Primary 1/2 2016

Maths

Number bonds – if your child was working on number bonds last week please continue this this week.  Use this link to download and print two copies of the animal flashcards.  Get your child to cut them up and you can use them for pairs or snap.  If the two numbers make 10 it’s a pair!  As an extra challenge you could use this link to print cards for number bonds to 100.  Please only do this if your child has remembered all number bonds to 10.

Adding –  If your child had a ‘grab mat’ at home last week please continue to focus on adding this week.  Try adding different sets together and telling an adult the number story.  For example, you could add 3 barbies and 3 teddies, or 7 cars and 3 balls.  Parents:  please encourage your child to tell you the number story and to use the words ‘add’ and ‘makes’.  They could write down some of their stories too.

Literacy

Due to the school closure on Friday we will only be having reading once this week.  New sounds for P1s will be issued on Tuesday.  Please check in your child’s sound book to see which sound he/she is focusing on.  All P2s are focusing on ck.

ck – Try playing this game to develop your skills in reading ‘ck’ words.  Parents: please click on ‘phase 2’ and then select ‘enter your own words’.  In the real words section please type: rock, sock, brick, snack and pocket.  In the ‘fake words’ section please type: leck, meckan, stacka, bick and shick.  then click ‘play’,  The children then click ‘get snack’ and try reading the words to decide if they are real words or pretend words.  Real words get fed to Bob.  Pretend words get fed to Obb.  Reading pretend words is a fantastic way of encouraging sounding out as the children will be forced to sound out the word rather than memorizing it.  Have fun!

u – please watch the storybot ‘u‘ story.  We will also be revising all taught sounds this week.  Please try this game to reinforce all taught letters.  Click on the first option to revise ‘s, a, t’ etc.  Listen to the sound and try popping the sound that is spoken by clicking on the letters.

We had great fun being mini scientists today with Mr Georgeson.  This was part of our new topic on cold lands. Mr Georgeson explained that we had some special new visitors in the classroom. Unfortunately our visitors had become trapped in big blocks of ice! We had to work in teams to try and free them.  We could use anything in the classroom to free our new friends. Some of us tried using scissors, pencils and our hands. We worked well in our teams and were persistent when things were not working the way we had planned.

After some experimenting Oscar suggested to his team that they should use hot water to melt the ice.  They were delighted to find out that this worked and other teams soon started to copy their clever idea.

Like real scientists, we finished our experiments by writing a short sentence about what happened.  Well done everyone!

Please look inside your child’s folder to see which activities he/she has for this week.  Match the activities with the instructions below.  All children will have 1 maths and 1 literacy activity.

Maths

Grab Mats – if your child has a ‘grab mat’ in his/her bag then he/she is learning about addition to 10 this week.  Use the grab mats to practice making different adding sums.  You will need a pile of small toys – lego blocks, marbles, small figures or even raw pasta, and a whiteboard pen (these were sent home with the grab mats).  Get your child to ‘grab’ one handful from their pile of objects and place it on one hand on the grab mat.  Get them to count and write down the number below the hand.  Repeat for the other hand.  Now get your child to add both handfuls together by counting the total.  They can write this in the total box on their grab mat. The most important part is for them to tell the addition story to you using their board to help them.  For example, 4 lego men add 4 lego men makes 8 lego men.  The language used is very important so please encourage them to say the story each time.  Repeat several times.

Number bonds – if your child does not have a grab mat in their bag they are working on number bonds in school.  Click here to play a website to reinforce this.  Get them to try beating their highest score by repeating the game several times.

Please note – your child should not do both maths activities.

Literacy – sounds for P1s will be sent home on Tuesday.

‘AY’ or ‘EE’ – if your child is focusing on ay or ee this week they will have a sound game in their bag.  Get them to cut out each letter and sound. Try reading a word to them (using the word list) and getting them to make the word.  You could make your own ee or ay words too.

O and B – if your child does not have a sound game in their bag they are focusing on ‘o’ and ‘b’ this week.  Look at your sound book to see the action.  Try watching the b and u storybot videos.  Try hunting for the letters on numberplates, roadsigns, in story books and in print around the house.

Some of us have been learning how to quickly work out the number bonds for ten.  The quicker we can do this the easier it will be for us to solve other sums.  We played a variety of games together and on the whiteboard.  Some of us even worked out the number bonds for 100!

Some of us have been learning the ‘ee’ sound.  We worked in teams to draw around our feet and tried to fill each foot with an ‘ee’ word. Mrs Duncan was so impressed with how well we worked together.  Well done everyone!  We also used hamma beads to make the ‘ee’ sound – this will become one of our independent jobs next week.

This week our special jobs have been the computer and iPad.  We have to be responsible for completing these tasks at some point during the day.  We have been using the computer and the iPad to extend our skills in ordering numbers.  Some of us have been ordering numbers to 1000!  Well done everyone!  The game we really like is called ‘Whack-a-mole’.  Click here to play it at home.  We have also been learning to play new card games that reinforce adding strategies.  Many of the Primary 1s are now adding using concrete materials.  Well done!

We are continuing to learn about Diwali celebrations.  Today we enjoyed watching this Diwali song (the first minute only).  We also read a story and shared what we already knew about Diwali.  We found out that Diwali is the festival of lights.  Today we made our own clay lights.  Some of us were unsure of the texture initially but soon became more confident sculpting and molding the clay.  We hope to make rangoli patterns outside and create some mendhi hand patterns later on in the week.

Sounds will be issued on Tuesday this week – please complete literacy homework after these sounds have been issued.  Thank you.

Maths

We have been enjoying playing a caterpillar numeracy game.  Click here to access it.  Mostly the Primary ones have been working on numbers to 10 and the Primary twos have been working on numbers to 20.  Please feel free to go to the next level/number if your child manages to complete a few shots within numbers to 10/20. You can continue up to 100.

Literacy

New literacy sounds will be sent home on Tuesday.  P1s – look in your child’s sound book to see which sound (and corresponding activity below) he/she should focus on.  P2s – you are focusing on ‘ee’ this week.

ee –  Watch the ‘ee’ alphablocks episode – click here.  Then go on a sound hunt and find 7 objects or toys that contain the ee sound.  For example, I am thinking of a food that you might have with macaroni….

l and f – watch the storybot ‘f’ and ‘l’ clips.  Although these use the letter names rather than the sounds they are great for reinforcing initial letters and may give you ideas for things to hunt for in your house.  Try hunting around your house for 3 toys that begin with each sound.  Apologies for the initial confusion about which letter it was this week! 🙂

Optional extra for P1 and P2 – play ‘Kim’s memory game’ using the objects you have found.  Cover the objects with a tea-towel and try to guess which objects are underneath the towel.  You could even try writing some of the words.

Have fun!

Thanks,

Mrs Duncan

Today at circle time we spoke about good friends.  We used finger puppets and emotion dolls to help us think what qualities we would like in a friend.  We tried to sort these puppets into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ categories.  We all listened very well and could justify our ideas.  Next week we will explore this further.

We also played our new favourite game ‘Frogs and flies’.  Johnny was the champion – he managed to get all 20 members of the class out!  Well done everyone!

We have been doing a mini topic on festivals this week.  This will also continue next week.  We have been celebrating Diwali this week and watched a range of videos to help us understand why and how people celebrate Diwali.  You can watch them by clicking here.

Today we tried doing some Diwali dance.  We all did a super job of listening to the instructions on the iPod and had fun moving to the music.  Please ask your child to show you some of our moves! 🙂 

Next week we hope to make Diwali lamps, experiment with Diwali patterns and write our own  interpretations of the Diwali story.