Category: P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

Dear Parents, 

We hope you all had a lovely break. 

This week has been a short one for the children however we have been very busy. 

Our learning this week: 

Literacy 

We have focused on sentence structure and what to look for when writing a sentence. 

Our writing theme was ‘My magic spell’ 

 At home   

• We haven’t sent reading books home this week. Please return any books your child has at home.   
• Your child should continue to work on the word wall related to the stage they are reading. They should become confident in reading these words.  Remember that they should recognise these words by sight. 
• Handwriting, children could continue to practise writing their first and surname in cursive script.   
• Continue to practise reading and spelling the tricky words.  An idea is to play faster finger: have all the tricky words written or on cards you say a word and the first person to find it wins the card (or a point). Then hide the card and ask your child to write it (double points for this). 

Maths 

We have been learning to count in twos. We read the book ‘How many seeds in a pumpkin’ and estimated how many seeds they were inside the four pumpkins we had at school. We carved them and counted the seeds in twos! 

At home: 

• Continue to practice on number formation. 
• We have used this 100 square website to help us to count in twos and to see the number patterns when counting in twos: 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/paint-the-squares

• Continue to work on addition skills: 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/mental-maths-train

Other areas 

As part of the school focus on Black History Month we have been learning about Rosa Parks: her life, why it was important what she did, etc. We discussed about on fair/unfair rules and about being all equal no matter our skin colour.  

Here is a video of the book we read at school. 

We made a fantastic display at school! 

PE we have worked on listening, team work, balance and eye-hand coordination skills. 

As part of our outdoor learning we did an Autumn scavenger hunt. 

Other information    
  
   

• Loose parts on Wednesday 2^nd November. 
• Next Friday Drop-in of the session. The school will be open for half an hour from 8.55am until 9.25am and parents are invited to visit their child’s classroom during this time. This an opportunity to see your child’s learning at school.. 

• Please ensure your child brings a jacket every day to school.    
• Thank you for your support in emptying the purple folders each day.     
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.    
• We would appreciate donations of any unwanted empty or partially used notebooks or diaries (used pages can be removed). Also, any enticing writing implements (i.e., glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens). The children enjoy choosing resources from the table to use in their independent learning.    
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!    
   

Another very busy week.  We are feeling ready for our week’s holiday!

Literacy

This week we learned the digraph sounds oi (boil, foil, coin) and oy (boy, toy, enjoy).  We used the following image to help us to remember the sound. 

We have focussed on what makes a sentence and have done some work on identifying sentences, ensuring that they each make sense on their own. 

In writing, we finished our unit on instruction writing with a piece focussing on our morning routine at school.  We are now confidently using bossy verbs, using words of order and sequencing instructions correctly.  We have been developing our skills in self assessing our work against these success criteria. 

We have been continuing to work on developing our spelling of tricky words and recognition of key words from our reading books. 

Things to try at home:

• Practise reading your new reading book with the illustrations covered up
• Continue to practise word wall words – we should know these by sight
• With an adult practise finding words in your reading books in isolation e.g. ‘find the word pulled’, ‘find the word stream’.
• Following on from parents evening your child will now have a copy of tricky words to practise – use post-its or small pieces of paper and make a pairs game to play – making the cards will further cement the spelling of these words.

Numeracy

This week in numeracy we have continued to practise our numerical skills by:

• Counting forwards and backwards starting and stopping at different points
• Recognising numerals
• Handwriting numbers correctly
• Using a counting on strategy for addition

Our main focus has been revisiting doubles facts using fingers unseen (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5) and extending this to (6+6, 7+7, 8+8, 9+9, 10+10). 

We also introduced the concept of near doubles (doubles plus 1.)

Things to try at home:

DOUBLES! DOUBLES! (*new* 1-10 version) – YouTube

Addition: Doubles + 1 / Growing Brain – YouTube

Loop cards (dominos) games – select ‘doubles to 15’ or ‘doubles to 20’ Loop Cards – 5-11 year olds – Topmarks

Hit the button game – select doubles to 10 – Hit the Button – Quick fire maths practise for 6-11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)

Other Areas of the Curriculum

As part of our Polly Jean Pyjama Queen topic we have been learning about adaptions animals have developed to live in their habitats.  The two animals we learned about were: camels and how they have adapted to life in the desert and polar bears and how they have adapted to life in the Arctic. 

We enjoyed taking part in experiments to find out how polar bears have adapted to cold climates. 

We used lard to create a polar bear glove and tested this in ice with one hand gloved and one hand bare.  We found that the hand with the polar bear glove could not feel the cold ice at all!  The lard provided a thick layer of fat similar to that of the polar bear. 

We also used cotton wool to insulate our hand against ice, just like a polar bear’s thick fur.  It helped to keep our hands warm!

In PE, we have continued to develop our balance and coordination using a range of resources and activities.

We enjoyed working with the other P2 class to find and unscramble tricky words in the playground.

We learned about Black history month and some important black historical figures.

Other information  

• Please ensure your child brings a jacket every day to school.  
• Thank you for your support in emptying the purple folders each day.   
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.  
• We would appreciate donations of any unwanted empty or partially used notebooks or diaries (used pages can be removed). Also, any enticing writing implements (i.e., glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens). The children enjoy choosing resources from the table to use in their independent learning.  
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!

Dear Parents/ Carers,  

This week in P2 we have been learning: 

Literacy  

In literacy we have learned two new vowel diagraphs oa (as in goat, moat, boat) and ow (as in blow, snow and row). They both make the same sound.  We talked about the fact that oa is usually found in the middle of words and ow at the end.

In writing we have continued to learn how to write instructions.  

In handwriting we have been working on how to form the letter s in cursive script. 

At home 

• Yesterday your child took home her/his reading book. We have been reading the book at school during the week therefore your child should be able to read the book without support (they might need support with some words). This is a showcase of their learning at school. 
• Your child should also have a word wall related to the stage they are reading. They should become confident in reading these words. 
• Handwriting, children could continue to practise writing their first and surname in cursive script. 
• Continue to practise reading and spelling the tricky words. 
• Here is a fun game to practise at home. Select ow and oa to reinforce this week’s phonics focus. 
  
  Forest Phonics – mobile friendly (ictgames.com) 
  
   
  Maths  
  
  In Maths we have continued our unit of work on information handling. We have learned to make simple bar graphs. 
  
  We have continued to work on our numeracy skills through our SEAL programme.
  
  The main focus has been on number structures (using a ten frame) and learning about all of the different ways that the same number can be represented.  
  
  At home 
  
  This is a fun game to reinforce the work we have done on information handling. 
  
  Fishing Pictograph Game | 2nd Grade Math Games | Toy Theate
  
  We have used this game to explore ten frames. 
  
  https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Ten-Frame/ 
  
  Here is an interesting link which demonstrates how the numbers 9 and 10 can be represented. 
  
  Representing 9 and 10 – Maths – Learning with BBC Bitesize – BBC Bitesize 
  
  You could extend this at home by exploring different numbers and how they can be represented.  
  
  Other areas  
  
  In PE we have worked on working as a team (outdoors) and ball skills (indoors): hand and feet skills.  
  
  IDL We have continued to work on our topic Polly Jean Pyjama Queen and our focus has been learning about habitats.  
  
  
  Other information  
  

• Please ensure your child brings a jacket every day to school.  
• Thank you for your support in emptying the purple folders each day.   
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.  

• We would appreciate donations of any unwanted empty or partially used notebooks or diaries (used pages can be removed). Also, any enticing writing implements (i.e., glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens). The children enjoy choosing resources from the table to use in their independent learning.  
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!  
  
   
  
  Have a wonderful weekend!  

Sorry for the delay in posting the blog this week. Technology issues!

This week in P2 we have been learning: 

Literacy  

In literacy we have learned the new vowel diagraph ew as in -oo-. (examples of words with this sound are flew, stew, crew).  We have used these picture symbols to remember ew and oo.

This week in writing we have continued to learn how to write instructions. This time we wrote instructions on washing hands.

In handwriting we have been working on how to write on cursive the letters a, g and q. 

At home 

• Yesterday your child took home her/his reading book. We have been reading the book at school during the week therefore your child should be able to read the book without support (they might need support with some words). This is a showcase of their learning at school.  
• The children also took home their words walls related to the stage book they are reading. They should become confident at reading these words. 
• Handwriting, children could continue to practice writing in their name and other names in cursive handwriting.
• Continue to practice reading and writing the spelling words of the block that your child took home.
• ew (as in oo) song 

•  Another very useful resource that we use in class is Alphablocks. The children love this! 

Maths  

In Maths we have been learning about handling information, we have learned to make bar charts.

We have continued to work on our numeracy skills through our SEAL programme (different groups will work with different numbers and skills depending on their abilities to be able to make progress accordingly).  

Our focus has been on number structures using a ten frame.  

At home 

You could create your own bar chart gathering information about favourite fruits, favourite sports, etc. of the family members and friends. 

We have used this game to explore number ten frame: 

https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Ten-Frame/

This is another game that your child might find useful: 

http://toytheater.com/fruit-fall/ 

Other areas  

In PE we have worked on working as a team (outdoors) and ball skills (indoors): hand and feet skills.  

IDL We have continued to work on our topic Polly Jean Pyjama Queen and our focus has been learning about habitats. We have loved learning about this! 

Other information  

• Parents Consultations on Wednesday and Thursday. 
• Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing. We will be outdoors no matter the weather (unless torrential rain).  
•  On Friday we will have Loose parts. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing. We will be outdoors no matter the weather (unless torrential rain). 
• Purple folder. Thank you for your support in emptying the purple folders each day.   
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.  
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!   

Have a wonderful weekend!  

Mrs McFarlane

Another busy week in Primary 2!

Our highlight this week was another loose parts play session.

Literacy

In literacy we revised the ‘ee’ sound and also learned that ‘ea’ can make the same sound.  We found out that unlike some of the other sounds we have been learning there is no rule to tell us which ee/ea to use.  This video highlights the confusion that can sometimes arise!

Danny’s ‘ea/ee’ – Prankster Cam (The Electric Company) – YouTube

This image has been helping us to remember ee/ee.  ‘eee a mouse!’

We have also been checking which tricky words we can read and are focussing now on spelling these words correctly in our writing.  Some information will be coming home soon about which words your child is working on.  In the meantime, here are the lists that we work from:

Block 1: I, the, to, me, he, is, his, was, saw, put, want

Block 2: her, one, you, she, be, go, are, said, all, some, come, they

Block 3: so, very, every, two, only, over, any, water, many, would, should, could, where, what, who, why, find, kind

We learned about writing instructions this week and wrote our own set for ‘How to Clean your Teeth’. Some of the features we discussed were: the use of ‘bossy verbs’ (imperatives), steps which are numbered/ in sequence and words of order (first, then, next).

Opportunities for home learning

• Look at examples of instructions from around the house (lego instructions, recipes, flat pack furniture).  What features can you recognise?
• Practise tricky words using chalk or squirting water from a bottle on the ground outside.
• Using a highlighter and an old magazine or newspaper see how many of each word you can find and highlight.  Focus on finding one word at a time e.g. how many of the word ‘the’ can you highlight on the page?

Numeracy

We are continuing to practise days of the week and months of the year.  We learned a song for days of the week which uses the Adams Family theme tune. 

We focussed on ‘equal groups’ in maths, this is a precursor to multiplication and division.  We practised identifying items that were in equal groups; being able to say how many group, how many in each group and how many all together. 

We enjoyed taking our number work outside, working in pairs to do a scavenger hunt.  We had to answer questions asking for the number before or after a given number.  This was tricky as we sometimes get muddled between the concepts of before and after!

Opportunities for home learning

• Continue to discuss months of the year.  Can you remember which month your birthday fall in?  Can you say which month other family members birthdays fall in?  Are there any months that have special celebrations e.g. Halloween, Christmas?
• Practise writing numbers correctly.  Can you write 0 – 20 with all digits formed correctly?

Other Areas of the Curriculum

In PE, we are continuing to develop our balance and coordination through a range of activities and games.

In HWB we continued to focus on kindness and acceptance. 

We have been practicing forming the letters c, a, d using the cursive font. 

We completed wellbeing webs – a questionnaire about the wellbeing indicators.

(safe, healthy, active, nurtured, achieving, respected, responsible, included)

Other Information

Last week P2 write letters to King Charles III.  We are going to send a copy to the Palace and we will send a copy home for you to keep as a memento.

Have a great weekend! 😊

Dear Parents/Carers, 

We have had a very busy week in P2. Please check your child’s purple folder for their Learning Story. This contains a termly overview of the learning for P2 and also your child’s personal targets. We would be grateful if these could be returned by Friday 23^rd September.  

Topic 

Our highlight from this week was a visit from zoolab on Tuesday! Natalie introduced us to a variety of animals including stick insects, giant cockroaches, frogs, a tarantula, a baby rat, a giant snail and a gecko. She taught us all about their habitats and how the animals were specially adapted to living in their particular environment. This linked really well with our topic on Polly Jean Pyjama Queen. 

Literacy 

In literacy we have learned the igh and y sounds. These are two ways of making the same sound. We have used the eye symbol to help us remember this sound.  

We have also been consolidating the ay and ai sounds from last week. Both classes enjoyed taking part in a word hunt in the playground with ai and ay words and pupils practised reading and spelling the words. 

In writing we wrote a letter to King Charles III. We learned more about the conventions of letter writing.  

Opportunities for home learning 

• Please revisit the following sounds: 

sh,ch,th,wh,ee,oo,ai,ay,igh and y.  

You could make up flashcards or play this interactive game below. 

Phonics Pop || Listen to the sound, then pop as many bubbles as you can – mobile friendly (ictgames.com) 

• Continue to practise cursive handwriting using the sheet sent home last Friday. 
• Revisit blocks 1-3 tricky words.  

Maths 

In maths we continued to learn about the days of the week and months of the year.  

In our number work we have continued with the SEAL programme. Some of the skills we have been working on this week are: 

• Counting forwards starting at different numbers (not always zero). Some of us have been counting in the 0-20 range, others in the 0-30 range and some up to 100 and beyond. We have also been counting backwards and we find this much trickier! 
• Identifying 2-digit numbers. 
• Saying the number before and after. Some of us have been doing this within in the 0-20 range, others in the 0-30 range and some up to 100. 

Opportunities for learning at home 

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

Use the link above. This chart can be used in a number of different ways. 

• Select the number range your child is confident in. 
• Select the 1 more and 1 less puzzle to reinforce the work we have been doing on number before/after. 
• Select the missing number puzzle to reinforce numeral recognition. Discuss how you might work out the missing number and draw attention to the patterns in the rows and columns. 

HWB/Other areas of the curriculum 

• We have been singing Fischy music songs which link to health and wellbeing.   
• We really enjoyed our outdoor loose parts session on Thursday afternoon.  
• We are continuing to focus on the theme of being respectful and kind.  

Other information

• We will begin to send reading books home on the week beginning 26^th September. Further information on this will follow.  
• We have loose parts again on Wednesday 21st September. Please ensure that your child is wearing appropriate clothing as we will be outside in all weather!

• Please ensure your child brings a jacket every day to school.  
• We would like to remind you that toys and Pokémon cards should not be brought to school. 
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else. 
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!  

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McFarlane

We hope you had a good week.

This week in P2 we have been learning:

Literacy

In literacy we have learned two new vowel diagraphs -ai and -ay.  These are two ways of writing the same sound.

We learned that ai often comes in the middle of a word (e.g. nail, pain, drain) and that ay often comes at the end of a word (e.g. pray, stay, pay). 

We have used this symbol and the phrase: ‘Eh?  What did you say?’  to help us to remember this sound. 

This week at writing we created a piece of writing without support. We described our own animal that we created by ‘mixing’ two animals. We made very interesting animals!

Maths

In Maths we have been learning about time. Our focus has been days of the week and months of the year.

We have continued to work on our numeracy skills through our SEAL programme (different groups will work with different numbers and skills depending on their abilities to be able to make progress accordingly):

• Counting backwards and forwards from a given number within the range of 30, 100 and beyond for some.
• Adding two collections of items (uncovered and covered).
• Sharing amounts equally.
• Working on doubles to ten.

Other areas

In PE we have worked on balance skills (indoors) and ball skills (outdoors): hand and feet skills.

We have started an interesting topic on animals across the world through the book ‘Polly Jean Pyjama Queen’

We have continued to work on our wellbeing indicators.

Both classes have a special focus on Kindness.

On Thursday we made the most of the rain. We learned how to do paper boats and tried them in the puddles in the playground. They sank…but we are going to keep trying different materials and designs. What a great time we had! 

Things to do at home

Today your child will bring a sheet with how to from cursive letters correctly. Your child could practice how to write her/his name using cursive letters.

Literacy online games

• Choose the sounds we have worked on so far: https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/forestPhonics/index.html
• Practice tricky words Block 1, 2 and three. Your child should practice how to read and write these.

Maths

We have listened to this song:

Can your child’s name all the months on the year? Does your child now in which month she/he was born?

Other information

• Next Tuesday we will have a visit from Zoolab linked to our topic.
• On Thursday we will have Loose parts. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing. We will be outdoors no matter the weather (unless torrential rain).
• Please ensure your child brings a jacket every day to school. As mentioned above children will be outdoors in all weathers.
• Purple folder. Thank you for your support in emptying the purple folders each day.
• Please we would like to remind you that toys and Pokémon cards should not be brought to school.
• A reminder to name all items of clothing and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires a jumper belonging to someone else.
• We would appreciate donations of any unwanted empty or partially used notebooks or diaries (used pages can be removed). Also, any enticing writing implements (i.e., glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens). The children enjoy choosing resources from the table to use in their independent learning.
• We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g., toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better!

Have a wonderful weekend!

We have had a busy week in P2MN and it was great to see so many of you at Meet the Teacher.

Looking For

We are looking for small pieces of ‘junk’ for modelling e.g. toothpaste boxes, tea bag boxes, snack bar boxes. The more interesting shapes the better! A couple of things to note:

• We don’t have space to store larger pieces so please only send in smaller ones.
• No packaging which has contained nuts.
• We are particularly looking for tin cans (with labels removed) and egg boxes.

We are also looking for milk bottle tops (any colour) please!

Thank you very much in advance.

Number

In number work we have been:

• Counting forwards and backwards to 30 (and in some cases beyond!)
• Saying the next 3 numbers before or after in a sequence
• Recognising 2 digit numbers

Here is a game to play which will reinforce learning in class.

Play Your Cards Right – mobile friendly (ictgames.com)

Literacy

In literacy we have been revising and consolidating the sounds we have learned so far:

Initial sounds of the alphabet, sh, ch, th, wh, ee and oo.

Here is a game to play at home to reinforce learning in class.

Phonics Pop || Listen to the sound, then pop as many bubbles as you can – mobile friendly (ictgames.com)

Our writing focus was ‘Things I love about myself’. We are working hard to remember capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and finger spaces between words.

Please continue to work on tricky words. Please find attached Block 1 – Block 3.

HWB and Other areas of the curriculum:

• This week we have agreed on our new class charter to be ready, respectful and safe. We have discussed what this will look and feel like in our class.
• In PE we have focussed on balance and co-ordination while playing games in groups.
• We have continued to use a range of picture books to explore our own diversity and uniqeuenss.
• We have been introduced to the wellbeing indicators SHANARRI (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included) and we talked about how it applies to us.

Here are some photos of classroom activities we have been engaging with.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs McFarlane

Our week in Primary 2…

A few quick notices:

• We use the outdoors in all weathers so please make sure that a waterproof coat is provided and suitable waterproof shoes (wellies/ boots) are worn on wet days. 
• Please leave toys at home, we have lots of lovely resources and activities in school to play with.

Health and Wellbeing

In PE, we have been practising our listening skills and team-work skills by playing games like; don’t wake the sleeping bear and parachute games.

We have used a range of picture books to explore our own diversity and uniqueness, building on the idea that our class is a family and so we must be kind and accepting of one another. 

We have explored our own emotions using the colour monster book and have been practising talking about this using our emotions check in station. 

Numeracy

We have been practicing counting forwards and backwards, identifying numerals and counting two collections of objects.

We have been using different voices such as, robot, mouse, tiger and singing voice to make counting more fun.

Literacy

We have been carrying out assessments using the common words from the Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) books.  Reading books will be issued very soon! 

We have been revising tricky words from Primary 1 and enjoyed taking part in a tricky word scavenger hunt in the playground.

We have been building some words using the digraphs; sh, ch, oo and ee.

Have a lovely weekend 😊