Literacy: Reading
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
P5/6 excitedly started their adventure with our new class novel “The Breadwinner” by Deborah Ellis which is set in Afghanistan. They discussed their prior knowledge and questions about the country, explored the term “breadwinner,” and became book detectives, searching for and finding details about the author, characters, and setting. We look forward to exploring Afghanistan’s rich culture and following Parvana’s journey in this interesting and engaging novel. We will be learning about stereotypes, children’s rights, inequalities, geography, culture and history throughout this novel.
World Book Day
7th March 2024
Primary 5/6 had great fun celebrating all things reading last week for World Book Day thank you to the Reading Schools Committee for coming up with ideas and Mrs Sweeney for pulling their ideas together! They participated in a book themed scavenger hunt, guess the teacher (by identifying their childhood photo and favourite childhood book), book swap, author visit, writing a whole school story, and literacy open afternoon.
The author visit was inspiring as pupils had the opportunity to listen to how Rachel McGaw first got into writing and how she gets inspiration for the books she writes. Pupils also listened to a sneak peak of a fairy tale that she has not yet released.
Thank you to parents and family members that were able to come along to our open afternoon too! The pupils had the opportunity to share some of the tasks they complete in day-to-day literacy lessons linked to reading and spelling.
World Book Day – Buddy Reading
Primary 5/6 had a lovely experience during our visit to Hallhouse Care Home last Friday as part of our Reading Schools Buddy Reading Project. The pupils had the opportunity to read stories and share conversations with the residents. The visit helped pupils to build confidence when reading aloud as well as empathy and understanding of the residents needs. Super work P5/6!
Buddy Visit: Read a Story
The Primary 5/6 pupils showcased exceptional kindness and respect as they paired up with their ECC buddies for a shared reading session on Friday afternoon. They demonstrated excellent patience and genuine enthusiasm when helping their buddy to pick a book then reading it to them. The pupils really helped to create a nurturing environment. Not only did they do an excellent job of demonstrating expression and passion when reading, they also demonstrated our school’s values of kindness and respect throughout the whole visit – true role models for our younger children.
Reading for Enjoyment
Recently Mrs Ross and Mrs Wilson held a whole school Reading Schools assembly where pupils from each class shared what they have been reading with the rest of the school. They showed other pupisl their book, discussed what they liked or disliked about it and answered any questions about it. These three pupils from Primary 5/6 were very confident and enthusiastic when sharing their books and thoughts. Well done!
Literacy: Reading Schools
As part of our work towards becoming a Reading School, Mrs Sweeney arranged for the East Ayrshire mobile library to visit our school. The mobile library will be visiting regularly, providing all pupils from the ECC through to P7 the opportunity to access a wider range of books. Any books borrowed from the mobile library must be kept in school as these are borrowed on a school library card (as per the librarians requests). Today was our first visit and the excitement was real! Nearly all pupils in Primary 5/6 selected a new book to read during our ERIC (everybody reading in class) time which was lovely and calm just before lunch.
Literacy: Roald Dahl Day
13th September 2023
Last week it was Roald Dahl Day (the authors birthday) so we used this as a stimulus for some of our learning. During grammar, the pupils continued practicing using parenthesis to add extra information to their writing. They used the books, Matilda and The Twits, written by Roald Dahl to find some sentences they could ‘up-level’. They did a fantastic job – I am sure you will agree!
In the afternoon, P5/6 buddied up with P1/2 and told them who Roald Dahl was then shared some of his stories with the P1/2 pupils. Primary 5/6 were focusing on using expression and reading with fluency. They also used some of their metalinguistics skills to explain the emaning of unfamiliar words to the younger pupils.
East Ayrshire Council site
