Category: Primary 1

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 8.3.24

Staff...685

Ask me –

  1. To tell you about the features that keep a castle safe.
  2. To count backwards from 20 and to do some oral subtraction sums
  3. To spell the words soft, left, gift, melt, felt, said and one
  4. To tell you how paper is made.

Please continue to send in your clean recycling.

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

Story Writing

Our story writing prompt this week was “I left…..”


This week we have been learning about consonant blends and the end and beginning of words. This week’s sounds have been lt and ft

Tricky words

This week we introduced two new words from block 2 – said and one. Please support your child at home with learning to both read and spell these words.

As requested at parent’s night please find below a list for reference with block one and block two words introduced so far

Block one – I the to was saw put he he me is his want

Block 2 so far- she we be all are they come some said one

Maths and numeracy focus


We completed some written addition calculations and have started to explore subtraction strategies, including using concrete materials, numberlines, and mental counting back.

Other areas of the curriculum

Our whole school Building resilience unit is ‘ respect yourself’

We are learning that we are all special and unique. As part of this unit we have been singing the Fischy Music songs Fabbydabbydee and I’m the only I ( and others), You can listen at home too on spotify.

Another whole school focus is ‘Sustainability’ and we have been learning about how paper is made and why we should try not to waste paper.


In PE we continue to learn about balance , rolls ( teaching safe technique for forward rolls) and revising our throwing skills to develop shoulder pivot and strength.

We have been investigating features of castles that help to keep the people inside safe. We noticed that many castles are built on hills or near the sea. Some key vocabulary to discuss includes – portcullis, drawbridge, moat, arrow slits, battlements, crenels and bailey.

Looking ahead to next week

A reminder that PE days will be Monday and Wednesday. If possible, could children who have long hair have it tied back in a low ponytail or pleat and avoid fancy hairbands or hair clips ( doing forward rolls with a high ponytail or hair clips can hurt !) Thank you.

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Play this Subtraction game – choose the ‘less than’ option and then select from the number range options

Use our class spelling city page to play games which will help you to learn to spell our block one and two tricky words. Follow this link and then choose the list you would like to practise.

Revise your phonics with phonics bloom or balloon phonics

P1 Koalas

P1 Koalas 1.3.24

Staff..294

This week in P1 Koalas:

Literacy

Sounds and Tricky Words

We were blending and building words with the sounds ‘nt’ as in ‘went‘ and ‘sp’ as in ‘spot’ or ‘gasp‘.

Our tricky words this week were ‘some’ and ‘come’. We were looking at how these words both had ‘ome‘ saying ‘um‘ and we only needed to change the fist sound when we wrote them.

Things to try at home:

Look for words with the sounds ‘nt’ or ‘sp’ in them when you are out or in some of the books you may have at home / in the library.

Ask someone to write down some words that you can use your skills to sound out using the new sounds we have been learning or to read some words for you to write down.

For example: gasp, spent, spark, clasp, spot, spin, spend, spoon, tent, rent, sent, hint,

Practise reading and writing our new tricky words or spell them out loud. Don’t forget to keep practising the tricky words we have previously learnt too.

So far we have learnt: I, too, saw, was, the, put,, his, is, my, no, go, he, she, we, be, me, they, all, want, are. We have talked about some of the patterns we can see in some of these words (e.g. he, she, we, be, me all ending the same way with ‘e’ saying ‘ee’.)

Writing

Our writing this week began with ‘I / we / they all went to……..’ and we came up with our own ideas to finish the sentence.

At home:

If you have been out and about, you might wish to try drawing a picture and writing about where you went. For example, ‘I went to the shop,’ or ‘We all went to see _______ ‘. Have a go at spelling harder words using the sounds you know. You might want to write the first sound you hear and ask someone at home to write the rest.

Reading Books

We took reading books home to share for the first time this week. We will continue to send reading books home on Tuesdays and ask they are returned to school on Fridays so that they can be used for other reading groups.

We have been working on new reading books in school this week and will continue working on these into next week.

Things to try at home:

Share your reading book with someone at home. Retell the story in your own words and talk about what is happening as you read the pages. You might want to take turns reading a page with someone at home or you may even want someone at home to read the book to you whilst you point to the words.

Numeracy

We have been working on our core numeracy skills including ordering numbers, saying forwards and backwards number sequences, counting and adding amounts, describing equal groups and saying numbers before and after a given number. We also tried counting in tens as a whole class.

Things to try at home:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/caterpillar-ordering

With someone at home, practise sequencing and ordering numerals. You could do this using pieces of paper or card with numerals written on them or you could play the Caterpillar Ordering game on Topmarks.

Other Areas of the Curriculum

Health and Wellbeing

We were working on the Building Resilience unit ‘Respect Yourself’ and drew pictures beside our names to help show the things we each like to do.

In PE, we continued to work on different balances.

Topic

We discussed some of the outstanding questions we had about penguins from the beginning of our topic and found out about how penguins lose their feathers. We discussed why penguins wouldn’t go into the water while they are moulting and were able to use our knowledge about how penguins make their feathers waterproof to help us answer this.

A football stadium

Have a lovely weekend!

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 1.3.24

Staff...685

Historic Sundays – The following Historic Scotland sites have free admission this Sunday. Advance booking is required. I thought this may be of interest as we are currently learning about castles.

Historic Sundays sites

  • Aberdour Castle
  • Arbroath Abbey
  • Blackness Castle
  • Bothwell Castle
  • Caerlaverock Castle
  • Craigmillar Castle
  • Dirleton Castle
  • Doune Castle
  • Dryburgh Abbey
  • Duff House
  • Dumbarton Castle
  • Dunstaffnage Castle
  • Edinburgh Castle
  • Elgin Cathedral
  • Fort George
  • Huntingtower Castle
  • Huntly Castle
  • Jedburgh Abbey

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.


Literacy focus


This week we have been learning about consonant blends and the end and beginning of words. This week’s sounds have been sp and nt

Tricky words

This week we introduced two new words from block 2 – come and some. Please support your child at home with learning to both read and spell these words.

As requested at parent’s night please find below a list for reference with block one and block two words introduced so far

Block one – I the to was saw put he he me is his want

Block 2 so far- she we be all are they come some

Story Writing

Our story writing prompt this week was a free choice to draw and write anything we wanted.

Maths and numeracy focus


We have continued to work on Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning ( SEAL) developing our addition strategies, in particular the ‘counting on’ strategy of holding a larger number in your head and counting on from there to find a total.

Other areas of the curriculum

Our whole school Building resilience unit is ‘ respect yourself’

We are learning that we are all special and unique. As part of this unit we have been singing the Fischy Music songs Fabbydabbydee and I’m the only I. You can listen at home too on spotify.

We have been learning how to use a hole punch and split pins to make moving joins.



In PE we continue to learn about balance and we have begun to investigate different ways to roll our body. We learned how to ‘pencil roll’ our bodies – it takes a lot of core strength !

Our House names are all names of Scottish Castles and the children would like to find our more about castles.. Here are some of the questions we have…..

How are castles built ?

Why do castles sometimes have bridges ?

Why do castles sometimes have grass inside them ?

How are flags made ?

What do castles look like ?

Why do castles have pointy bits ?

What do castle windows look like ?

Who lives in a castle ?

Do castles have guards ?

Looking ahead to next week

Thursday is World book day. We would like to ‘ Get comfy and read’ so we invite the children to wear their comfy clothes if they wish, and to bring a favourite book ( please make sure it is named)

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Use our class spelling city page to play games which will help you to learn to spell our block one and two tricky words. Follow this link and then choose the list you would like to practise.

Revise your phonics with phonics bloom or balloon phonics

Play this Addition practice game – choose one of the totals options

Draw a picture of a castle or talk with your family about a castle you have visited/seen in the past.


Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

 P1 Koalas Reflective Friday 23.2.24

Staff..469

Hello everyone,

This is what we have been learning this week:

LITERACY

We were blending and building words with the final consonant blends: st mp rk nd, for example: just, gust, camp, lump, dark, park, sand, mend.

Our tricky words this week were: they and all.

Our writing topic this week was- At the park…..

We had new reading books this week. The children have been reading in groups at the teaching table.  As well as decoding the words we have been discussing title and author, talking about the characters, and predicting what might happen next in the story. The children will bring their reading books home on Tuesday, please see the separate email for further information.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Write out some words which have the final consonant blends we have been learning this week. The child can try to sound out the word using the pure sound of each letter to blend together to read the word.

The adult can say some of the words we have been learning this week and the child writes them down.

Write down the tricky words on a piece of paper or card, hold the cards behind your back then show them to your child and ask them to read the word you have shown them. Your child could practise writing these words, forming the letters the way they have been shown in class.

(If you are unsure about correct letter formation, please speak to one of us at the end of the day).

NUMERACY AND MATHS

We have continued to work on core numeracy skills: recognising numerals, saying forward number word sequences, sequencing numerals, counting items, saying the number before and after and adding numbers together in our heads.

We continued working on money. We were adding amounts to 10p and beyond. We were working in pairs to make amounts by drawing coins on our boards. We completed a money worksheet to show our understanding.

Some of us were doing money assessments with the teacher.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Have a look at some coins at home, try to make different amounts by adding the coins together.

https://ictgames.com/mobilePage/payForIt/oldcdn.html

PE

We have begun working on gymnastics and this week the focus was on balancing in different ways. We were trying to hold balances using different parts of the body.

FLUFFY!

Thank you so much for all the entries in Fluffy’s journal. It has been lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm and eagerness to take him home. At the moment, we are just allowing the children to keep him for two nights so that everyone can have a turn as soon as possible but if you forget to bring him back to school, please don’t worry.

We really don’t want to give families anything extra to have to think about so PLEASE don’t feel you have to add to the journal. Your child will be given the chance to speak to the class about what they have done with Fluffy.

SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE

Linked to our topic on Antarctica and penguins we were trying to find out what makes penguins feathers waterproof. We coloured one penguin with wax crayons and left the other drawing uncoloured. We dropped water onto the penguin with the wax coating and the plain paper one and described what happened.

LOOSE PARTS

Next date for loose parts is Friday 1 March.

RSHP

As part of our RSHP programme we began to look at the section on ‘Asking questions, making choices, saying yes/saying no’.

We discussed the different questions we can ask using the words: who, what, where and how. We talked about the difference between fact based questions and preference based questions. Next week we will talk about making choices.

Some examples of learning taking place this week:

Have a lovely weekend.

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 23.2.24

Staff...685

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.


Literacy focus


This week we have been learning about consonant blends and the end and beginning of words. This week’s sounds have been rk, nt, st and nd

Tricky words

This week I have been assessing the children’s ability to read and spell all of the block one words. We also introduced two new words from block 2 – they and all. Please support your child at home with learning to both read and spell these words.

Story Writing

Our story writing prompt this week was ‘At the park’

Maths and numeracy focus


We have continued to work on Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning ( SEAL) developing our understanding of number and our ability to manipulate and calculate.

Other areas of the curriculum

We learned about the story of Noah and his Ark.



In PE we have been learning about balance, how a wider base helps with stability and also about different numbers of points of balance.

Looking ahead to next week

Parent consultation meetings on Tuesday and Thursday.

Loose parts play on Friday.

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Use our class spelling city page to play games which will help you to learn to spell our block one and two tricky words. Follow this link and then choose the list you would like to practise.

Revise your phonics with phonics bloom or balloon phonics

Play this coins game


P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 9.2.24

Staff...685

Huge congratulations to the eight pupils from the class who chose to present their recitation of The Selkirk Grace and to the three finalists who went forward to share their learning at the assembly. The two pupils chosen to go forward to the regional finals were from p2 and p3, but our P1s were absolutely amazing, I am so proud of them all.

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.


Literacy focus


This week we have been revising the sounds wh, th, sh, ch.

We had no new Tricky words this week as we continue to consolidate those we have introduced so far. It is important that pupils learn to recognise and spell these words so we would appreciate your continued support at home to practise this skill.

Maths and numeracy focus


This week I have been assessing the children’s ability to recognise coins to £2, and to create and count amounts of money using appropriate coins.

Please support our learning about money at home by using appropriate vocabulary ( e.g. only use the term ‘ penny’ for a one pence coin, and use the term coins when referring to a pile of loose change) and allowing children to handle real coins as often as possible.

Below are links to a game we have used in school which you may also wish to use at home to support this learning.

Other areas of the curriculum

We completed an assessment task to show our learning about Scotland



In PE we used our favourite Scottish music dance tracks for warm ups and then listened to some Chinese music and used sequences of movement to explore activities and traditions surrounding Chinese New year.

Primary sevens came again with their ipads to show us how to play some learning games.

Looking ahead to next week

Holiday week – see you all back on Monday 19th

( Loose parts on Tuesday 20th)

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Develop your proprioceptive skills by getting outside and climbing, running, jumping and hanging upside down !

Mrs Imrie has set a whole school quiz for families to complete. You can find it here.

Revise your phonics with phonics bloom or balloon phonics

Play this coins game


Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

 P1 Koalas Reflective Friday 9.2.24

Staff..469

Hello everyone,

This is what we have been learning this week:

LITERACY

We were revising the digraphs th and wh as the children are finding these sounds challenging. Some of us were revising single sounds.

We were revising the tricky words: no go be she me we.

We were learning to write the capital letters: A B C.

We were writing about Fluffy and a possible adventure he could have.

We had new reading books this week. The children have been reading in groups at the teaching table.  As well as decoding the words we have been discussing title and author, talking about the characters, and predicting what might happen next in the story.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Hold up the digraphs and ask your child to tell you the sound they make. Ask them if they can think of a word containing that sound.

Use letters written on a piece of paper or card to ‘build’ a word. The adult says a word and the child choses the correct sounds to make that word.

An adult makes a word using the digraphs and the child says the pure sounds of each letter to blend together to read the word.

Write down the tricky words on a piece of paper or card, hold the cards behind your back then show them to your child and ask them to read the word you have shown them. Your child could practise writing these words, forming the letters the way they have been shown in class.

(If you are unsure about correct letter formation, please speak to one of us at the end of the day).

NUMERACY AND MATHS

We have continued to work on core numeracy skills: recognising numerals, saying forward number word sequences, sequencing numerals, counting items, saying the number before and after and adding numbers together in our heads.

We continued working on money. We were adding amounts to 10p and beyond. We were identifying coins and played a game on the Smartboard and the iPads.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Have a look at some coins at home, talk about their value and if possible, use them to pay for some items in a shop.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/coins-game

PE

We have been working on using repeated patterns of movement to create simple sequences and have practised moving in time to music. We worked together with a partner to make our own sequence of movements. We were an audience for our friends and made positive comments about their performance.

FLUFFY!

Thank you so much for all the entries in Fluffy’s journal. It has been lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm and eagerness to take him home. At the moment, we are just allowing the children to keep him for two nights so that everyone can have a turn as soon as possible but if you forget to bring him back to school, please don’t worry.

We really don’t want to give families anything extra to have to think about so PLEASE don’t feel you have to add to the journal. Your child will be given the chance to speak to the class about what they have done with Fluffy.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We were talking about Antarctica and comparing life there to life in Scotland.

We were learning about Chinese New Year.

FRENCH

We continued to learn the words for numbers from 1-10.

LOOSE PARTS

We had a cold but sunny afternoon at loose parts and the children were very busy building, creating and working with their friends.

Next date for loose parts is Friday 1 March.

Here is a whole school quiz for you to try at home, there may be a prize for the winner!

Robert Burns’ Quiz (office.com)

Some examples of independent learning taking place this week:

Have a lovely weekend.

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 2.2.24

Staff...685

A winter plea! I know it is not always the easiest thing to do, but it would help us so much if winter accessories ( hats. gloves. scarves etc) are named or at least initialled so that we can reunite them with their owners even when those owners deny ever having had a pair of gloves with them !!

Also, 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.


Literacy focus


Our new sounds this week were th and wh.

Tricky words .

Learn to read and spell the word are

Writing prompt this week was ‘in the bath’

Maths and numeracy focus


Our continued focus this week was on coin recognition and counting /creating amounts of money using a variety o coins.

Below are links to a game we have used in school which you may also wish to use at home to support this learning.

Other areas of the curriculum

We have continued to discuss what we know about Scotland. We have looked at the work of a range of Scottish Artists and tried to recreate some famous works. We learned more about the history of tartan and how the cloth is woven. Mrs Cross told us the story of ‘The Three Donalds’ a tale of how tartan may have been invented !


In PE we continue to put our elements of scottish country dancing together. We now know a simplified circassian circle and the dashing white sergeant

Primary sevens came with their ipads to show us how to play some learning games.

We were asked to make a short video about our RRS display. We thought you might like to see it.

https://videopress.com/v/waEzAAMo?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Looking ahead to next week

Loose parts play on Wednesday .

Next Friday one child will be chosen to perform the Selkirk Grace at our Early level assembly. Please keep learning it at home using the link from last week ( also below)

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

For the whole school Burns competition please learn to recite the Selkirk Grace.

This video might help you

Ask an adult to help you look up your family tartan. Which colours can you see ? You might want to print a picture of it and bring it in, or try to draw a picture of it. Remember, not all surnames have their own tartan but they may have an associated one.

Play this coins game


Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

 P1 Koalas Reflective Friday 2.2.24

Staff..469

Hello everyone,

This is what we have been learning this week:

LITERACY

We introduced two new consonant digraphs this week: wh and th. Digraphs are two letters which go together to make one sound. We were building /writing these words : which, that and blending sounds together to read: when then.

Our new tricky word this week is are.

We were writing about being in the bath to practise using our new th sound.

We are encouraging the children to use the tricky words they know and the sounds they have learned to ‘have a go’ at writing independently. If the word the child wishes to use is too difficult to sound out, they can still write the starting letter. We are trying to remember to use finger spaces after every word so that our writing is not squashed together. The children have also been given free writing jotters which they can use for their own ideas and drawings whenever they are given the chance to choose their own learning.

We had new reading books this week. The children have been reading in groups at the teaching table.  As well as decoding the words we have been discussing title and author, talking about the characters, and predicting what might happen next in the story.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Hold up the digraphs and ask your child to tell you the sound they make. Ask them if they can think of a word containing that sound.

Use letters written on a piece of paper or card to ‘build’ a word. The adult says a word and the child choses the correct sounds to make that word.

An adult makes a word using the digraphs th and wh  and the child says the pure sounds of each letter to blend together to read the word.

Write down are on a piece of paper or card, hold the card behind your back then show it to your child and ask them to read the word you have shown them. Your child could practise writing the tricky words, forming the letters the way they have been shown in class.

(If you are unsure about correct letter formation, please speak to one of us at the end of the day).

NUMERACY AND MATHS

We have continued to work on core numeracy skills: recognising numerals, saying forward and backward number word sequences, sequencing numerals, counting items, saying the number before and after and adding numbers together in our heads.

We continued working on money. We were adding amounts to 10p and beyond. We used the iPads to play some money games.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Have a look at some coins at home, talk about their value and if possible, use them to pay for some items in a shop.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/coins-game

PE

We have been working on using repeated patterns of movement to create simple sequences and have practised moving in time to music. We worked together with a partner to make our own sequence of movements. We were an audience for our friends and made positive comments about their performance.

FLUFFY!

Thank you so much for all the entries in Fluffy’s journal. It has been lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm and eagerness to take him home. At the moment, we are just allowing the children to keep him for two nights so that everyone can have a turn as soon as possible but if you forget to bring him back to school, please don’t worry.

We really don’t want to give families anything extra to have to think about so PLEASE don’t feel you have to add to the journal. Your child will be given the chance to speak to the class about what they have done with Fluffy.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We were talking about Antarctica and learning about some of the other animals who live there. We also discussed what else we would like to find out about this continent.

FRENCH

We started to learn the words for numbers from 1-10.

LOOSE PARTS

Next date for loose parts is Wednesday 7 February.

Some examples of learning taking place this week:

Have a lovely weekend.

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 26.1.24

Staff...685

A winter plea! I know it is not always the easiest thing to do, but it would help us so much if winter accessories ( hats. gloves. scarves etc) are named or at least initialled so that we can reunite them with their owners even when those owners deny ever having had a pair of gloves with them !!

Also, 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.


Literacy focus


Our new sounds this week were sh and ch. We have also enjoyed using our phonics skills to read independently – a great sense of achievement. We are lucky to have volunteer support from Mrs Petit – she loves to read with us. We continue to practise correct letter formation .

Tricky words .

Learn to read and spell the words – she, we, be

Writing prompt this week was ‘at the shop’

Maths and numeracy focus


Our continued focus this week was on addition skills – aiming to use a counting on strategy where possible, Some pupils have been investigating how numbers are made of bundles of hundreds, tens and units.

Below are links to two games we have used in school which you may also wish to use at home to support this learning.

Tens and Units – Shark numbers

Robot Addition

Other areas of the curriculum

We have started to discuss what we know about Scotland. We have looked at Scotland’s position on a world map and the position of Edinburgh. We know that Scotland is famous for lots of things like castles, lochs ( with monsters) tartan and bagpipes. We have decided we would like to find out more abut famous Scottish people including Robert Burns and Charles Rennie Macintosh . We designed some watercolour paintings inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Macintosh.


In PE we created more sequences of the movement patterns we have been learning and then we made sets and learned to dance the Canadian barn dance and a simplified version of the Virginia Reel. We have discovered that dancing is great Cardio exercise

Looking ahead to next week

Drop in session on Tuesday am.

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

For the whole school Burns competition please learn to recite the Selkirk Grace.

This video might help you

Tell an adult what you know about Robert Burns

( one for the adults!) If at all possible – start a collection of loose change – we will soon begin some formal learning about money and recognising real coins is an important outcome. In these cashless days children may not see coins very often.