Category: Primary 2

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 02.06.23

Staff..226

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope that you have had a good week and enjoyed the lovely sunshine we have had!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Pupils will begin their oral presentations next week. We are aiming to do a couple each day. Please send in any pictures / props on Monday and we will keep them in the classroom until they have used them for their talk.

Here is a summary of our learning.

Literacy

We have been learning to add -ed to verbs to change them into the past tense. For example, walk becomes walked and climb becomes climbed.

Here is a short video clip we used in class.
Nessy Reading Strategy | Adding ‘-ed’ | Past Tense Verbs | Learn to Read – YouTube

In writing we wrote a setting description. We have been trying to include interesting describing words (adjectives).

In grammar we have been learning about nouns and verbs. We also looked at examples of lists and wrote our own lists of nouns.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: knew, cold, piece and told.

We have continued to work on spelling our tricky words.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Can your child change these verbs into the past tense by adding -ed?
talk, play, jump, open.
• Can your child write a shopping list or a list of items they need for an activity? Remember to include a title and bullet points!
• Please continue to practise the spelling of tricky words at home. Your child should know which block they are working on.

Maths and Numeracy

We have focussed on counting backwards mainly within the range of 100-0. But for some, we have been counting backwards with 3-digit numbers. We are becoming more confident at crossing the decades, e.g. 43,42,41,40,39. We have linked this skill to subtraction.

We have also been learning to use every day objects (e.g. cups) to estimate capacity. We have also looked at measuring jugs and cylinders and drawn attention to the scales on the side.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Roll 2 dice to generate a 2 digit number (or 3 digit if your child is working with these numbers). Count backwards from that number in 1s until you cross a decade. Try to do this activity several times.
• First, find a cup, a bowl and a jar. Collect lots of small, regular items, e.g. the same size of lego pieces, small building bricks, marbles etc. Begin by making an estimate of how many you think will fill the cup/bowl/jar, then fill it to the top to see how close your estimate was.
• Ask your child to complete one set of subtraction sums below.

Mild
• 12-4
• 8-2
• 10-3
• 5-1

Spicy
• 24-5
• 32-3
• 25-3
• 33-4

Hot
• 102-4
• 95-8
• 35-12
• 85-21

Other areas of the curriculum:
• We enjoyed learning about Mozart and listening to a live performance from two musicians playing the cello and the violin.
• We had another visit from Youth Music Initiative and enjoyed singing some new songs.
• In PE we have enjoyed team games and also learning to throw the javelins.
• Our butterflies have started to emerge from their chrysalides which has been very exciting to observe!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs McFarlane

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 2.06.23

Staff..114

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope that you have had a good week and enjoyed the lovely sunshine we have had!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please check the weather forecast everyday. If is to be sunny, please send in a hat to wear and apply suncream. If your child brings in their own suncream we will remind them to apply it before going out.

Pupils will begin their oral presentations next week. We are aiming to do a couple each day. Please send in any pictures / props and we will keep them in the classroom until they have used them for their talk.

Here is a summary of our learning.

Literacy

We have been learning to add -ed to verbs to change them into the past tense. For example, walk becomes walked and climb becomes climbed.  

Here is a short video clip we used in class.  

Nessy Reading Strategy | Adding ‘-ed’ | Past Tense Verbs | Learn to Read – YouTube

In writing we wrote a setting description. We have been trying to include interesting describing words (adjectives).  

In grammar we have been learning about nouns and verbs.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: knew, cold, piece and told.

We have continued to work on spelling our tricky words.  

Ideas for learning at home:

•     Can your child change these verbs into the past tense by adding -ed?

talk, play, jump, open.

•     Can your child write a shopping list or a list of items they need for an activity? Remember to include a title and bullet points!

•     Please continue to practise the spelling of tricky words at home. Your child should know which block they are working on.  

Maths and Numeracy

We have focussed on subtraction skills within the range of 10, 20 and 100. Some children have started to practice subtraction with regrouping (exchange/carrying over). Others have continued to work subtraction without regrouping and continued to work on counting backwards and using a number line to support subtraction.

We have also been learning to use every day objects (e.g. cups) to estimate capacity. We have also looked at measuring jugs and cylinders and drawn attention to the scales on the side.

Ideas for learning at home:

•     Roll 2 dice to generate a 2 digit number (or 3 digit if your child is working with these numbers). Count backwards from that number until you cross a decade. Try to do this activity several times.

•     First, find a cup, a bowl and a jar. Collect lots of small, regular items, e.g. the same size of lego pieces, small building bricks, marbles etc. Begin by making an estimate of how many you think will fill the cup/bowl/jar, then fill it to the top to see how close your estimate was.  

•     Ask your child to complete one set of subtraction sums below.

Mild

•     12-4

•     8-2

•     10-3

•     5-1

Spicy

•     24-5

•     32-3

•     25-3

•     33-4

Hot

•     102-4

•     95-8

•     35-12

•     85-21

Other areas of the curriculum:

•     We enjoyed learning about Mozart and listening to a live performance from two of our parents who are musicians and play for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra playing the cello and the violin. The children really enjoyed this. Thank you very much to them!

•     We had another visit from Youth Music Initiative and enjoyed singing some new songs.  

•     In PE we have enjoyed team games and also learning to throw the javelins.  

•     We are still waiting for our butterflies to emerge but we have been able to observe the ones from P2MN. Their ones have started to emerge from their chrysalides which has been very exciting to observe!  

Have a great weekend,

Mrs  de Bonrostro

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 26.05.23

Staff..114

P2 Reflective Friday 26.05.23

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week.

This is a summary of our learning:

Maths

We have explored measurement related to height and length. We have used non-standard and standard units to measure; we have learned how to use a ruler and measure in centimetres.

We have practiced subtraction skills.

You can practice subtraction at home using this website:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

Literacy

At writing we have continued our focus on Poetry. We have written a diamante poem: cat to dog. We are learning what is an adjective (describing word), a verb (doing word) and a name.

At phonics we have been learning to add -ing to words that end with an e. If a word ends in ‘e’, drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘-ing’: fake / faking, slide/ sliding, etc. The first vowel is always long (says its name) because there is only 1 consonant to separate the vowels. There is only 1 guard!

On handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: complete, family, area and question. Please continue to practice at home the tricky words (children are aware in which block they are working at the moment).  Every week we mix the classes and we have groups based on the block of tricky words the children are working on; this has been very motivating for the children as they work hard to move up a block. Practicing at home makes a huge difference!

Other areas

We had Loose Parts on Tuesday afternoon. It is great to see how the children are building more complex structures and  how the work as a team.

Science: we have learned about our senses; We have explored my senses and discussed their reliability and limitations in responding to the environment. We have discuss how we can use our senses to detect information and explained how they help to keep people safe.

RSHP: We have been learning about Privacy and the PANTS rule.

As you know on Sunday I will be taking part on the Edinburgh Marathon Relay with Mrs Imrie, Miss Dowds, Mrs Tweedie, Mr Campbell, Ms Hastie and Miss Davidson. I will be running the first leg for the Stones team: The Royal Leg! Thank you to all of you for your support!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bucksandstones

We are proud of our learning!

We hope you have a nice weekend and enjoy the Summer Fair !

Mrs de Bonrostro

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 26.05.23

Staff..226

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week.

Here is a summary of our learning:

Maths

We have explored measurement related to height and length. We have used non-standard and standard units to measure; we have learned how to use a ruler and measure in centimetres.

We have practised subtraction skills.

You can practice subtraction at home using this website:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

Literacy

In writing we have continued our focus on Poetry. We have written a diamante poem: cat to dog. We are learning what is an adjective (describing word), a verb (doing word) and a name.

In phonics we have been learning to add -ing to words that end with an e. If a word ends in ‘e’, drop the ‘e’ when adding ‘-ing’: fake / faking, slide/ sliding, etc. The first vowel is always long (says its name) because there is only 1 consonant to separate the vowels. There is only 1 guard!

In handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

We have been learning to read these tricky words: complete, family, area and question. Please continue to practice at home the tricky words (children are aware in which block they are working at the moment).  Every week we mix the classes and we have groups based on the block of tricky words the children are working on; this has been very motivating for the children as they work hard to move up a block. Practising at home makes a huge difference!

Other areas

We had Loose Parts on Tuesday afternoon. It is great to see how the children are building more complex structures and  how they work as a team.

Science: we have learned about our senses; We have explored the senses and discussed their reliability and limitations in responding to the environment. We have discussed how we can use our senses to detect information and explained how they help to keep people safe.

RSHP: We have been learning about Privacy and the PANTS rule.

We hope you have a nice weekend and enjoy the Summer Fair !

Mrs McFarlane

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 19.05.23

Staff..226

Blog Post 19.05.23 

Dear Parents/Carers, 

We hope that you have had a good week.  

Important Information: 

  • We have a session of loose parts  on Tuesday 23rd May. 
  • Please return Learning Stories to school ASAP. 

Here is a summary of our learning. 

Literacy

  • We have been working on our reading books in class. These were sent home yesterday. 
  • Our tricky words this week were: music, mountain, enough and almost. We have been learning to read these words.  
  • We have continued to work on our individual block of spelling words. 
  • In grammar we have been learning to use connectives. 
  • In writing we wrote a poem based on the work we have been doing over the last few weeks in our poetry lessons. 
  • We finished up our phonics block on the suffix -ing. Here are some photos which explain the rules we have been teaching the pupils. 

Learning at home 

Ask your child if they can add the suffix -ing to these root words.  

  1. crawl 
  2. float   
  3. win 
  4. boil 
  5. end 
  6. rub 

Can they explain the spelling rule which helped them? 

Please continue to read reading books at home and ask questions to check for understanding. 

Also, please remember that in June, the pupils in P2 will be asked to give a short talk on a subject of their choice.  This will begin Monday 5th June. Information on this is provided below. 

Pupils can choose to talk about a hobby/interest, how they look after their pet, a favourite wild animal, favourite film etc. 

The focus is on selecting ideas and relevant information, organising these into a logical sequence and using words which will interest the audience. 

Please see guidance below on how best to prepare for this. 

1. Choose a topic. 

2. Think about the ‘W’ questions: Who (who is this about?) What (What do they do?) Why (Why is it interesting?) Where? When? 

3. You may wish to make cards for each heading with a picture and/or key words. Don’t write whole sentences to read out loud. 

4. Once the information is organised, practise delivering the talk to family at home. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Maths 

  • We have been revising addition strategies.  
  • We have been learning to estimate and weigh items using non-standard units.

Learning at home 

  • There is an addition SumDog challenge which goes live tonight. 
  • Choose an object e.g. a pen. Find 3 things that are heavier and 3 things that are lighter. 
  • Choose 5 items from around the house and put them in order from (estimated) heaviest to lightest. 
  • Draw attention to the weight of different items when you are cooking / baking. 

Other areas of the curriculum 

  • As part of our equalities focus for this term, we had an interesting and informative talk on racism.  
  • As part of the RSHP programme we have been talking about being confident in our bodies. We read a poem called ‘I’m glad I’m me’ and discussed the importance of being positive about your body and also the fact that your body is your body (body autonomy).

Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 19.05.23

Staff..114

Dear Parents/Carers, 

We hope that you have had a good week.  

Important Information: 

  • We have a session of loose parts  on Tuesday 23rd May. 
  • Please return Learning Stories to school ASAP. 

Here is a summary of our learning. 

Literacy 

  • We have been working on our reading books in class. These were sent home yesterday. 
  • Our tricky words this week were: music, mountain, enough and almost. We have been learning to read these words.  
  • We have continued to work on our individual block of spelling words. Please continue to practice these at home.
  • In grammar we have been learning to use connectives. 
  • In writing we wrote a poem based on the work we have been doing over the last few weeks in our poetry lessons. 
  • We finished up our phonics block on the suffix -ing. Here are some photos which explain the rules we have been teaching the pupils. 

Learning at home 

  • Ask your child if they can add the suffix -ing to these root words.  
  1. crawl 
  2. float   
  3. win 
  4. boil 
  5. end 
  6. rub 

    Can they explain the spelling rule which helped them? 
  • Please continue to read reading books at home and ask questions to check for understanding. 
  • Also, please remember that in June, the pupils in P2 will be asked to give a short talk on a subject of their choice.  This will begin Monday 5th June. Information on this is provided below. 

Pupils can choose to talk about a hobby/interest, how they look after their pet, a favourite wild animal, favourite film etc. 

The focus is on selecting ideas and relevant information, organising these into a logical sequence and using words which will interest the audience. 

Please see guidance below on how best to prepare for this. 

1. Choose a topic. 

2. Think about the ‘W’ questions: Who (who is this about?) What (What do they do?) Why (Why is it interesting?) Where? When? 

3. You may wish to make cards for each heading with a picture and/or key words. Don’t write whole sentences to read out loud. 

4. Once the information is organised, practise delivering the talk to family at home. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Maths 

  • We have been revising addition strategies.  
  • We have been learning to estimate and weigh items using non-standard units.

Learning at home 

  • There is an addition SumDog challenge which goes live tonight. 
  • Choose an object e.g. a pen. Find 3 things that are heavier and 3 things that are lighter. 
  • Choose 5 items from around the house and put them in order from (estimated) heaviest to lightest. 
  • Draw attention to the weight of different items when you are cooking / baking.  


Other areas of the curriculum 

  • As part of our equalities focus for this term, we had an interesting and informative talk on racism.  
  • As part of the RSHP programme we have been talking about being confident in our bodies. We read a poem called ‘I’m glad I’m me’ and discussed the importance of being positive about your body and also the fact that your body is your body (body autonomy). 
  • French: we have revised  numbers to 10 and worked on greetings: Bonjour, Ça va, Comment tu t’appelles? etc.

We hope you have a lovely long weekend!

Mrs de Bonrostro

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 12.05.23

Staff..226

Here are some photos from Health Week.

P2 Reflective Friday 12.05.23

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week. We have had an amazing one!

Health week has been brilliant and Sports Day has been our highlight!

This is a summary of our learning.

Other areas of the curriculum

What a great time we had at Sports Day! Thank you to those of you who were able to come and support your child.

On Tuesday we had an athletics session with Mr Segall ( our Active Schools coordinator). This focused on sprinting technique and the difference on our bodies when running for endurance.

On Thursday we had a Lacrosse session with Zoe Dickson and a dance session with Simon says Dance. The children had a fantastic time. We also enjoyed a brilliant session of Loose Parts in the sunshine!

On Friday we had a Multisport session.

We also have done baking.

Science: we have learned about inheritance by comparing dog breeds and generations of dogs. We are beginning to understand how characteristics are inherited. We had the opportunity to look at our teachers’ dogs and think about their characteristics.

RSHP: We have been learning about our body and to identify the correct words for body parts.

Maths

We have started learning about the concept of area and how to estimate it by using squares. We have noticed that different shapes can have the same area.

Literacy

We have continued our focus on Poetry. Thinking about what we feel and using different words (adjectives) to describe them.

In phonics we have been learning that when adding the suffix -ing  to words containing short vowel followed by just one consonant we need to double the consonant and add -ing: run – running, shop- shopping, cut-cutting, etc.

We liked listening to this song:

Double the Last Consonant Spelling Rule Song – YouTube

In handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

As you can see it has been a full-on week with lots of different experiences!! Some photos are added to the end of this blog.

Have a nice weekend!

Mrs McFarlane

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 12.05.23

Staff..114

P2 Reflective Friday 12.05.23

Dear Parents/Carers,

We hope you had a nice week. We had an amazing one!

Health week has been brilliant and Sports Day has been our highlight!

This is a summary of our learning:

Other areas

What a great time we had at Sports Day! Thank you to those who were able to come and support your child.

On Tuesday we had an athletics session with Mr Segall ( our Active Schools coordinator) focused on sprinting technique and the difference on our bodies when running for endurance.

On Thursday we had a Lacrosse with Zoe Dickson and a dance session with Simon says Dance. The children had a fantastic time.

We had loose parts on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday we had a Multisport session.

We also have done baking with Mrs Shaw. Delicious scones!

Science: we have learned about Inheritance; by comparing dog breeds and generations of generations of dogs. We are beginning to understand how characteristics are inherited. We had the opportunity to look at our teachers’ dogs and think about their characteristics.

RSHP: We have been learning about our body and to identify the correct words for body.

Art: We are learning about Claude Monet. We have been looking at his paintings and used watercolours to recreate them.

Maths

We have started learning about the concept of area and how to estimate it by using squares. We have noticed that different shapes can have the same area.

Literacy

We have continued our focus on Poetry. Thinking on what we feel and using different words (adjectives) to describe them.

At phonics we have been learning that when adding the suffix -ing  to words containing short vowel followed by just one consonant we need to double the consonant and add -ing: run – running, shop- shopping, cut-cutting, etc.

We liked listening to this song:

Double the Last Consonant Spelling Rule Song – YouTube

On handwriting we have continued to work on writing capital letters and cursive lower-case letters.

As you can see it has been a full-on week with lots of different experiences.

We hope you have a nice weekend!

Mrs de Bonrostro

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 05.05.23

Staff..226

Dear Parents/Carers,

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• Next week is Health Week so pupils are invited to wear PE kit all week.
• Sports Day will be held on Wednesday at the Waterboard Field from 10:30-12:00.
• We have a session of Loose Parts on Thursday afternoon. Please come dressed for the weather!
• No reading books were sent home yesterday, and no books will be sent home at the end of Health week. In class we are reading poetry books but there are not enough copies to send home.
• Learning Stories were sent home today. Once you have read the newsletter and term 3 targets please send them back in.

We are also looking for donations of picture frames for an art activity. If you have an old picture frame that you no longer need, we would be very grateful if you were able to donate it. Thank you in advance!

We have had a quick but very busy week! Here is a summary of our learning. I have also added photos from our Generation Science workshop last week to the very end of this blog.

Literacy

We have continued to read and spell words using the suffix -ing. For example: feel – feeling, wait – waiting.

We have been learning to read these tricky words:


• through
• always
• country
• young
• example


We have continued to work on our own list of common words for spelling.

We have started a unit of work on poetry. Pupils are learning to read, listen to, join in with and respond to poetry that captures sensory experiences. We have been outside to experience the weather then made a list of words and phrases to describe what we could see, hear, feel, taste and smell. We enjoyed Wind Ways by Judith Nicholls and When The Wind Blows by John Foster.

Ideas for learning at home:

Keep working on the individual list of tricky words for spelling.

Write the five tricky words for reading (above) on small pieces of paper. Hide them behind an object then slowly reveal the words one letter at a time. How quickly can your child read the word?

Here is a link to an online lesson with videos and activities which will explain more about poems and to try to learn and perform one.

Remembering and performing a poem – BBC Bitesize

Maths

We have been learning to estimate the area of a shape by counting squares. We have also been learning that different shapes can have the same area (conservation of area).

We have been rounding off our work on reading clocks. We have been reading digital o’clock and half past times. We have also been using quarter past / to on analogue clocks.

Ideas for learning at home:
• Please continue to practise number formation and make sure that numbers are not reversed.
• Talk about the different times of day. For example – what time does the alarm go off in the morning? Can your child write this as a digital time?
• There is a Sum Dog challenge to revise some of the concepts covered this week. It goes live tonight!

Other areas of the curriculum

• We enjoyed an outdoor learning session which linked to our unit of work on poetry.
• We have been preparing for Sports Day as part of our PE lessons.
• As part of RSHP and Health and Wellbeing we are learning about where living things come from and about how they grow, develop and are nurtured. As part of this we are going to see first-hand how the butterfly life cycle works. We have some class caterpillars which we will look after until they turn into butterflies. We will then set them free outdoors!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs McFarlane

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

PD2 Reflective Friday 5.05.23

Staff..114

Dear Parents/Carers,

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

•     Next week is Health Week so pupils are invited to wear PE kit all week.  

•     Sports Day will be held on Wednesday at the Waterboard Field from 10:30-12:00.  

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

•     No reading books were sent home yesterday, and no books will be sent home at the end of Health week. In class we are reading poetry books but there are not enough copies to send home.  

•     Learning Stories were sent home today. Once you have read the newsletter and term 3 targets please send them back in.  

We have had a quick but very busy week! Here is a summary of our learning.

Literacy

We have continued to read and spell words using the suffix -ing. For example: feel – feeling, wait – waiting.

We have been learning to read these tricky words:

•     through

•     always  

•     country

•     young

•     example

We have continued to work on our own list of common words for spelling.

We have started a unit of work on poetry. Pupils are learning to read, listen to, join in with and respond to poetry that captures sensory experiences. We have been outside to experience the weather then made a list of words and phrases to describe what we could see, hear, feel, taste and smell. We enjoyed Wind Ways by Judith Nicholls and When The Wind Blows by John Foster.

Ideas for learning at home:

Keep working on the individual list of tricky words for spelling.

Write the five tricky words for reading (above) on small pieces of paper. Hide them behind an object then slowly reveal the words one letter at a time. How quickly can your child read the word?

Here is a link to an online lesson with videos and activities which will explain more about poems and to try to learn and perform one.  

Remembering and performing a poem – BBC Bitesize

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjhhvcw/articles/zxdhm39

Maths

We have been rounding off our work on reading clocks. We have been reading digital o’clock and half past times. We have also been using quarter past / to on analogue clocks.  

Ideas for learning at home:

•     Please continue to practise number formation and make sure that numbers are not reversed.

•     Talk about the different times of day. For example – what time does the alarm go off in the morning? Can your child write this as a digital time?  

•     There is a Sum Dog challenge to revise some of the concepts covered this week. It goes live tonight!

Other areas of the curriculum

•     We enjoyed an outdoor learning session which linked to our unit of work on poetry.  

•     We have been preparing for Sports Day as part of our PE lessons.

•     As part of RSHP and Health and Wellbeing we are learning about where living things come from and about how they grow, develop and are nurtured. As part of this we are going to see first-hand how the butterfly life cycle works. We have some class caterpillars which we will look after until they turn into butterflies. We will then set them free outdoors!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs  de Bonrostro