During our topic this week we have been learning about our senses.  We discovered how our five senses help us to understand the world around us.  We also discovered that the nerves in our bodies send messages to our brain.  Did you know that we actually see things upside down.  Our very clever brains turns the picture around.  We thought this was very funny.

On Friday we went for a little sensory walk but we will be going back outside next week to investigate our playground further using our senses.

Our bread experiment (see previous posts) is showing us how important it is to was your hands with soap and water.  It’s the only slice of bread which has not turned green!!  The children are being encouraged to wash their hands regularly for 20 seconds throughout the day.

During maths this week we have been gathering information and using different ways to organise the information.  We have been making lists, using tally marks and making pictograms.  Linking to our topic, we carried out a survey to find out information about the colour of our eyes.  The most popular colour in P/2G is blue.

We will be visiting the book fair on Monday.  If you would like your child to buy a book, please put the money in an envelope with your child’s name, the name of the book (if known) and the correct money if possible.

And finally for this week, P1/2G are famous!  We made the front page (and page 2!) of the Alloa Advertiser.  You will be able to see photos from our visit to Alloa Library.

Have a lovely, healthy weekend.

We have lots of lovely news to share with you this week.

First of  all we have spent the £30 we won from the Parent Council for being runners up in the Copper Challenge.  We bought two new jigsaws (P1/2G love jigsaws!) a game called “Who Rules the Jungle” and some play dough.  It was hard to decide what to buy but we are happy with our choice and we are looking forward to playing with our jigsaws and game.

As you know, this week we celebrated World Book Day.  We love stories and we have tried to read even more than we normally do.  We had a great afternoon on Thursday at Alloa Library.  Mr Keane,  from the library, read us two stories then we got some time to read on our own.  Mrs Given borrowed some books for us to read in class.  If you are not already a member of the library please pop in and join.  Alloa Library is beautiful and have lovely books for the children (and adults) – and it’s free!

During our Health and Wellbeing/topic lessons this week we have been learning about pants!!  We know that we wear pants to keep us warm, clean and to keep our private parts private.  The NSPCC have a great song called “Pantosaurus”.  It is worth while having a look at. Since it was World Book day we also read “The Queen’s Knickers” and “The Prince of Pants”.

You will notice a difference in homework next week.  Our literacy tasks will be in a little red jotter and there will also be a numeracy worksheet.  There is a letter to explain what to do but please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Our ipad is still getting something technical done to it.  We will hopefully get it back soon and have photos to share with you.

Have a lovely weekend.

It has been lovely to see everyone back after our mid term holiday.  I think everyone has grown over the week!

We have been learning about subtraction in maths this week.  We will be able to use this skill in lots of different areas.  We have been using a lot of practical materials to help us but some of us are remembering subtraction facts in our head.  The Primary 2s in our class have been using the knowledge they learned in P1 to help complete subtraction sums with bigger numbers.

During our topic this week we have been learning about the skin.  We looked at our skin under magnifying glasses to get a better look.  We have also been learning about how our bodies heal after getting a cut or scrape.  We have been talking about how important it is to keep our skin clean so that  we do not pass on germs.  We carried out an experiment with bread to see how germs can spread.  We touched one slice of bread with dirty hands, one slice of bread with hands washed with soap and water, one with hands cleaned by hand sanitizer and one slice of bread which touched our laptop.  We also have a slice of bread that hasn’t been touched as our control.  We will let you know our results.  We will be making posters to remind people to wash their hands.

Next Thursday is World Book Day.   We will not be dressing up however the children can bring in a cuddly toy or cushion to snuggle up to and enjoy lots of stories.  We are also visiting Alloa Library next Thursday afternoon.

I am sorry there are no photos on our blog this week.  Our ipads have been collected in to get something technical done to them!! We will hopefully have it back soon.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

In maths this week, we have continued to learn about money.  We enjoyed playing and learning in the Redwell Toy Shop.

Our friends in P6 helped us to log on to the laptops this week.  We then went on to learn more about money using Doorway online.

During our reading lessons this week we have been reading non fiction books.  We were finding specific information using the contents page and index.  Some of us really liked the information books, others preferred story books.  I have collected in all of the reading books for the holiday.  If you still have some home please help your child return them after the holidays.

We have been learning about digestion during our topic lessons this week.  We now know what happens to our food after we have eaten it.  We even carried out an experiment to make vomit.  It was disgusting!

Here are some other photographs from the week.

All of our gym bags have been sent home to get washed over the holiday.  Unfortunately a few items have been left in our PE box and they do not have names on them.  We have a black pair of short age 6, a white polo shirt from George age 5-6 and a pair of white socks.  if they belong to your child let me know.

Have a lovely holiday everyone.

As you can see from our post’s heading this week, we have been learning about money.  We have been looking carefully at the coins all the way up to £2.  We did find this tricky at first but by Friday we were more confident.  We then moved on to adding up  the value of coins and were pleased that we could use our knowledge of adding to help us.  We will be continuing to learn more about money next week.  If you are at the shops why don’t you let your child help choose the coins to pay for the shopping and add up totals.  There is also a couple of money games on www.doorwayonline.org.uk which we have or will be using in class.

Staying with the theme of money we have been thinking about what to spend our Copper Challenge runners up prize money on.  We have £30 to spend.  If you have any ideas let us know. Some of our ideas have been craft materials, new books, jigsaws and a pet fish. Unfortunately we can not buy a swimming pool!

During reading this week we have been looking at non fiction books.  We have been looking at the contents page and how they look different from story books.  We will continue this next week .  I will collect in all of the reading books and chill books at the end of next week before the holiday.  If you have any of our reading books at home please, please return them.

Have a lovely weekend.

During our Literacy lessons this week, we have been continuing to learn more about digraphs (2 or more letters which make 1 sound).  In class we call them special friends.  Our Primary 1s have have learning about igh (fly high) and ow (blow the snow).  Our Primary 2s have been learning more about ir (whirl and twirl) and ou (shout it out).  We have also been practising our tricky words.

In Maths we have been learning more about addition.  We will be learning about money next week and will be able to develop our addition skills further.

During our topic lessons this week we have been learning about the heart.  We found out that our heart pumps blood around our bodies and that we need it to stay alive.  We also discovered that your heart beats faster when you are doing exercise because it needs to pump more blood around our bodies.

We can’t believe it is the last day of January.  Bring on Fantastic February!

2019-2020

Class Newsletter: Term 3

Primary 1/2G:

Dear Parent/Carer,

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

Learning in Term 2:

In term 2 we learned all about Space. We learned to recognise the sun, moon and stars and link these to times of the day and our routines at home and school. We learned how day and night are linked to the sun and the rotation of Planet Earth. We also learned about the solar system and managed to name and order the planets from the Sun.

We also worked really hard on developing our reading and writing skills. We learned more letter sounds and some digraphs (special friends).  We are continuing to practise our letter formation.

In Mathematics and Numeracy we continued to learn more about number and are continuing to practise our number formation.  We were also learning about the days of the week, months of the year, seasons,  pattern, 2D and 3D shape and the compass points.

Learning focus this term:

Through our topic The Body we will be learning about:

• The skeleton
• The major organs
• Spreading of germs and common diseases

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:

Primary 1

• We will continue to learn the sound digraphs and revise previously taught sounds.
• Tricky words will be taught and used in class.
• The children will continue to focus on using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops in their writing. Some children will begin using a connective to join 2 sentences together.
• The children will also learn about labelling within their writing.
• The children will be learning about different reading strategies such as looking for picture clues as they continue to develop their reading skills.
• We will look also look at poetry and recite a Scots poem or song at our Scots Assembly.

Primary 2

• We are continuing with our Read, Write Inc literacy programme for phonics. ‘Fred’ will help us to sound and blend words to help us read and write.
• Children will continue to develop their reading skills.  We will be learning different reading strategies to help us read new words.  We will be also looking at the punctuation in our books to help us read fluently and with expression.
• Our writing lessons will focus on report writing and creative writing. We are continuing to develop the use of connectives within our sentences, such as ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’ to extend our writing. We will continue to recognise and use verbs, nouns and adjectives in our reading and 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 also be learning to distinguish between facts and opinions. We have been learning ‘The Sair Finger’, which we will share at our Scots Assembly.

Core Mathematics and Numeracy:

Primary 1

• The children will be learning about time on both analogue and digital clocks.
• The children will learn new Maths vocabulary related to addition and subtraction and will be able to recognise the Mathematical signs for the processes.
• The children will be able to complete addition sums using a variety of resources to support them, such as cubes for counting and number lines to use for ‘counting on’.
• Number formation and recognition will continue to be revised throughout this term.
• Subtraction will be introduced and the children will be able to explain the difference between addition and subtraction.
• The children will learn to work with money and will be able to recognise and name coins as well as work out the correct change to be given.
• The children will learn to use tally marks and collect data.

Primary 2

•  Addition and subtraction within 20 (and beyond for some)
• We will be learning about money and using our addition and subtraction skills.
• Data Handling
• The children will be learning to tell the time on both analogue and digital clocks.  We will be learning about o’clock, half past and quarter past times.
• Number formation and recognition will continue to be revised throughout this term.

Core Health and Wellbeing:

As part of our learning about the body, we will also be learning about respecting our bodies and the correct names for different body parts. More information on this will be sent out to parents. We will continue to develop our friendship skills, such as respect, sharing and listening.

This term, we are learning to be like Heard Hazel. Pupils will be able to receive their Heard Hazel certificate if they:

1. Listen carefully
2. Wait their turn and do not interrupt others
3. Share their ideas with their classmates
4. Allow others to have their say

We will have further certificates for other Redwell’s Rights and Respecting School characters later in the session.

We will learn about Buddhism in RME.

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. If you require a schedule of Cuddle on the Couch dates, please contact the school office.

Please look out for more details about our Sharing of Learning afternoon later in the term.

Kind regards,

Mrs Given

We continued to learn about time this week.  On Monday we went out to the clock face on the playground to make times.  It was fun being the hands on the clock.  You may have noticed on Twitter this week that we have been learning in lots of different ways.  We have also been looking at our classroom clock to tell the time too.  This is something you can do at home.  We are so busy, time does fly by in P1/2G!

You may also have read on our school Twitter page that we received a letter from Buckingham Palace this week.  We were so excited to receive such an important letter.

On Thursday, the SPCA gave a special pack about how to look after a pet.  We read a story about Pippen and Peanut the hamsters and a goodie bag full of lots of special things needed to look after them.  Some of us even got to dress up as a vet and a SPCA officer.

Ethan (Pupil Council) and Oliver (Eco Committee)  have been busy attending meetings this week.  We are very proud that you are representing our class so well.

Finally for this week, please keep practising our Scots poem “The Sair Finger”.  We will be reciting it along with the other P2 classes at our Scots Assembly next Thursday.

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to our first blog of the new year and the new decade!!

It sounds like everyone in the class has had a wonderful holiday and we were very excited to share our news.

We also welcomed Mrs McKenna, our new Headteacher, to Redwell.  We are looking forward to showing Mrs McKenna what a super class we are.

We started learning about time this week during our maths lessons.  Here are some photos of some our learning activities.

We will continue to learn more about time next week.

Our new topic this term will be “My Body”.  We had a chat about what we already know and what we would like to find out.  One thing we want to find out more about is how our brain works.

Here are some more photos from this week.  As you can see we have been enjoying playing with the new toys Santa gave us at our party.

Finally, please help your child keep their reading book and school diary in their red folder every day . We have a lot of children in the Yellow Wing and if your child does not return their reading book then there may not be enough for other children.

Thank you for your support.

It has been a very busy and exciting week in school.

We found out that we were second in the Copper Challenge.  Our Parent Council couldn’t believe that we collected so many coppers and have awarded us a runner up prize.  Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to our challenge, it was a real team effort.  We will let you know what we decide to do with our prize.

You may have noticed our tweet about our trip to the post box to post our letters to Santa.  On Thursday something magical appeared in the Yellow Wing.  Snowy footprints led to a special surprise.  Santa had received our letters and wrote a letter back to us and left us all a candy cane!

We had a great time at our party on Thursday.  We danced, played games and even received a present from Santa.

Have a lovely Christmas and a wonderful holiday.

See you in 2020!