Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

P1M Reflective Friday 28.4.23

Staff..469

Hello everyone,

MATHS AND NUMERACY

This week we have been doing the Scottish National Standardised Assessments in literacy and numeracy. Children are presented with a range of questions, often with illustrations or images. The assessments are adaptive and establish the learner’s ability without them having to face lots of questions that are too easy or too difficult. They are completed on a one to one basis using an iPad and assessment questions change based on how well the learner is doing.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Please continue to  talk to your child about the days of the week and practise saying them in the correct sequence. Have a look around your home for examples of digital and analogue clocks and discuss before, after, o’clock, hour hand and minute hand.

LITERACY

We continued to learn about consonants that go together  to make a particular sound and this week our focus was on gr and tr. Our tricky words were into and as.

This week’s dictation practised the sounds we have been learning this week.

We use Pink for Think and Green for Great to reflect on our learning.

Our writing this week was based on our days of the week learning- ‘ On Tuesday I go to …………………….’

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Please cut out the flashcards your child has brought home today and use them to help your child to recognise the sounds and build words.

Please continue to practise the words on the reading vocabulary card,  a few words at a time and share the reading book your child has brought home.

PE

This week we were practising some activities for our Sports Day on the 10th of May. We were running relay races, throwing bean bags in hoops, and balancing balls on spoons.

GENERATION SCIENCE

We all enjoyed learning about sound waves in the story of Ella’s Wobble and loved making the shakers and squawkers to accompany the story.

LOOSE PARTS

 The next day for Loose Parts is  Wednesday 3 May.

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 21.04.23

Staff..226

Dear Parents/Carers, 

It has been lovely having everyone back after the Easter break.  

Important Information 

Loose Parts 

P2 have a session of loose parts on Monday 24th April. Please send children to school in appropriate clothing. 

P2 Listening and Talking Term 3  

In June, the pupils in P2 will be asked to give a short talk on a subject of their choice. We are making you aware of this now so that you can support your child over the next few weeks to prepare for this.  

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. 
  1. Think about the ‘W’ questions: Who (who is this about?) What (What do they do?) Why (Why is it interesting?) Where? When? 
  1. 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. 
  1. Once the information is organised, practise delivering the talk to family at home. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this. 

Here is a summary of our learning this week. 

Literacy 

  • This unit of Literacy Rich introduces the spelling rules required for adding the suffix ing to a root word. For example sing – singing, run – running. This week we have introduced this at a simple level. For words containing a short vowel sound followed by more than one consonant, just add ing. For example park becomes parking, turn becomes turning.  
  • We have been learning to read the following common words: your, called, sentence, follow, small. 
  • We have continued to work on our individual blocks of common words for spelling.  
  • In writing we retold the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Each week we are getting better at writing a beginning, middle and end.  

Ideas for learning at home 

  • Please work on spelling the tricky words sent home at parent consultations. 
  • Reading books were sent home yesterday. Please continue to practise reading at home. 
  • Begin to prepare the talk on a subject of your choice. 

Maths 

  • We have revisited number formation and are trying very hard not to reverse numbers. 
  • We have been recognising and naming 2 digit numbers (and for some pupils 3 digit numbers). 
  • We have been sequencing numbers. 
  • We have been learning to read o’clock and half past times on analogue clocks.  

Ideas for learning at home 

  • Practise number formation and make sure that numbers are not reversed.  
  • Draw attention to clocks at home. Reinforce the fact that the minute hand is the long hand and when it is pointing to the 12 it is an o’clock time, and when it is pointing to the 6 it is a half past time. Point out that the small hour hand lies exactly on the number for o’clock but moves past the number for half past.  
  • You may wish to use this teaching clock if you only have digital clocks at home. Teaching Clock (topmarks.co.uk) 
  • Roll a dice twice / three times to generate 2 digit / 3 digit numbers. Can your child write the digits down and name the number? Do this 5 times and ask your child to put the numbers in order from smallest to largest. Discuss the value of each digit.  

Other curricular areas 

  • In PE we have started to prepare for Sports Day. 
  • We have been learning about all the things we need to do to look after plants. We are learning about how every living thing needs to be cared for and nurtured so that they grow and flourish. We planted broad bean seeds and hope that they will start to grow very soon. 
  • In Science, we have been learning about some of the symptoms of common diseases. We have also been learning about ways in which some diseases can be prevented through good hygiene and vaccination.  

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs McFarlane

Buckstone Primary School

P1B Reflective Friday 21.4.23

fionacroal

Good afternoon. It was great to see everybody after the holidays!

Literacy

This week, we continued with our focus on final consonant blends, looking at words ending with ‘ng’ and ‘nk’. We practised writing words that end with those sounds and tried some of them for our dictation. We also had a visit to the mobile library and each chose a book to keep in school. We had fun trying to spot ‘ng’ and ‘nk’ words! We have another new reading book which we took home yesterday. We’ve been talking about punctuation that we come across in the book, such as exclamation marks and apostrophes.

This week, we also continued our Block 2 tricky words with ‘come and ‘some’. When you have time at home, please practise reading and writing all the tricky words we have covered so far.

Maths and numeracy

This week, we started our time topic. We talked about the seasons, particularly about signs of spriNG. We also focused on the days of the week, and practised answering questions such as “what day comes before Tuesday” etc. We then learned about to tell the time on an analogue clock for o’clock which we were all great at, so we then touched on half past times. We also talked about what time we would do things and sequencing the day, for example “Would you eat your lunch at 12 o’clock or 5 o’clock?”

Thumbs up for o’clock understanding!

Other Areas

This week for PE, we went outside on Monday to practise some races for Sports Day! We did running, team relays, egg and spoon and jumping. On Thursday, we worked on our ball skills. We did some throwing and catching with a partner, then practised throwing the bean bag into a target hoop. We had a great and sunny Loose Parts session on Thursday afternoon too! Today, we also talked about Eid and learned about what Muslim families to do celebrate the holiday.

To do at home

Numeracy: recognising the numbers 1-30, counting backwards from 20 or 30, writing the ‘teen’ numbers with the 1 first and remember it’s ‘teen’ not ‘ty’, counting on with our fingers, number bonds to 10

Maths: naming 3D objects, recognising coins, adding 1-10p coins together, left and right, telling the time on an analogue clock (o’clock and half past)

Literacy: being able to write our tricky words, recognising and writing the digraphs sh, ch, th and wh.

General: being able to take off jumpers, open snacks and zip up coats.

General Information

Keep all the junk coming in – it’s amazing how quickly we run out!

Please make sure your child has a change of clothes in school.

On Wednesday morning next week, there is the Tempest class photograph.

We are looking forward to a visit from Generation Science for a show on Wednesday too!

No loose parts next week.

Thank you for your continued support,

Miss Croal

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2D Reflective Friday 21.04.22

Staff..114

Dear Parents/Carers,

It has been lovely having everyone back after the Easter break.

Important Information

Loose Parts

P2 have a session of loose parts on Monday 24th April. Please send children to school in appropriate clothing.

P2 Listening and Talking Term 3

In June, the pupils in P2 will be asked to give a short talk on a subject of their choice. We are making you aware of this now so that you can support your child over the next few weeks to prepare for this.

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.

Here is a summary of our learning this week.

Literacy

  • This unit of Literacy Rich introduces the spelling rules required for adding the suffix ing to a root word. For example sing – singing, run – running. This week we have introduced this at a simple level. For words containing a short vowel sound followed by more than one consonant, just add ing. For example park becomes parking, turn becomes turning.
  • We have been learning to read the following common words: your, called, sentence, follow, small.
  • We have continued to work on our individual blocks of common words for spelling.
  • In writing we retold the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Each week we are getting better at writing a beginning, middle and end.

Ideas for learning at home

  • Please work on spelling the tricky words sent home at parent consultations.
  • Reading books were sent home yesterday. Please continue to practise reading at home.
  • Begin to prepare the talk on a subject of your choice.

Maths

  • We have revisited number formation and are trying very hard not to reverse numbers.
  • We have been recognising and naming 2 digit numbers (and for some pupils 3 digit numbers).
  • We have been sequencing numbers.
  • We have been learning to read o’clock, half past and quarter past times on analogue clocks.

Ideas for learning at home

  • Practise number formation and make sure that numbers are not reversed.
  • Draw attention to clocks at home. Reinforce the fact that the minute hand is the long hand and when it is pointing to the 12 it is an o’clock time, and when it is pointing to the 6 it is a half past time. Point out that the small hour hand lies exactly on the number for o’clock but moves past the number for half past.
  • You may wish to use this teaching clock if you only have digital clocks at home. Teaching Clock (topmarks.co.uk)
  • Roll a dice twice / three times to generate 2 digit / 3 digit numbers. Can your child write the digits down and name the number? Do this 5 times and ask your child to put the numbers in order from smallest to largest. Discuss the value of each digit.

Other curricular areas

  • In PE we have started to prepare for Sports Day.
  • We have been learning about all the things we need to do to look after plants. We are learning about how every living thing needs to be cared for and nurtured so that they grow and flourish. We planted broad bean seeds and hope that they will start to grow very soon.
  • In Science, we have been learning about the human skeleton: why we need it, facts about the skeleton and we are learning the names of some of our bones. We are loving this!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs de Bonrostro

Buckstone Primary School, P1 Koalas

P1M Reflective Friday 21.4.23

Staff..469

Hello everyone,

It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school and to hear all  about their holidays.

MATHS AND NUMERACY

This week we have been learning about time and trying to link daily routines and personal events to time sequences. We have been practising naming the days of the week in sequence and have started to talk about analogue and digital time.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Please talk to your child about the days of the week and practise saying them in the correct sequence. Have a look around your home for examples of digital and analogue clocks and discuss before, after, o’clock, hour hand and minute hand.

LITERACY

We continued to learn about consonants that go together at the end of words to make a particular sound and this week our focus was on ng and nk. Our tricky words were come and some.

This week’s dictation practised the sounds we have been learning this week.

We use Pink for Think and Green for Great to reflect on our learning.

We made the most of the lovely weather and had a walk round the woods in the playground looking for signs of spring. When we got back to the classroom, we wrote about what we had seen.

THINGS TO DO AT HOME

Please cut out the flashcards your child has brought home today and use them to help your child to recognise the sounds and build words.

Please continue to practise the words on the reading vocabulary card,  a few words at a time and share the reading book your child has brought home.

MUSIC

We learned NYCoS rhymes and rhythms and enjoyed keeping to a beat.

MOBILE LIBRARY

We had a  visit from the mobile library and really enjoyed selecting a book and sharing it with our classmates.

PE

This week we were working on bouncing and kicking a ball. We also practised some activities for our Sports Day on the 10th of May. Everyone found skipping challenging and that is a skill we will be practising further.

RME

We watched a short film about  Eid and talked about why it is a special time for Muslims.

LOOSE PARTS

We enjoyed playing with our friends across the stage at Loose Parts on Thursday and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The next day for Loose Parts is  Wednesday 3 May.

Remember P1 photos are on Wednesday 26th April.

We hope that you all have a lovely weekend.

(Any donations of boxes of tissues gratefully received!)

P1 Pandas

P1W reflective Friday 21. 4.23

Staff...685

If you have not yet done so this term, pease send a full change of clothes for your child. Thanks.

This week’s homework

  • Learn to read and spell the words some, come
  • Look around the house for different ways to tell the time. Cooker clocks, phones, watches, analogue wall clocks etc. Practice reading the time to the whole hour ( o’clock times)
  • Learn the order of the days of the week and be able to answer questions such as ‘ Which day comes after…… ?’


Independent learning

The children have been developing a wide range of skills through independent learning opportunities in class and outdoors..

Literacy.

This week we have introduced the final consonant blends ng and nk, and learned the tricky words some and come

Our writing prompt this week was “Bang went the…. ”

We continue to use core reading book resources in school as we begin to develop developing the children’s reading comprehension skills, exploring the cognitive strategies of activating, inferring, monitoring/clarifying, questioning, searching/selecting, summarizing, and visualising.

Maths and numeracy


We have been learning about time.

Key vocabulary included; the days of the week, tomorrow, yesterday, morning, afternoon, evening, clock face, hands, o’clock.

Some pupils still find it tricky to order the days of the week and to answer questions such as ‘which day comes after/before….etc’ Please help your child at home to reinforce this learning.

.


Looking ahead to next week

No loose parts next week.

Visit from Generation Science on Wednesday.

School photos on Wednesday

Other areas of the curriculum


The mobile Library came on Tuesday. We got to choose a book to keep in class for 6 weeks.

In PE we worked on our fitness and team work.

The sun was shining when we had loose parts play.

We learned about the celebration of Eid

We used ink to make some cherry blossom trees. Spring is definitely here.

A reminder to please 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.

P2D- Mrs DeBonrostro

P2 Reflective Friday 31.03.23

Staff..114

Dear Parents / Carers

We hope you had a lovely week.

The children took home yesterday their indoor shoes and the bag with the change of clothes. This is an opportunity for you to check if the items still fit your child. Please label all items (even the change of clothes) as we have some unclaimed items that aren’t labelled and the children don’t recognise them.

Here is a summary of our learning.

Maths

We have revisited a range of number skills covered this term and worked on 3D shape.

Home learning ideas

Here are some activities you could do at home to reinforce these skills.  

  • Remember you also have your SumDog log in details.
  • Practice sharing equally: give the same number of items (stones, pompons, etc.) to a number of people/ toys. E.g.: have 15 pompons and share it fairly/equally between three dinosaurs/ cars. With 8 pompons see how many groups of 2 pompons you can make.
  • Practice adding and subtracting within 10 / 20/100 (with out carrying unless your child has done this at school, you would have been told at parents evening). Make sure your child adds/subtracts first the units and then the tens.

Literacy

This week we had a special focus on comprehension skills, summarising a text and spelling.

The text that we have been working on is Goldilocks and the three bears. Our writing focus was doing a recount of this well-known story. We are working hard on using the past tense as well as making a beginning, middle and end structure. 

At handwriting we have practiced our spelling words in cursive.

This week we will be not send reading books sent home because next week will be the Easter holiday. 

Home learning ideas

At parent consultations we gave you a copy of the tricky words (spelling) that your child is working on in class. Please practise spelling these at home.  You could use pavement chalk, paints or simply a pencil and paper to do the Look, Cover, Write, Check method.   

Please continue to practice reading at home. If possible, read to your child this will help to increase their vocabulary and you will be able to model reading.

Your child could help you to write the shopping list, write letters/postcards to relatives, etc.

Other areas

PE

We have worked on team games with a focus on speed. We had our gymnastics session with a focus on landing, jumping and pencil rolls. We had an amazing time and we were able to give feedback to each other. It was great to see the children looking at each other and giving positive feedback and things to improve in a polite way.

Outdoors we have done some Easter activities we looked for hidden carrots ( a challenge from P3!) and we made nests using twigs.

We had a brilliant time meeting online P1/ 2 class from Sgoil Dhalabroig which is a primary school in South Uist. We asked questions to each other about life in an island and life in Edinburgh, they taught us how to count to five in Gaelic and we sang to each other. They were fifteen children in the class and we are nearly 60! It was a lovely experience for us all!

Home learning ideas

Enjoy your time with your children: go for walks, read stories, play board games, cook together, …have fun!

You may have seen members of staff and myself out running after school over the last few months! This is why:

The Bucks (Mr Campbell, Miss Davidson, Ms Hastie and Mrs Cullen) and The Stones (Mrs de Bonrostro, Ms Dowds, Mrs Tweedie and Mrs Imrie) are challenging themselves to run the Edinburgh Marathon Relay on Sunday 29 May in support of Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland.

We really appreciate all the support and encouragement the school community have given us whilst we are out running – this is really helping us to keep going!

If you’d like to find out more about our fundraising, please visit our JustGiving Page

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

Have a relaxing break!

Mrs de Bonrostro

P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2M Blog 31.03.23

Staff..226


Dear Parents / Carers


We hope you had a lovely week.


Important information about shoes and spare clothes- PLEASE READ!


• On Thursday we sent home all indoor shoes and changes of clothes.
• Please check that the shoes are still in good condition (Velcro still works etc) and that they fit your child.
• Please also check that the spare clothes bag has everything in it that is needed (underwear, socks, spare top and trousers) and that these items are named.
• When you return the spare clothes bag, please can you ensure that your child knows which is their bag and that it has their name written on it.
• If it is a carrier bag, could you please tie the handles as we have had a few come open and unnamed items fall out.
• All lost property was laid out at the start and end of the day on Friday, but we still have unclaimed items which we do not have space to store.

Thank you for your help with this.


Here is a summary of our learning.


Maths


We have revisited a range of number skills covered this term and worked on 3D shape.

Home learning ideas
Here are some activities you could do at home to reinforce these skills.

  • Remember you also have your SumDog log in details.
  • Practice sharing equally: give the same number of items (stones, pompons, etc.) to a number of people/ toys. E.g.: have 15 pompons and share it fairly/equally between three dinosaurs/ cars. With 8 pompons see how many groups of 2 pompons you can make.
  • Practice adding and subtracting within 10 / 20 / 100.

Literacy


This week we had a special focus on comprehension skills, summarising a text and spelling.
The text that we have been working on is Goldilocks and the three bears.

Our writing focus was doing a recount of this well-known story. We are working hard on using the past tense as well as making a beginning, middle and end structure.


In handwriting we practised our spelling words in cursive.

This week we will have not sent reading books home because next week will be the Easter holiday.

Home learning ideas

At parent consultations we gave you a copy of the tricky words (spelling) that your child is working on in class. Please practise spelling these at home. You could use pavement chalk, paints or simply a pencil and paper to do the Look, Cover, Write, Check method.


Please continue to practice reading at home. If possible, read to your child this will help to increase their vocabulary and you will be able to model reading.


Your child could help you to write the shopping list, write letters/postcards to relatives, etc.


Other areas of the curriculum


We had a brilliant time meeting online a P1/ 2 class from Sgoil Dhalabroig which is a primary school in South Uist. We asked questions to each other about life in an island and life in Edinburgh, they taught us how to count to five in Gaelic and we sang to each other. They were fifteen children in the class and we are nearly 60! It was a lovely experience for us all!


In PE we have worked on team games and finishing off our unit of gymnastics. It was great to see the children giving positive feedback and things to improve in a polite way.


Outdoors we did Easter activities. We looked for hidden carrots ( a challenge from P3!) and we made nests using twigs.


Home learning ideas


Enjoy your time with your children: go for walks, read stories, play board games, cook together, …have fun!


Have a relaxing break.
Mrs McFarlane

P1 Pandas

P1W reflective Friday 31. 3.23

Staff...685

This week’s homework

  • Learn to read and spell the words were, there
  • Have a wonderful holiday.


Independent learning

The children have been developing a wide range of skills through independent learning opportunities in class and outdoors..

Literacy.

This week we have introduced the final consonant blends ft and nt, and learned the tricky words there and were .

Our writing prompt this week was “She left the shop and went … ” No photos of writing, but ask your child which character they created for the story and where she went.

We continue to use core reading book resources in school as we begin to develop developing the children’s reading comprehension skills, exploring the cognitive strategies of activating, inferring, monitoring/clarifying, questioning, searching/selecting, summarizing, and visualising.

Maths and numeracy


We have been using our numeracy skills to perform addition calculations.

.


Looking ahead to next week

Happy Easter ! After the holidays, please remember to return indoor shoes and spare clothes. We plan to have outdoor loose parts on Thursday of the first week back, but will advise if this changes.

Other areas of the curriculum


The dentist came on Monday to check our teeth. We had to climb on a table!

We found out how tricky it is to look after a tiny baby. Thank you baby Maverick!

In PE we completed our block of gymnastics andalso worked on our fitness and core strength.

A reminder to please 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.