Category: P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

Important information

• MP Christmas cards: Today we are sending a template for the MP Christmas cards competition. If you wish your child to take part in this competition, please make the card at home and sign the form for consent. Please can all forms be returned to school by Wednesday 25^th October.
• Your children will be taking home their reading books today. This is a showcase of their learning. We have been reading the book at school so your children might find it ‘easy’. Please return the reading books on Monday: this is essential so books can be used by other children across the school. We have a few books missing and this means that a set of books cannot be shared with a group of children.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we revised last week’s sounds ee/ea. We felt it was important to revise as not all children were able to do home learning last week.

We have introduced new tricky words from block 3: should, would, could. This is the end of block 3. It would be very helpful if your children work on reading and spelling these words.

At parent consultations we shared with you all the tricky words blocks that we are going to learn in P2. Please continue to revise blocks 1, 2 and 3.  

Thanks to the very kind donation of the book Llamaphones (A Grammar Zoo Book) from one of our parents we have learned about homophones. We had a few examples of this week’s sounds: peek/peak, see/sea. We had a rich discussion based on this book.

In writing we wrote a set of instructions on how to blow a bubble.

Ideas for learning at home

• Please ask your child to read the school reading book at home.
• Read and write the words: keep, bee, jeep, deep, eel, leek, feet, see, wheel, sheep, week, queen, meal, tea, read, eat, teach, see, peak, peek. You can write the words and ask your child to look for the ee/ ea letters and circle them. Ask your child how many letters can the word has and how many sounds.
• You can play this free online game:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources/phase/2/dragons-den

Make sure you choose you choose the sounds we have worked on so far. For ee go to phase three.

– Please continue to read stories to your child at home.

– Please continue to encourage your child to read at home.

Maths 

We have continued to work on gathering and analysing data. Last week we learned about pictograms and building on this knowledge we have learned about bar graphs: what is a bar graph, how to read and create a bar graph.

We have worked on number and number processes too: saying numbers forwards and backwards, addition and subtraction.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• More information about bar graphs:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqgrd2p/articles/z9kbp4j

• For more challenge try this game: 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Look in the number bonds section and choose the right level for your child.

Other areas

Science

We have continued to learn about Space. This week we have learned about the Moon and its phases. We can now explain why the moon appears to have different shapes and positions in the sky at different times in a lunar month.

PE

We have worked on pre- rugby skills and team games.

FRENCH

We have learned the days of the week. We like this song: Le jeurs de la semaine.

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Mrs McFarlane

Blog 29.09.23

Dear Parents/Carers,

What a very strange week it has been! We hope that you found the online learning resources useful. As we explained, there was no expectation that all worksheets were to be completed; we understand that families have their own set of circumstances to manage. We would really appreciate it if you could return the folders with sheets, even if they are not completed. As you will have seen, there was a great deal of photocopying involved and we can reuse some sheets in the following weeks.

We would also really appreciate it if reading books could be returned as soon as possible. We still have books sent out last Friday which have not come back. If they are not returned, it impacts on other groups who cannot use that set of books. 

Instead of the usual summary of our learning this week we will be giving out suggestions for other activities you may wish to do at home with your child. We hope you find these useful.

P2 Team

Literacy

Comprehension is a key skill we work on each week in class during our discussions. Here is a very short video to watch along with some questions to discuss.

“A Cloudy Lesson” by Yezi Xue | Disney Favorite – YouTube

• What do you think the relationship might be between the old man and the boy? What makes you think this?
• What type of story do you think this is?
• What did the boy do to fix the situation at the end of the story?
• What might the characters have been thinking at the end of the story?
• Can you find 3 words to describe your favourite character?

Maths and Numeracy

Today we have sent home SumDog log in details for your child. We have set a challenge based on the learning covered so far in P2.

We have noticed that lots of pupils are accidently reversing two digits. For example, writing 41 instead of 14. We have been looking at the 100 square in class to help with numeral identification and to consolidate understanding of the order of the digits. You may wish to show this to your child at home too.

Paint the Squares – Interactive Number Charts (topmarks.co.uk)

HWB

Did you know that September is friendship month? Friendship is so important to us in our school. Watch this little video of two friends.

Sesame Street: Elmo and Rosita Teach Friendship – YouTube

Questions to discuss at home: What does your friend do to make you feel good? What do you and your friends like to do together? Your child could draw a picture of them with their friend having fun. They could give this to their friend to say thank you for being a good friend.

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

Important information

• Your child will be taking home their reading book today. This is a showcase of their learning. We have been reading the book at school so your children might find it ‘easy’. Please return the reading books on Monday: this is essential so books can be used by other children across the school.
• PTA Christmas cards: Today we have sent home a blank Christmas card template for fundraising.  In school we have made one already but if you wish to also design one at home, please return the completed sheet on Monday.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we revised all the initial blends and diagraphs that we have worked on so far: th, ch, sh, wh, -ai-, -ay, -oi-, -oy. It would be very beneficial for the children to practise these at home: looking for words that have those sounds in books, boxes, etc. , thinking about words with those sounds and writing them.

We have introduced new tricky words from block 3: water, kind and find. Last week we worked on any, many, very and every. It would be very helpful if your children practise reading and writing these words.

Please also revise the ones from block 1 and 2. (See last week’s blog)

In writing we wrote about our houses using the vocabulary we have learned in our topic.

Ideas for learning at home

– See suggestions above.

– Sounds hunt: th, ch, sh, wh, -ai-, -ay, -oi-, -oy. Look for these initial blends and vowel diagraphs in magazines, books, food tins, boxes, etc.

– Spelling: tricky words. Ask your child to write the tricky words any, many, very, every, water, kind and find using a different colour for each letter.

– Please continue to read stories to your child at home.

-Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. We have noticed that some children have lost fluency over the summer.

– Ask your child to write the words: wish, dish, cash, shock, bash, ash, chop, chat, chick, chum, thick, bath, path, this, then, when, which, whip, nail, chain, maid, pair, hay, ray, way, May, coin, soil, boil, boy, toy, joy. Can they write a sentence using one or two of these words? They can write them in post it notes and hide them around the house, whoever finds the most and able to read them wins.

• You can use this online game. Please choose the sounds that we have worked on so far.

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

Maths 

We have continued to work on addition and subtraction (within 10, 20, 50). We have been working on holding a number in our head then counting forwards (for addition) or backwards (for subtraction).  We have also used a number line to help us to count forwards and backwards.

We have continued to work on how to use a calendar: remembering the names of the months of the year, putting them in order. We are finding difficult to remember the month before a given month.  

Ideas for learning at home: 

• Ask your child to add two numbers together. For some, this might be with two single digits, for others it could be a 2 digit number plus a 1 digit number. For example 34 + 4. Encourage your child to ‘hold’ the big number in their head then count on using their fingers.  

If your child is finding this difficult, make the numbers smaller and use counters or small objects for them to count.  

• For more challenge try this game: 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Look in the number bonds section and choose the right level for your child.

• You could also look through a calendar at home. If you start to read the months in sequence, can your child continue to name the months in the correct order? Can they count how many weeks for a planned event?
• Order the moths of the year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zhk82hv/articles/zrr2jsg

• Before and after: Please continue to work on this concept. If you see a number around (bus, house number, etc) challenge your child to say the number before and the number after.

Other areas

Social Studies

We have continued to learn about houses and homes. We are now confident in naming and identifying at least two types of houses from our local area.

PE

We have started to work on our rugby skills.

HWB

We have worked on our Wellbeing wheels to explain how we feel using the wellbeing indicators.

ART

We have created our ….Christmas cards!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

Important Information

Please return your child’s learning story.

We have a session of Loose Parts on Wednesday. Please come dressed for the weather!

Here is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we have introduced the oi and aoy digraphs. As in ‘coin’ and ‘boy. We know that when the sound is in the middle of the word it will be the oi pattern and when it is at the end of the word it will be the oy pattern. Here is the visual prompt we have been using in class.

We have started to work on tricky words from block 3: any, many, very, every.

It would be very helpful if your children practice to read and write these words.

Please also revise the ones from block 1 and 2.

In writing we are learning to write a set of instructions. This week we have been learning how to cross the road. We linked this with our discovery walk around the local area. We have focused on using words of order and bossy verbs.

At story time we have worked on predictions.

Ideas for learning at home

– Please continue to read stories to your child at home. Building on our work from story time this week, can they predict what is going to happen in the story based on the information they have or on previous experiences?

-Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. We have noticed that some children have lost fluency over the summer.

– Here is a fun video introducing the oi sound. Alphablocks

– Ask your child to write the words below

oi words boil, foil, coin, join, soil

oy words boy, toy, joy

Ask them to write the oi /oy sound with a different colour than the rest of the sounds in the word.

• Spin a word game attached.
• You can use this online game. Please choose the sounds that we have worked on so far.

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

Maths 

We have been learning to add and subtract. We have been working on holding a number in our head then counting forwards (for addition) or backwards (for subtraction). 

We have also been learning to name the months of the year, put them in order and link them to the seasons.  

Ideas for learning at home: 

• Ask your child to add two numbers together. For some, this might be with two single digits, for others it could be a 2 digit number plus a 1 digit number. For example 34 + 4. Encourage your child to ‘hold’ the big number in their head then count on using their fingers.  
• If your child is finding this difficult, make the numbers smaller and use counters or small objects for them to count.  
• For more challenge try this game: 

Subtraction Grids – Topmarks

• You could also look through a calendar at home. If you start to read the months in sequence, can your child continue to name the months in the correct order? Can they find the birthday months for members of your family? 
•  

Other areas

Social Studies

We have continued to learn about houses and homes. First, we looked at houses around the world and built our own houses using the items from loose parts. We all worked well in teams and constructed amazing houses. Following that we have been looking at houses in our community. On our discovery walk we were able to identify different types of houses. Thank you to the parents who were able to help on the day.

PE

We have continued to develop ball control with our feet.

HWB

We are learning to develop our personal coping skills. We read a booked called Izzy Gismo and talked about resilience and how sometimes things don’t work the first time we try.

We hope you have a lovely long weekend! (Remember there is no school on Monday!)

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a lovely week. Today your child is coming home with their learning story. Inside, you will find the termly curriculum overview for our class and the targets that your child will be working on this term. There is also a section towards the back of the folder which is for wider achievements. Please feel free to add photos, drawings etc which detail your child’s achievements out of school. This might be part of a club but could also be things they have achieved with their family, for example, climbing Arthur’s seat!

Information for the week ahead:

As part of our topic on houses and homes we are going for a trip around the local area on Thursday 14^th. We will be going out even if it is a bit drizzly so please ensure that your child comes to school with a coat and appropriate footwear.

Here is a summary of our learning this week.

Maths

We have been learning to link number patterns to digits. For example:

• recognising the number represented by a domino pattern
• recognising the number represented in 10 frames
• (for some) adding groupings of 10s and ones

An important goal of this work is for learners to develop strategies that do not involve counting by 1s. For example, one strategy would be to ‘anchor’ to 5 and count on (visualising the pattern in their head), or another would be to recognise that if there are only 2 dots missing that the number is 2 less than 10 so that must be 8.

Learners should come to know that 8 can be regarded as 5 and 3.

Then, building on that, for example, that 6 + 6 could also be regarded as 6 + 4 + 2 or 10 + 2.

We have also continued to work on number formation as we have noticed that learners are not using the correct number formation or are reversing numbers.

Home learning ideas:

• This is a 10 frame flash game. Each number is only shown for a very short time so you may wish to press pause at key moments until your child feels more confident.

Ten Frame Flash Game (1-10) – YouTube

You can ask questions such as ‘How many dots?’ ‘How many empty squares?’ ‘How many lots of 2 can you see?’

• For extra challenge, you could ask you child to tell you all the different ways that they can make a particular number. For example, 12 could be made with 8 and 4, 10 and 2 and so on. Can they also make any subtraction sums which give you 12?

Literacy

This week we have introduced the ai and ay digraphs. As in ‘play’ and ‘rain’. We know that when the sound is in the middle of the word it will be the ai pattern and when it is at the end of the word it will be the ay pattern. Here is the visual prompt we have been using in class.

We have revised the spelling of tricky words.

At story time our focus has been to summarise the texts we have been reading.

We wrote instructions on how to wash our hands. We had to use bossy verbs as well as using our knowledge of phonics to spell familiar and unfamiliar words.

Home learning ideas:

• Please continue to read stories to your child at home. Building on our work from story time this week, can they summarise the main events from the book?
• Here is a fun video introducing the ai and ay sounds.

Alphablocks Series 3 – Train – YouTube

• Ask your child to spell the words ‘rain’ ‘pain’ ‘play’ and ‘stay’. Can they cut them out and sort them into two piles (one for ai spelling and one for ay spelling). Ask them if they can explain the rule for working out whether it is ai or ay (ai in the middle of a word and ay at the end of a word).  

Other areas

Social Studies

As part of our topic on houses and homes in our community we have discussed what we know already and what we would like to find out in our topic.

Wellbeing wheel

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

PE

We have continued to work on our football skills, in particular dribbling. We are improving in every session!

ICT

We have started to use the ipads independently when leading our learning in the room. We know how to log in and we are each having a turn to be a learning detective. This involves taking a couple of photos of the learning in the room which is then shared with the rest of the class at the end of each session.

French

We have learned how to describe our feelings which has linked to our work on Colour Monster. For example, Ca va? Ca va bien.

Loose Parts

We had a fantastic session of loose parts. We observed some amazing structures being built. What a creative group of learners!

Here are a few photos from this week.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a lovely week.

Information

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

Here is a summary of our learning this week.

Maths

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

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

Homel learning ideas:

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

Literacy

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

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

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

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

Home learning ideas:

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

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

Other areas

Social Studies

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

Wellbeing wheel

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

ICT

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

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a fantastic first full week of P2! 

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

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

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

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

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

Numeracy

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

Suggestions for learning at home:

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

Literacy

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

Suggestions for learning at home:

Click on this link

Letters & Sounds Bingo (ictgames.com)

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

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

Here are a few photos from this week.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Dear Parents/Carers,

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

Things to remember for next week:

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

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

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

The link is below.

The Koala Who Could – YouTube

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

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

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

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

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

Wishing you all a wonderful summer!

Mrs McFarlane