Please continue to send in your clean recycling. Many thanks

Our STEM area is a core part of our play curriculum in school. The end product may not look like much, but it is the process that matters. ‘Junk’ modelling helps to develop their imagination and creative abilities while challenging them to explore, investigate and problem solve as they bring their ideas to life.

Children can work on their own or co-operate with others, learning to negociate and share ideas. When they create something new it can give their confidence and self-esteem a big boost. They can also consider how their plans have worked out as they think about what they might have done differently or how they might improve their model.

With these materials they practice complex skills from fine and gross locomotor skills to higher order executive functioning; higher order thinking skills such as sequencing, hypothesis testing, divergent problem solving, analysis and evaluation.

If they don’t take their model home at the end of the day it doesn’t matter – the learning has already happened. If it does come home, please value the process your child has gone through more than the product itself. Thank you.

A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.

Our learning this week

Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.

Literacy focus

We have focused on two letter shapes/sounds this week p, and s . As you support your child with learning their letters at home please always pronounce the pure sound of the letter ( e.g. S = sssssss and not suh or the letter name ‘ess’ ). This is very important as we begin to blend letters together to make words.

Some words to make/read

sat tap pat at as (past)

Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.

Building a word. Using plastic letters or letters written on small pieces of card or paper an adult says a three letter CVC word ( consonant, vowel, consonant) and the child chooses the correct sounds to make the word.

Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.

Our handwriting pattern this week was zig zag lines, with pointy corners showing control as our pencil changes direction.

Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our drawing prompt was ‘I change my shoes ‘

Maths and numeracy focus

Other areas of the curriculum

We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.

In PE we practised following instructions, taking turns and using different ways of travelling, We have been learning how to warm up our muscles and enjoy choosing different exercises to demonstrate to the class. Skipping and hopping continues to prove quite tricky for a few of the children, so please practice this at home. We also enjoyed some games such as ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Messy Bedroom’

PE is tiring !

We have shared all memory boxes that have been brought in so far.

Outdoor play is important for our development. Proprioception is the sense that tells the body where it is in space, and it plays a big role in self-regulation, coordination, posture, body awareness, the ability to focus, and speech.

Looking ahead to next week

PE days as before.

Loose parts play on Thursday. The weather forecast doesn’t look great, but we will go out anyway unless the weather is exceptionally bad, so we would ask that the children come appropriately dressed for a good Scottish autumnal day.

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Revise all sounds learned so far and build/read the words listed above.

Practise counting forwards and backwards within 20 starting at different points…

e.g. Count from 3 and stop at 9

Count backwards from 12 and stop at 7

Extend the range of number to provide challenge where required.

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 8.9.23

Sep 8, 2023Sep 8, 2023 Staff..114

P2 Reflective Friday 08.09.23

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:

– P2D have a session of Loose Parts on Monday 11th. Please come dressed for the weather!

– As part of our topic on houses and homes both P2 classes are going for a trip around the local area on Thursday 14th. We will be going out even if it is a bit drizzly so again, 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.

INSERT PHOTO OF 8 10 frame

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?

-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 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.

We have continued to work on our football skills. 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.

Science

We have explored sinking and floating after showing an interest while doing loose parts.

French

We have learned to count up to ten forwards and backwards.

Loose Parts

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

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Mrs de Bonrostro

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

08.09.23 P2MD Blog

Sep 8, 2023Sep 5, 2023 Staff..226

Dear Parents,

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

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

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.

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

ICT

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

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

P1 Koalas Reflective Friday 8.9.23

Sep 8, 2023Sep 8, 2023 Staff..469

Hello everyone.

This is what we have been learning this week:

LITERACY

We have been focussing on the sounds n and p. In small groups we were thinking about words beginning with these sounds, playing games, and identifying the letters which make these sounds. Some of us were learning how to ‘build’ and ‘blend’ three letter words with the sounds we know. We all practised writing n and p, learning the correct formation of the letters.

NUMERACY

We began learning in small groups and were focussing on saying number sequences up to 30 starting at different numbers, identifying numerals, and counting collections of items.

We finished our focus on different ways of travelling and began learning how to throw and catch an object. We practised using our eyes to track an object, having our hands ready to catch and throwing directly to a partner.

MUSIC

We were learning to use our voices to sing and clapping our hands and parts of our bodies in time to the music.

DRAMA

Our drama was based on the story of ‘Bonting’ and we were using movement and facial expressions to re-tell part of the story.

MEMORY BOXES

We have loved listening to the children share their memory boxes and it has been an excellent opportunity for everyone else to practise being a good audience. The children have spoken about the content of their boxes in a confident and articulate way, and we look forward to sharing the rest of the boxes in the weeks ahead.

Some examples of learning taking place this week:

LOOSE PARTS

Our next Loose Parts learning will take place on Thursday 14.9.23, pleases make sure your child is dressed in clothing suitable for wet weather: waterproofs, wellies, rain jackets etc.

We hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Buckstone Primary School

Buckstone Early Years Learning & Childcare Setting 01/09/23

Sep 2, 2023 ce3526714

010923 Download

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

P1 Koalas Reflective Friday 1.9.23

Sep 1, 2023Sep 1, 2023 Staff..469

Hello everyone,

We have had another good week in school, the children are learning each other’s names and building friendships.

LITERACY

We have been focussing on the sounds a and t. In small groups we were thinking about words beginning with these sounds, playing games, and identifying the letters which make these sounds. Some of us were learning how to ‘build’ and ‘blend’ three letter words with the sounds we know. We all practised writing a and t, learning the correct formation of the letters. Please see the letter your child has brought home today in their purple folder for guidance on how to support your child at home.

This week we were drawing a picture of ourselves reaching for something. We spoke about what we might be reaching for and Mrs Bailey wrote our story.

NUMERACY

We have continued speaking to individual children to assess their knowledge of number so that we can start their learning at the correct level for them. Numeracy groups will begin next week.

We had PE outside in our playground and in the new hall. The children were learning to share the space and listen to instructions in order to stay safe during PE. We continued to practise different ways of travelling and the children had the opportunity to work with a partner.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays please send your child dressed for PE.

LOOSE PARTS PLAY

We had our first session of loose parts this week and were very lucky to have a warm sunny day. The children were learning to put out the equipment safely , share resources and investigate the loose part materials. Primary One worked together as a stage so the children were able to get to know the pupils in the Panda class.

Some examples of learning taking place this week:

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2MD Blog 01.09.23

Sep 1, 2023 Staff..226

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

P1 Pandas

P1p reflective Friday 1.9.23

Sep 1, 2023 Staff...685

Thank you for the donations of notebooks and fancy pens. This week’s special request is old ( clean) socks ! We would love each child to bring an old sock on Monday – it can have holes, be child or adult sized.

Much appreciated.

Thanks also in anticipation of your continued donations of resources to support learning, in our STEM area ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)

A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.

Our learning this week

Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.

Literacy focus

We have focused on two letter shapes/sounds this week t, and a . As you support your child with learning their letters at home please always pronounce the pure sound of the letter ( e.g. S = sssssss and not suh or the letter name ‘ess’ ). This is very important as we begin to blend letters together to make words.

Some children are already familiar with these letter sounds ( and more) and have already begun to build and blend words in class. These are skills to practise at home whenever you can.

Blending a word . Adult writes or uses letters to make a CVC word and the child should say the pure sounds of each letter then blend them together to read the word.

Our handwriting pattern this week was circles, starting from the top and then drawing in an anticlockwise direction

Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. We are learning to This week our drawing prompt was ‘I am reaching ‘

Maths and numeracy focus

We have been doing our numeracy baseline assessments. Some skills we assess include numeral recognition; counting forwards and backwards; counting a collection of items; establishing a collection of a given amount; showing an amount on our fingers.

Other areas of the curriculum

Our loose parts play session was successful, providing lots of opportunities for a wide range of skills development. Please refer back to the email sent on Tuesday if you would like to learn more about the opportunities provided by loose parts learning.

We have enjoyed playing some singing games and rhymes with Mrs Cross, developing our skill in keeping a steady beat and also exploring different ways in which we can use our voices.

We continue to share memory boxes, developing our talking and listening- it may take a few days to get through them all .

Looking ahead to next week

PE days as before.

We will share more memory boxes.

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Please see the letter in purple folders today with ideas of how you can support your child with literacy learning at home.

Continue to develop independence with coats, zips, turning jumpers and cardigans the right way round,, and shoe changing.

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 1.09.23

Sep 1, 2023Sep 1, 2023 Staff..114

P2D Reflective Friday 1.09.23

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 this in class)on Thursday 14^th September( afternoon). 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 if you haven’t returned your child’s Kic Form do it as soon as possible as your child requires this to be able to go on the walk to the local area, thank you.
Please ensure that all your child’s items are labelled.
Please bring empty carboard boxes (not too big please!) for junk modelling in our STEM area. We are planning to build houses.
If you have any questions or worries about your child please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would really appreciate if this could be arranged at the end of the day.
As you might know I have the Leadership role for the Pupil Equity Fund in the school and to be able to carry on this work there are days that I will not be teaching in class. I will be posting in advance those dates: Next date is Wednesday 6^th September. Please note that if you need to contact me for any reason on those days I will be in school.

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, 30,10, starting from any number in the sequence.; could be forwards and backwards, starting a different points from 100, 30 or 10. We also have 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 reversing numbers. This is normal at this age however it is helpful to remind the children about to do right number formation.

Homel learning ideas:

It would be fantastic if you give your child two numbers between 0 to 10 (30, 100) 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 concepts before and after therefore it would be helpful to emphasize this at home with routines: you put your socks 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. We have worked on 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

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 /Art

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. We drew pictures of the front door of the school. Look how talented we are!

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.

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 an specific game. We are learning to share the Ipads using a timer so it is fair for all.

French

We have learned how to count to 10 in French. We can now say Bienvenue and Bonjour.

Independent Learning

Most of the photos below have been taken by the children. When the children are leading their learning and they want to record their achievements/findings they take photos of it so it can be shared with the class later.