The children are working on the topic of My body. They will be learning about having a healthy body and keeping clean. They will also learn the correct names for male and female genitals.

This week in school our Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood lesson will be about naming parts of the body. The
body-part names and descriptions that they will learn, are these:
Nipples: Both boys and girls have nipples. When a girl grows, she will develop breasts. If a woman has a baby, then she can breast feed her baby; the baby would get milk from its mum’s nipples. Sometimes people ask, “so, why do boys have nipples?” All babies develop the same way until their mum is about 8 weeks pregnant, and that includes nipples. So, if the baby that is growing inside the mum develops to become a boy, he will still have nipples.

Penis: Boys have a penis. When a boy urinates/goes to the toilet, it comes out of his penis. When we learn more about how babies are made, we will learn more about the penis.

Scrotum and testicles: The scrotum is the sack of skin that hangs under the boy’s penis. Inside there are the testicles. Again, in another lesson we will learn more about this.

Vulva: Girls have a vulva. When a girl urinates/goes to the toilet, it comes out of her vulva. (N.B. If a child uses the word vagina to describe this part, we respond with: Sometimes people use the word vagina, but the vagina is actually just the bit inside the girl. So, if you are a girl, the bit you see between your legs when you look at your body is your vulva.)

We use these terms because they help to remove any embarrassment or shame about these body parts. Also, knowing these words means that children can explain clearly if they are unwell or have a worry. Knowing these terms help to protect children because they also learn that these parts of the body are private – we will be doing more on this in class.

As part of our upcoming block of learning on Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood we will be covering the following topics in an age appropriate way:

• Names of parts of my body
• My body belongs to me
• Private and PANTS Rule

For more information on these subjects, please see the attached parent information letter.

RSHP-Learning-at-School-First-Level-information-for-parents-and-carers-1 (1)

Dear Families,

Welcome to Primary 4! I am really looking forward to an exciting year ahead and am delighted with how well the children are settling in already! We have spent the first few weeks assessing the children and forming groups and we’re now ready to begin reading and spelling homework.

Reading – Children will need their reading books at school every day. Please fill in the Home Reading Record in their Home/School notebook to confirm that your child has done their reading homework each day. Please spend time listening to your child read aloud and discuss the text with them.

Spelling – On Mondays, your child will bring home a list of spelling words in their Homework jotter. They must copy out each word in their jotter three times, write two sentences using their words and practise for their spelling assessment on Fridays. The children have until Friday to complete the written part of their spelling but I would encourage them to practise the words all week. Incomplete homework will be finished on Friday afternoons. We did our first week of spelling homework in class to show an example of what is expected. Please ensure your child prints neatly.

Education City, Reading Wise and Sumdog – Children are encouraged to access these websites at home. Your child’s logins can be found in their Home/School notebook.

Things to remember:

• Children must have a pair of indoor/gym shoes to be kept in school.
• A gym kit will be needed for PE sessions on Wednesday afternoons. Mrs Forbes will be teaching the children from 11:30-3:00 on Wednesdays.
• An apron or old shirt would be useful for craft/messy activities.
• Spelling Test and Big Maths results will be recorded in the Home/School notebook each Friday for you to see how your child is getting on.

Communication:

• We will use the Home/School notebook as our main method of communication. If you have any information you would like to pass on to me, please write a note in the book at any time.
• Marvellous Me, Blog and Google Classroom – Marvellous Me, our Class Blog and Google Classroom are now  up and running. I will try to post regularly to show what we’ve been getting up to in class. Please ensure that you have access to these.

If you have any questions or queries at any time, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to working with you all!