Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s blog.

It was good to have the opportunity to speak to you this week.

We have had another very busy week, developing skills across the curriculum.

Literacy

We are becoming Reading Detectives as we continue to read our class novel ‘Ottoline and the Yellow Cat’.

Developing our vocabulary and using these interesting words in our own writing.

Exploring the qualities of a good mystery.

Looking for clues in a text – deciding what is important and what might be misleading.

Giving our opinion on a text and discussing a variety of texts (including our home texts) with a partner and in a team.

Reading for pleasure- lots of us have been enjoying the Jill Tomlinson series of books.

We are finding information about the characters and asking questions- taking notes in ‘Reading Detective’ notebook.

Developing our writing skills, using adjectives to describe how the main characters are feeling.

Developing our knowledge of sentence structure.

Developing our joined-up cursive handwriting.

Developing our knowledge of speech marks.

Developing our comprehension skills- we are experts on the signs of Autumn!

Answering questions in sentences.

Spelling– A short vowel o sound immediately before l is made by using a- not o.

Silent l before k- the same rule applies.

FANTASTIC– talk  talked talking walk walked walking chalk salt halt halted

SECTACULAR-talkative  alteration  alternative  alter  scalded  false  stalking  Maltesers  walkie- talkie

Tricky words– were where

Ideas for home learning:  Draw a beautiful, tall tree with Autumn leaves. Write a spelling word on each leaf and again on the leaves that have fallen on the ground.  

Maths

Rounding 2 and 3-digit numbers to the nearest 10.

Identifying numbers that would round up or down to a multiple of 10.

Using our rounding skills to estimate the answers to calculations.

Ideas for learning at home- Digit rounding -use the digits from a phone number and to write as many 3-digit numbers as you can. They round each of these numbers to the nearest 10 and record them like this: 486 → 490

Mental Agility

Jigsaw numbers to 100 and using the skill to give change from £1.

Using our addition facts for trickier calculations.

Ideas for home learning- Say the 2, 5 and 10 times tables out loud, whisper them, say them with a voice like The Yellow Cat.

Health and Wellbeing

We are exploring strategies to help us become more resilient.

Developing our fitness, listening and quick thinking skills.

Developing our coordination, rhythm and sequencing skills.

Learning in our outdoor environment.

Social Skill

We are learning how to listen carefully- what this looks like and sounds like.

Working cooperatively- making a positive contribution to the team.

I.D.L.-

Creating our team, large scale maps of Scotland.

Developing our knowledge of Scotland.

Developing our knowledge of weather maps and symbols.

Have a lovely weekend!

Other things….

Purple book bags

Each P1 pupil will shortly be given a purple book bag. Although at the moment reading books are not being sent home, we would like the children to bring the purple bag to school each day. It will be used to send home any paper communications which are required, and for the return of any forms. If the children have drawings or worksheets which they have completed in school then they will bring them home in the purple bags too. The children’s snack can also be popped in the bag, negating the need to bring a bulky schoolbag. Lunch bags and water bottles can be carried separately. If your child has a Tupperware type lunch box rather than one with a handle, it can be brought in a lightweight carrier bag such as one from a supermarket. We appreciate that the children love the novelty of having a special schoolbag, but current covid related restrictions on cloakrooms and storage of bags make it tricky to store the large quantity of rucksacks appropriately.

Please check and empty your child’s book bag daily to avoid a large build up of contents which may hide important communications.

Thank you for your continued support.

On Friday morning P3C will have access to the Loose Parts equipment in the woodland area of our playground. This is a great opportunity to develop exploration through imaginative play. The class really enjoyed exploring and experimenting with the loose parts in September.

Loose parts are open ended resources for play, which can be put together, taken apart, moved and coordinated in various ways, and which allow the freedom of motivation to play, which is child led, imaginative and creative. Loose Parts play allows the opportunity to identify and assess risks within resources and various types of play. It allows experience of problem solving, teamwork, negotiation and co-operation, all while nurturing the development of self-confidence and physical skills like agility, balance and co-ordination.

It is likely that children will get muddy whilst using this equipment – especially if it rains overnight or on Friday morning (it’s not forecast but we all know the weather can change quickly!). It may be best if your child comes to school in older clothes on Friday (9th October) which you don’t mind getting muddy.

Thanks, Mr Campbell

Good afternoon,

Hope you are having a great start to the week!

Here are this week’s spelling words.

Have a super week,

Miss Martin

This week, our focus is on ‘ea’ making a long ‘e’ sound. We have two common words to learn too. At home, work on the list you chose in class.

tea

meat

east

steal

cheat

beast

beach

scream

speaking

reaching

little 

down

Challenge Words

dream

leaf

Easter

cheating

beastly

screaming

reached

cheater

steal

steel

little

down

Spelling– we have named our spelling groups, your child should know which group they are working with.

Team Jewels– initial sounds (a and t)

Team Gold– revision of the igh/-y sound for example: fight, might, tight, night, sight, my, why, shy, by

Tricky words: come, said

Team Treasure– revision of ea words. Your child will have chosen either the core or challenge list in class.

Core list: tea, meat, east, steal, cheat, beast, beach, scream, speaking, reaching

Challenge list: dream, leaf, Easter, cheating, beastly, screaming, reached, cheater, steal, steel

Tricky words: little, down

At Buckstone Primary school, we want to make sure that all our children do as well as they can and achieve their full potential. The main way we achieve this is through providing quality first teaching day to day in the classroom, which caters for the varying needs of the children in the class.

Sometimes, an intervention may be necessary to further support a child’s development within a particular area of the curriculum or to help them develop their social skills or self confidence and self esteem. As a school, we utilise a range of specific interventions for the core subjects of Literacy and Mathematics and also for communication and pastoral care. These interventions may be one to one or in small groups.

Children are identified for intervention using a range of methods that include data tracking, (attainment and progress), teacher assessment, classroom observation and informal observations of the children in the classroom and in the playground.

It is important to note that children identified for intervention are not always lower attaining children. Children are identified across a range of groups and are selected when teaching staff and senior leaders believe they have the capacity for further or accelerated progress at a given point.

If your child is identified to work in one of our specific intervention programmes, you will be made aware of this by the class teacher and will be given an update on the impact of the intervention during parents evening. We may also invite your child to work as a supportive peer or role model in an intervention group, you would also be informed of this.

Good afternoon everyone.

Literacy

Our spelling pattern

• We are still focusing on adding suffix er / est.
• Remember to double the final consonant in the root word before adding er / est to keep the preceding vowel short (flat + t + er / est = flatter)
• Drop the final e before adding er / est (late + er / est = latest)

Here are the words

bravest              later

wiser                ripest

finer                 thinner

flattest              slimmer

fittest                hotter

Our tricky words were

Earth                 learn

Here are the children’s reflections from our busy week and ideas for home learning.

Have a great weekend