For our writing task this week, we challenged ourselves to up-level our weekend news that we wrote on Monday morning. The children self-assessed their piece of writing and decided how they were going to make it even better. P3 worked hard on this task, and each child produced a great piece of writing!

Last week we linked our writing lesson to our topic on Water. We learned about the Water Cycle, and then we wrote about the cycle from the perspective of a water particle going through the process. We then used our writing to produce some wonderful Water Cycle posters!

We have been learning about Common and Proper Nouns. We have been trying hard to include capital letters in the correct places, as well as forming our letters correctly.

Since returning after the Easter holidays, our focus in maths has been Measurement. We have explored measuring in metres and centimetres, choosing the most appropriate unit of measurement based on the size of an object. We always estimate before measuring an object, and as the children are becoming more confident, their estimates are getting closer to the actual length of the items! We learned about capacity and had lots of fun experimenting with water, rainbow rice and cubes.

We are currently learning about weight, where we will be using the kilogram and ½ kilogram next week. With Miss Davie, the children have started to focus on problem solving skills.

Last week in Health and Wellbeing we were describing and recording strategies for getting on with others in the classroom. The children had some great discussion about what we (both children and adults) need to do our best in school.

This week we have discussed money and responsibility. The children have created lots of interesting discussion around wants and needs, as well as spending and saving money.

In PE at the moment, we are focusing on Hockey skills. This has been a hit so far!

We started our new topic on Water since returning to school after the holidays. So far, we have learned about the Water Cycle. We did a science experiment to see the Water Cycle being re-created in a plastic bag stuck to the window! This proved to be successful and the children identified the different parts of the Water Cycle in the bag. We are learning about solids, liquids and gases, and have carried out another experiment exploring melting ice and insulators.

The children have worked incredibly hard since returning to school 6 weeks ago, and I am so pleased with the way they settled back into school and learning.

Literacy – Last week the children finished their diary entries for the Young Writer’s Competition. They are all so proud of their work! To conclude our topic on Habitats, this week we wrote a Habitat Fact File on our favourite habitat we learned about over the last 6 weeks.

We consolidated our knowledge of our spelling sounds we have covered since we returned to school. The children practised their words in lots of active ways at different spelling stations. The children said they enjoyed revisiting previous sounds as it helped to refresh their understanding!

Next term, we will learn in more depth about persuasive writing and poetry.

Maths – Last week we finished our topic on Division. We worked hard to apply their knowledge of division to various problem-solving activities. The children worked well to support one another.

This week we learned about Ancient Roman and Egyptian Numerals – the children have loved it and said it felt like they were learning a special secret code! It was great to see some of the children linking their new learning to a real-world context, remembering where they have seen Roman Numerals used before (on clocks, sundials etc).

Next term we will learn about measure, weight and capacity, as well as fractions. With Miss Davie, the children will work on their problem-solving skills in maths.

Health and Wellbeing – We continued with our focus on Safety in Health and Wellbeing. We discussed Safe and Unsafe places. We also revisited our ‘Learning Line’ display which we learned about prior to lockdown. The children created a ‘mini-me’ figure to be displayed on the Learning Line, and as we go forward into next term, we will use these to show our progress along the Learning Line when learning new concepts. This will encourage the children to reflect on their own learning and next steps.

IDL – Since returning to school, the children have loved our Habitats topic! We have explored Woodland, Ocean, Rainforest and Artic habitats. Last week, we had a whole day themed on The Arctic. We started the day by going through Security to travel by plane! We learned about Air Resistance, Artic Animals, and how people live in the Arctic. The children showed so much excitement and enthusiasm! This week, the children chose their favourite habitat and created a habitat in a shoe box – they are very effective!

In Literacy, we have been focusing on writing a diary entry for a Young Writers competition the children are excited to enter. We have explored lots of different ideas and have been working very hard to plan and write an amazing diary entry. The children’s imaginations have run wild and they have been very creative! We have worked hard to up-level our sentences to include adjectives to make our writing interesting to the reader.

We continue to learn a new spelling rule each week and practise this through our spelling homework and active spelling activities in class.

The children’s fluency in reading has continued to improve. We have been working on our comprehension skills to dig deeper on our understanding of what we have read. You can continue to use the comprehension cards at home to support this.

Over the last 2 weeks in Maths, we finished our topic on Multiplication and moved onto Division. So far, we have learned about dividing by 2, 3, 5 and 10. We have used cubes and Numicon to support our learning. With Miss Davie, the children have been learning about Information Handling, looking at different charts and graphs.

In Health and Wellbeing, we are focussing on Safety. We have discussed safety around medicines and made posters to show what we learned about safe medicine use. We have considered different scenarios, and how safe or unsafe they would make us feel. We continue to engage in daily mindfulness activities.

The children are loving our Habitats topic! We have explored Woodland, Ocean and Rainforest habitats to far. We went for a walk in the local woods to spot some plants and animals we learned about in the classroom. We used the iPads to research different Ocean Animals. We used the ‘Jigsaw Learning’ method to learn about Rainforests – each group were given a different aspect of the Rainforest to research and create a poster on. The children then became the teacher and taught their peers about what they learned. Each group gave feedback to one another – this was a big hit!

Thank you for all the hard work you have been doing at home. I am so impressed by the amazing effort made by all during home learning. Seeing the children’s work and pictures of the activities they have been doing has been fantastic.

This week we will begin offering live sessions for the children to take part in. These sessions will have a different focus each day. In P3/4, Monday and Friday’s session will focus on Health and Wellbeing. On Tuesday there will be a maths drop-in session, and on Wednesday a Literacy drop-in. On Thursday, we will have a playtime chat on Google Classroom. Please make use of these sessions if you require any support or have questions about any of the work provided.

In literacy, our focus on Scots Language in going well. This week the children have listened to The Gruffalo in Scots – I hope they enjoyed the story. The children have created Gruffalo flashcards in Scots to describe the Gruffalo’s features. These are being used to help us write a detailed character description of the Gruffalo using lots of adjectives and Scots words. We will complete a comprehension task based on The Gruffalo in Scots later in the week.

This week we have continued with our Multiplication topic in maths. The children did a fantastic job of learning the 2 and 10 times table, and this week we are starting to learn the 5 times table! To help the children with this, I have provided some dice dot patterns in the learning packs. This allows the children to see the groups of 5 as they count forwards. This should help the children visualise the abstract concept of times tables! You can see how I use these in my video on Google Classroom.

Other curricular areas: I have uploaded a new learning grid to Google Classroom. Here you will see a wide range of activities for your child to choose from – including baking, music lessons, and creating a golf course in the garden! I hope you have fun with these, and don’t forget to send Miss Robbie pictures of the activities you have been doing!

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you need anything at all.

Take care and stay safe,

Miss Robbie

I hope you are all doing well as we begin home learning again.  As you know, packs were provided with work for 2 weeks. This included textbooks, jotters and reading books. I hope you are finding these useful and makes preparing for learning at home a bit easier for you.

Literacy: During home learning, we will continue learning a new spelling rule on Mondays. The children will be sent video links of our sound and will complete different spelling activities each week.

At the start of this new term, we will be focussing on Scots Language in our writing and comprehension tasks. We will be using The Gruffalo in Scots as a stimulus for our writing. We will learn about Robert Burns through our comprehension lesson. The children have been sent some Scottish poems and songs to learn as part of our focus on Burns and Scots Language.

Maths: We are beginning the term by starting our Multiplication topic in maths. The children will focus on learning the 2, 5 and 10-times table initially. So far, we have learned to use arrays to help us with multiplication. This gives children a meaningful way of visualising times tables, which can be an abstract concept to understand.

We will use video clips filmed by Miss Robbie, as well as clips from BBC Bitesize to help us with multiplication. In your learning packs you were provided with counters, ten rods, dice patterns and 100 squares to aid learning in maths.

Other curricular areas: A new curricular grid will be posted on Google Classroom every 2 weeks. This grid consists of plenty of activities covering Health and Wellbeing, Science, Art, Music, Drama and French. I love seeing pictures of the children completing grid activities, so please email these to me at: erin.robbie@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

New packs will be ready for collection on Friday 22^nd January. This will include work for weeks 3 and 4 of home learning. Please return all reading books children were provided with in their first pack. A box will be provided for this. Please return these in a poly-pocket or envelope with your child’s name on – this is for us to keep track of books returned.

You may wish to return worksheets the children have completed during weeks 1 and 2.

As always, if you require support or have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me via email or Google Classroom. Take care and stay safe.