to get through them all .
Looking ahead to next week
PE days as before.
We will share more memory boxes.
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Please see the letter in purple folders today with ideas of how you can support your child with literacy learning at home.
Continue to develop independence with coats, zips, turning jumpers and cardigans the right way round,, and shoe changing.
In order to encourage writing in play the children have free access to notebooks and diaries in which they can ‘write’ plans and notes on their learning. To enable this we would welcome donations of unwanted/partially used notebooks or diaries. Also any enticing writing implements ( ie glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – basically anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens) These will be used in our ‘message trolley’. The children enjoy choosing resources from the trolley to use in their independent learning, promoting markmaking and early writing skills.
In our STEM area ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths the children enjoy creating structures and models from clean cardboard/plastic recycling. We would love to receive frequent donations of resources to support this area of learning, no amount is too much !
Our STEM area is a core part of our play curriculum in school. The end product may not look like much, but it is the process that matters. ‘Junk’ modelling helps to develop their imagination and creative abilities while challenging them to explore, investigate and problem solve as they bring their ideas to life.
Children can work on their own or co-operate with others, learning to negociate and share ideas. When they create something new it can give their confidence and self-esteem a big boost. They can also consider how their plans have worked out as they think about what they might have done differently or how they might improve their model.
With these materials they practice complex skills from fine and gross locomotor skills to higher order executive functioning; higher order thinking skills such as sequencing, hypothesis testing, divergent problem solvng, analysis and evaluation.
If they don’t take their model home at the end of the day it doesn’t matter – the learning has already happened. If it does come home, please value the process your child has gone through more than the product itself. Thank you.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
Another busy week in P1. Please look at the blog with your child to give them the opportunity to share their experiences with you.
Literacy focus
We have been doing some baseline assessments to ascertain the children’s prior knowledge of phonics.
We did some handwriting skills development, following pathways and creating lines.
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our drawing prompt was ‘My family’
Maths and numeracy focus
.We are about to begin our numeracy baseline assessments.
Other areas of the curriculum
We have created our Class Charter. Our school saying is Ready, Respectful Safe and we have talked about what this means for us in class. We also referred to the UNCRC and identified some of our important rights. We wrote our name and drew our picture on leaves to show that we will try to be Ready Respectful and Safe in school.
In PE we practised following instructions, taking turns and we investigated different ways of travelling, Skipping and hopping proved quite tricky for a few of the children, so please practice this at home.
Looking ahead to next week
PE days as before.
We will share more memory boxes.
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Practise getting a straw from a small carton and piercing a hole in order to drink ( e.g. juice) this will promote independence at milk time.
Continue to develop independence with coats, zips, turning jumpers and cardigans the right way round,, and shoe changing.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
We have had a great week settling into P1. The children have been fantastic, taking the new routines in their stride and enjoying exploring the classroom.
Please check this blog every Friday as we will share the learning from the week. We would encourage you to look at it with your child so that they can talk to you about their experiences in class. The blog post may also include ‘homework’ activities or suggestions of things to try at home.
Maths and numeracy
.
No information this week
Looking ahead to next week
PE days will be Tuesday and Wednesday. Children should come to school dressed ready to participate as we will not change clothes in school -e.g joggers/leggings/shorts and a T shirt with a Buckstone jumper on top.
As far as the weather will allow, Tuesday PE will take place outdoors so outdoor shoes on that day would ideally be trainers if possible.
Other areas of the curriculum
‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)
Continue to develop independence with coats, zips, turning jumpers and cardigans the right way round,, and shoe changing.
This is our last Friday blog of the year – how did that go so quickly? It has been my pleasure to work with such a fantastic group of children this year, I will definitely be wearing sunglasses on Wednesday when I have to say goodbye to them !!
Thank you for all your support this year – I hope you all have an enjoyable summer and I look forward to seeing the children in August as P2 pupils.
.
Looking ahead to next week
Please could all children bring a bag on Tuesday to take home indoor shoes and changes of clothes. They should also bring their purple folder on this day with all keyrings etc removed as we will be collecting them in and storing them in school for the summer. Also on Tuesday we will have our last loose parts play session (rescheduled from when we were rained off last week)
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
Our writing prompt this week was ‘all about me’.
This will be passed to our new teachers
We continue to use core reading book resources in school as we begin to develop developing the children’s reading comprehension skills, exploring the cognitive strategies of activating, inferring, monitoring/clarifying, questioning, searching/selecting, summarizing, and visualising.
Maths and numeracy
In numeracy we continue to develop our Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning strategies.
These include additive and subtractive problem solving, forward and backward number sequences, sharing into equal groups, numeral recognition, partitioning of tens and ones, recognising patterns in number etc…
.
Looking ahead to next week
Loose parts on Tuesday.
There will be no reading books coming home next Thursday
Other areas of the curriculum
We enjoyed another visit from Ali who came to sing some songs to us.
We had a visit from the Oxgangs Librarian asking us to sign up for the summer reading challenge.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
This week’s homework
Please continue to revise the tricky words.
You may choose to play this game to support revision of number bonds.
The children have been developing a wide range of skills through independent learning opportunities in class and outdoors. We also enjoyed our trip to the walled garden.
Literacy.
This week we have been continuing to revise our tricky spelling words.
Our writing prompt this week was our caterpillars.
We continue to use core reading book resources in school as we begin to develop developing the children’s reading comprehension skills, exploring the cognitive strategies of activating, inferring, monitoring/clarifying, questioning, searching/selecting, summarizing, and visualising.
Maths and numeracy
In numeracy we continue to develop our Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning strategies.
These include additive and subtractive problem solving, forward and backward number sequences, sharing into equal groups, numeral recognition, partitioning of tens and ones, recognising patterns in number etc…
.
Looking ahead to next week
Please note that all learning stories and comments sheets were due to be returned on Friday 9th.
Please return by Monday if not already done.
Other areas of the curriculum
We enjoyed a visit from Ali who came to sing some songs to us.
We released our butterflies – they were slow to fly away, but that gave us lots of time to observe them closely.
We planted nasturtium seeds and made a leaflet about how to look after them.
Buckstone Primary School 