We have been very busy over the last few weeks, so much so that I haven’t had much time to take photos and post them!

In maths, we are continuing to consolidate and extend our general number knowledge. We identify numbers, order them, sequence them, skip count, look at number structure and add and subtract using different strategies on a daily basis at the start of our Maths lessons. We then move on to our main focus, which is currently fractions. We are developing our knowledge of fractions of a quantity, using lots of different practical methods and using resources to support this! including loose parts and play dough.

During literacy lessons we are continuing to revise and develop our phonics and spelling, through the teaching and learning of our weekly sound and tricky words. We use these skills to help us become more independent and experienced writers and we are all making great improvements during writing lessons. We are adding more details, thinking about where to put capital letters and full stops and using more connectives. We have also been learning about adjectives, nouns and this coming week we will be learning about verbs.  Alongside spelling, grammar and writing we are continuing with our reading. Again, the children are making great progress, using all their skills and knowledge to help them become more confident and fluent readers.

For Topic we are now learning about the body and the children are very enthusiastic! They had lots of previous knowledge, which we are using as starting blocks to build on. So far we have been learning about the importance of the skeleton and the internal organs and how the muscles help us to move.

The children also enjoy choosing their own activities and learning during our soft start. They have been learning the rules and playing new games where they have to be patient and take turns. They love to use the stencils to draw and add extra details to their picture. The whiteboards are always popular for prectising writing skills. The small Leto is very popular and great for sharing, expressing creativity and  developing language skills and of course fine tuning fine motor control. Our home corner and loose parts are also very popular. The children love to use their imagination, develop their social skills and make sense of the world through role play activities.

Here are a few pictures from our learning last week.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you and the children had a lovely break. They couldn’t wait to tell me their news. They have all been very lucky getting lots of gifts from Santa and having together time with their families.

We have been very busy since we came back, sharing and writing about our Christmas news during our literacy lessons. We also have been enjoying our new reading books and work well together to decode new or unfamiliar vocabulary.  We are revising some of our sounds and will be using these as part of our new spelling lessons, learning more words to go along with them.

In Maths, we are continuing to develop our mental Maths skills and knowledge with daily activities that consolidate and extend our knowledge of numbers and their processes. We have also been learning about measuring length using nonstandard and standard units.

In P.E we have been developing our hand and eye coordination skills with throwing and catching activities along with some racket and ball skills.

Here are a few pictures from our week.

I hope you enjoyed the nativity. We are all exhausted from our 4 performances! The children were fantastic, confident individuals. I am a very proud teacher and I’m sure you are all very proud too.

We have managed to squeeze some learning in too! Here are some pictures from some of our activities.

Last week we were completing activities to help us  develop our reading, phonics and spelling skills. We were reading with a partner, filling a picture frame with our weekly sound and associated words, making and reading silly sentences and looking for and recording tricky words that we had searched for in books from our shared area library.

In art we have been making a line drawing of Hendry the penguin. We were using sharpies and oil pastels for a wax resist effect. We have also been learning about hot and cold colours.

Mrs Macleod (P2M)                            

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope you find the following information useful.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact either of us.

Learning focus this term:

Through our topic Our Caring Community we will be learning about:

• What a community is
• What a charity is
• How local organisations and charities support the local community
• The difference between needs and wants

If you have any experience in this area, please let us know. We would love to have some ‘experts’ come in to share in our learning journey.

Core Literacy:

• As you are aware, we are continuing with our Read Write Inc programme for phonics and spelling. We are now using Storyworld books for our reading, along with our class novel, to help develop reading and comprehension skills. Your child may bring home a second reading book on a Wednesday, due to nativity. After Christmas, the children will receive two books every week.
• Our writing lessons will have a focus on functional writing this term. We are developing the use of connectives within our sentences, such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’ to extend our writing. We will also be developing our handwriting skills.
• We are working on our listening and talking skills through Show and Tell, Book Blessings and sharing our news at circle time. We will be learning about asking open and closed questions.

Core Numeracy:

This term will be focusing on

• Addition and subtraction, to include doubles, and tens and ones.
• Time, to include months of the year
• Symmetry
• Compass points

We will also be learning about Christianity with Mrs McCreadie.

Health and Wellbeing:

This term we are learning about health and wellbeing through our Rookie Rockstar programme. We are also participate in anti-bullying week. We will continue to encourage and teach our children to make healthy choices, to enable then to become healthy, active and emotionally resilient young people of the future.

Yellow Wing Cuddle on the Couch:

Please help us to promote reading by joining us for Cuddle on the Couch. Come along to the Yellow Wing and spend some time reading with your child.  Our last session for this term will be on Thursday 6^th December.

Nativity:

This year P2 will be participating in the nativity, which will be taking place during the week beginning 10^th December. All children will be learning songs and some will have speaking parts. These will be sent home for you to practice with your child.

Lost Property:

We are aware that children sometimes misplace jumpers and other items of clothing. Please ensure that your child’s name is on every piece of clothing that comes into school. Children are given opportunities to find their property in class and throughout the school. If your child comes out of school without some of their belongings, they will be given the opportunity to retrieve their property the next day.

I look forward to working in partnership with you this session.

Kind regards,

Mrs MacLeod

Another busy week.

In gymnastics we have been developing our gymnastic skills with help from Mr Richardson and his students.

We were very lucky last week to have a special visit from the Author Lizzie Finnigan. She shared one of her stories with us and we had fun acting out different scenes from the book.

In Maths we are continuing to consolidate our knowledge of doubles and we are exploring different methods to help us with addition.

In topic lessons, after exploring the concept of community and charity we have been discussing the difference between needs and wants. We really enjoyed our visit to the gate finding out all about how they help the local community.  Thank you very much to my three parent/career helpers. Despite the wet start, the children enjoyed their trip. They were excited to post their Santa letters on the way too!

! 

Here is a snapshot of our learning in November so far.  We have been…..

matching lower and upper case letters, and putting them in alphabetical order;

Practising our letter formation and developing our cutting skills;

Working together-developing our social skills;

Letting our imagination run free through role play games, whilst developing our taking and listening skills;

Consolidating our number knowledge and counting skills;

Developing our literacy skills;

using our imagination and creativity;

Developing our fine motor skills and building friendships;

Reading and writing with our friends-working and learning together;

Problem solving and constructing.

A  glance at some of our learning for October.

In Maths we have continued to work with Odd and Even numbers before moving on to simple partitioning of 2 digit numbers that will help us when we add and subtract to 20 and beyond. We have also been exploring the concept of surface area and how we can measure this.

In Literacy, we have been practising our new sounds and tricky words, through completing a variety of activities. We have also been consolidating and extending our knowledge of sounding and blending to help us read and write. Please remember the boys and girls use their phonics to help them spell, so they do not always produce words that are accurately spelt but are phonetically correct.  At this early stage it is also common for reversals of letters and sometimes whole words.

In writing I am feeling very proud of the children,  as many have progressed from writing a single sentence, to writing 3,4,5 and sometimes more, with growing independence!

In P.E with Mr Richardson the children have been developing a variety of skills in teams, rotating around different stations.

The children have also been producing Autumnal collages using our loose parts.

The children have also been developing important social skills through their play.

Here is a snapshot of our learning over the last 2 weeks.

We have been……

experimenting with the bricks, seeing how high we can build a tower before it topples over.

exploring patterns using shapes and other materials.

Sorting 3D shapes according to their properties.

experimenting with number sequences.

Using our sounds to help us write.

playing matching games.

taking turns whilst identifying shapes and colours.

matching tricky words.

completing simple addition.

making 3D shapes with the play dough.

sharing stories with our friends.

matching 3D shapes to their names.

identifying and sorting odd and even numbers.

designing our Christmas cards using pattern.

Another week and another snapshot of our learning.

Cuddle on the sofa.

Making 2d shapes and naming their properties.

Sounding and blending using picture cards and play dough.

Choosing activities and learning through play.