We made it! We had an amazing term. It was been a different one as we started learning from home but we were lucky to come back to school and we had a great time learning together.
This is this week’s learning:
Literacy
This week we have been learning three initial blends: fl, gl and pl. Our tricky words were do and as, now we have worked on all the tricky words from block 2. We have sent home a sheet with the words the children could work at home.
For fl we did flying kites. We took our kites outside and they flew!
We also played with flour!
Flying kites
For gl we did glittery glasses.
We played with gloop.
Glittery glasses
For pl we did plates with pl words.
Plates with pl words
This week our writing focus has been writing about chicks.
We have continued to work on our reading books at school. We are working on different reading skills not only decoding and blending: fluency, comprehension, inference, making connections, synthetizing, increasing vocabulary, working memory and attention. Remember that this week our reading books will not go home.
Continue to practice building words and reading words with the sounds worked on so far.
Practice the tricky words that your child has taken home today on his/her purple folder.
Numeracy
We have been learning about Position and Movement. We are learning to use simple directions and describe positions in games in movement, games and using technology. We have learned to programme Bee Bots and to use the Bee Bots app i our iPads.
We have continued to work on our numeracy skills using our SEAL programme. We have been working on sharing equally, ordering numbers, addition with a missing addend, etc.
Home learning ideas
Continue to practice number recognition, counting skills.
Why don’t practice sharing equally with the Easter Eggs?
We have learned about the Easter Story. We are becoming aware of the importance of celebrations, festivals and customs in Christian people’s lives.
Music
We have been singing outdoors with Charlie. We have also done two online sessions with Sarah from Sing for Smiles.
Outdoor Learning
We have created patterns working in pairs. We used masking tape to create different patterns and colour them in with wet chalk. It was great to see how the children worked together and praised each other.
Putting masking tape
Using wet chalk
Taking the masking tape off
Look at our amazing creations!
Independent Learning
News
All children took home today a sheet with the tricky words that they should be working on ( reading and writing), please feel free to work on these.
All children are taking home their spare clothes in a labelled bag, please return this bag next term so we can continue to use them.
We hope you all have a lovely break.
Looking forward to seeing you back on Tuesday 20th April.
Thank you for all your support during this term with your children’s learning. You all did a great job during the Learning at Home period!
Financial Support and Advice (Government and other institutions)
Financial Support available to families with young children from Social Security Scotland
Please find below a message from Social Security Scotland:
We thought it may be of interest to the parents/carers of the children you care for to provide some information on the financial support available to families with young children.
The new Scottish Child Payment (£40 every four weeks for eligible children under six) starts on 15 February and we are encouraging parents to apply now.
Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods are payments that help towards the costs of being pregnant or looking after a child. They’re part of the 5 family payments you may be able to get from Social Security Scotland, along with Scottish Child Payment.
Best Start Grant is made up of 3 one-off payments:
Help with: Income maximisation, Employability support, Family support, Money advice, Welfare rights, Housing advice. You can contact Maximise via: Tel: 0131 442 2100 www.chaiedinburgh.org.uk
Family and Household Support
Can offer support and advice with family relationships, parenting, mental health and well-being, employment and learning, housing options and neighbour disputes. Help with accessing food banks, debt, budgeting, welfare benefits, applying for grants, funding or furniture. southwest.familyandhouseholdsupport@edinburgh.gov.uk
Home Energy Scotland
Free and impartial advice for anyone worried about energy bills. Home heating and energy use will be affected by people staying home to avoid picking up the Coronavirus. If you’re worried about your energy bills or struggling to stay warm at home, you can contact them. Advisors are briefed with the latest information from energy suppliers and from the Scottish Government, and they are up to date with any new developments.
Advice is free, impartial and funded by the Scottish Government. Phone 0808 808 2282 to chat to a friendly advisor. Call for free on 0808 808 2282. Lines are open Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm, and Saturday 9am – 5pm. Please note phone lines are often quite busy in the evenings and at weekends.
By email: Complete our contact form and select ’email’ when asked how you’d like us to get back to you. We’ll aim to be in touch within 5-10 working days.
Please feel fee to print this reading caterpillar bookmark if you have misplaced the one given with on your purple folder at the beginning of the year.
The Lion’s have had another great week in Primary 1! We have had lots of fun playing with our friends both inside the classroom and outside in the playground.
Literacy
This week we learned two more sounds: ‘g’ and ‘f’.
We had lots of fun watching Geraldine the Giraffe, playing lots of games about our new sounds and singing the Jolly Phonic’s songs! We played a sound race game and writing out 3 sound words which matched an image. We also loved drawing and colouring in our fishes to help us learn the ‘f’ sound. We are enjoying blending the sounds we have learned together to make words.
We also continued with our reading this week and read a new book together. We are learning how to make predictions about a text with the information we have in the text and in the illustrations, we are using the words that are on our books to make sentences. We are working very hard on developing all our reading skills. We really enjoyed looking for words in the book, reading with a partner and we even read the book backwards which we found really silly but super fun!
Things to try at home:
Practice the common words found in the book which were sent home. If you don’t have the flashcards the list of words is: Biff, Chip, Kipper, Mum, Dad, Floppy, and, a, the
Use the alphabet flashcards which were also sent home and ask your child to tell you the sound. (Some we have haven’t learned yet but will have before Christmas – if you have time you could see if your child knows what they are!)
Go on a letter hunt. Look around you for places where you can see any of the letters you know. Remember to say the pure sound of the letter not the name. ( so a= ah, not ay )
On Monday – I will be sending home on a document with words/story of your child’s reading book. As we cannot send the books home it would be great if you could practice reading the text with your child. With the text practice reading the story both forwards and backwards, ensuring your child is pointing to the word they are saying. Also ask your child to find you particular words from the text to practice their recognition of words/sounds. Ask your child to find you a word beginning with _____ from the text, again to practice recognition of the sounds/letters.
Use the literacy home learning sheet linked below. You can either print out the flashcards to build words or simply write them onto paper. Try and build some of the suggested words.
This week in numeracy we had a focus week on pattern.
We learned all about what pattern is and the different types of patterns we might see in our local community. For example, shape patterns, colour patterns and picture patterns. We also learned the difference between natural and man made patterns and played a simple game of “what am I?” The children had to decide if the pattern was either natural, something that has grown outside or an animals feathers, or if it had been made by a person, for example, roof tiles, buildings or windows. We then went for a pattern hunt in the playground and looked for 5 natural patterns and 5 man made patterns. We found lots of leaves, trees, bricks on the the school building and the colours on the school benches. Unfortunately, we tried to then make our own patterns with leaves and sticks but it was too windy for us to build them! We also coloured in shapes to make our own colour patterns, did finger painting to finish the dot/colour patterns on snakes and drew our own patterns where we could do anything we wanted. One of our play stations this week was also using peg boards to copy simple patterns or we could make our own.
We also continued to use the SEAL maths programme for our mental maths this week. We practised saying the number before and number after in the range to 30 and beyond. We also loved playing my turn, your turn counting up and back down to and from 30.
Things to try at home:
Look for patterns around your house, garden or local community. Is it natural or is it man made?
Can you create a pattern using anything you can find in your house? For example, pencils, books, toys, flowers, leaves, stones.
Count items using 1-1 correspondence. Put down a quantity of small items, for example raisins, buttons, counters, small stones or lego bricks. Ask your child to count them carefully, pointing to, or moving each one in turn. can they count the total accurately? Increase the level of challenge by using a larger collection.
Number hunt: Ask your child to look for specific numbers in the street: buses, house numbers and ask your child to say the number that goes after and before that number.
Practice number formation of the numbers 0 to 10 (or more if your child is confident with this already) As an extra challenge ensure they are writing two digit numbers the correct way around.
Other Areas
P.E:
P1 has also been having lots of fun playing outside in the playground. In P.E we have been working on our fitness and spatial awareness when running around the playground. We also have been learning about different ways to move around the playground such as running, jumping, hopping, skipping etc. We had four different games in P.E, focusing on our fitness skills/ways of travelling, which we rotated round in small groups. The first was walking along a skipping rope, practising our balance, then we did five star jumps and ran back to high five the next person in our team. The second, was to run backwards and forwards from the black fence to a row of cones. We had to keep moving for the duration of the time but we could walk, skip or jump if we got too tired running. The third station was weaving in and out between cones whilst running. This made us have to think about where our bodies were going and to think about where our feet need to be to get around the cone. The last station was arguably the most fun for the P1s! In groups of two we had to take bean bags and place them into our hoop. We then had to take bean bags from the other teams hoops and bring them back to our own. We had to keep running and taking bean bags until the time ran out. The four games made us very tired but we had a discussion about why exercise is good for us and why our hearts beat faster after exercise.
Music:
We also did our first music lesson this week. We listened to two different pieces of music and talked about how they made us feel. One made us feel happy and excited where as the other one made us feel sad and sleepy. We then got out some instruments and either played/clapped along to the beat of the music. You can find the game below.
This week for art we had a Halloween theme. We designed our own pumpkins using whatever colours we liked. We also got to design their own faces.We also made a spooky ghost picture by using white paint on black paper. We painted our hands to make the ghosts and decorated with glitter. Some children even painted cobwebs in the corner. Then we used a black pen to add detail to our ghosts, stuck on googly eyes and used a white pencil to add any other images to our pictures.
Handwriting:
We also continued to practice our funky fingers. This helps with holding pens and pencils to get ready for writing, we started using playdough to help make our hands and fingers stronger. We have been having lots of fun following, the videos below. If you have any playdough at home why not practice at home!
We have had lots of fun developing our social skills by playing with our peers in the classroom. We have lots of fun drawing pictures and making crafts, playing in the home corner and reading in the book corner. We also have lots of fun building castles and towers with the construction blocks. There is always lots of fun things to do in the classroom to support our learning and play.
Things to Try at Home
Play our P.E games in the garden or practise the ways in which you could move your body.
Practice clapping along to songs you might be listening to. Can you hear the rhythm? Also, think about how the music you listen to makes you feel.
Think about where you hear music. For example, on the radio, in games, on the telly.
P1L’s Favourite Moments of the Week
“I liked playing the drum in music.” – Barney
“I liked learning about pattern and making my own one.” – Georgie
“I enjoyed playing with the bricks with Archie.” – Maximos
“I had fun playing music.” – Murray
“I liked painting my ghost.” – Maisie
“I had fun looking at all of the pumpkins.” – Archie
Happy Weekend!
Ms Leach will be teaching the class on Monday.
P.E will be on Mondays and Thursdays – please come dressed and ready for P.E.
Please remember to label all items with your child’s name. We still have items that haven’t been claimed since August. Remember to label hats and gloves too!
We hopefully will be going to do some Outdoor Learning in the woods on Tuesday morning. (I will confirm on Monday by email). If possible, please ensure your child comes dressed appropriately as the woods can be muddy.
If you no longer have any resources at home – please get in touch and I will happily send some home in your child’s purple book bag.
Have a lovely weekend, stay safe and I will see you on Monday.
We really enjoyed looking at all of the amazing pumpkins children and their families throughout the school had carved and decorated. Here are some pictures of the brilliant creations!
**Please bring in a palm sized pebble on Monday. We are going to be painting these next week.**
It was great to see everyone back after the October break. Here is a summary of our learning in P6NM this week.
Literacy
We read more of our novel Friend or Foe. We focussed on how the author uses dialogue to show us what different characters are like. We also explored how Michael Morpurgo created a sense of danger and excitement.
We watched an video clip titled ‘How wolves change rivers’. We made notes on the interesting facts and used these to create leaflets.
Opportunities for home learning:
Do some independent research on a topic that interests you. Develop your note taking skills to show your understanding of the information. Remember only to write the key words which are important.
When reading, think about how the author creates excitement and drama. What techniques do they use? (Think about the types of words and sentences they use.)
Maths
In maths we revised the chimney method of multiplication.
Here is a link which demonstrates this (it is the first one which is called short multiplication).
We then moved on to think about how to multiply a number by a multiple of ten (20/30/40/50/60/70/80/90).
For example 70 x 364, 40 x 213 or 50 x 975.
We did lots of examples to demonstrate that when you multiply by a multiple of ten you move all the digits one place to the left and put a zero in the empty space.
Opportunities for home learning:
Write out 7 x 264 using the formal layout that we have been working on this week. Explain to someone at home the steps you took to solve it.
Use the digits 5, 6, 7 and 8 to create a list of 1 digit x 3 digit sums, then solve them. For example 5 x 678 6 x 758 8 x 675
Try some sums involving multiples of ten. For example, 30 x 212. Lay it out as shown in the picture above.
Revise your times tables and increase your speed and accuracy by completing the ‘Daily 10’ or Hit the Button on Top Marks.
In literacy this week we have been further developing our descriptive writing skills. We loved using all the writing skills we have been learning to describe ‘The Witch’ from the film Witches. We worked in pairs to create mind maps with good descriptive ‘WOW’ words about her appearance, her smell, her voice and her personality. We then used this to write fantastic descriptive paragraphs.
In reading we looked at a passage telling us all about the history of Halloween. We focused on picking out key information to answer questions about the passage. We also practised highlighting key information and taking notes in our own words. We used mind maps and bullet points to do this.
We spent time this week learning our new spelling rule of adding the suffix’s full and less to a root word. For example, care + less = careless and power + full = powerful.
Things to do at home –
See the progress record for this week’s reading pages. Try summarising the main events of what you read to someone at home, focusing on key events
Think about how the characters are described in your reading books (school or personal). Can you picture them in your head? What good wow words and phrases did the author use to describe them?
Please see spelling document posted on Monday
Maths and Numeracy
This week in numeracy we have been focusing on using a chimney sum for subtraction up to 3-digits with exchanging. We have been practising this all throughout the week and will continue to work on this next week. We also used all our maths skills that we have been practising to solve the problem of the missing pumpkins.
We learned how to calculate the area of squares and rectangles using: area = length x breadth.
Practise subtracting one number from another both in your head and using the chimney sum strategy
Other curricular areas
In our Free the Forest topic this week we have been discussing what deforestation is and the different reasons for it happening, such as; logging, commercial farming, subsidence farming and road building
P5M enjoyed making 3D pumpkins and going on our pumpkin trail around the school
It has been a fun week back in P3C after the holidays! There have been a lot of questions asked about the book talk next week and a lot of excitement about sharing books with the class. For more information see the blog entry titled “P3C Book Talks”. We will be starting the talks next week. If your child has chosen a book they have at home to do the talk it would be helpful if they brought it in on Monday as we will do some activities in class to help prepare for the talks.
We have been revising the maths and numeracy strategies we were learning before the holiday. The class are becoming more and more confident in adding numbers.
Things to do at home:
Keep on practising number bonds to 10, 20 and 100 to help your addition skills
Practise adding numbers wherever you see them!
We had fun outdoors creating Halloween art pictures using items we could find on the ground; leaves, twigs, moss, stones. They are very creative! Some examples are attached below. For creative writing we wrote Halloween stories using a haunted house picture as a context – they were very scary!!! This morning we made ghosts!
Things to do at home:
Find a picture in a book, magazine, packaging or the internet (or anywhere else!) that you like and use it to do a “free write” (like we do in class). Create a piece of writing using the picture as inspiration. It can be any piece of writing you like! Story, letter, newspaper article, description.
This week we have completed our art work for The Giraffe, Pelly and Me, with our animal drawing mounted on our Hampshire Estate drawings in the style of Paul Klee. They are excellent, eye catching and creative! Some examples are attached below:
It has been great seeing everyone again this week. The pumpkin trail was fantastic! Thank you to everyone who brought a pumpkin in!!!
Buckstone Primary School 