Primary 2/3 Blog Post (Monday 6th September)
Hello and welcome to our very first blog post of the new session. Primary 2/3 have been very busy settling into our new classroom and our new routines. Children have been working hard to become familiarised with their class groups, recapping previous learning and are enhancing this through our novel study and outdoor learning.
Literacy
Our class novel is ‘The Enchanted Wood’ and through this text, the context and the discovery of the lands at the top of the Faraway Tree, pupils have explored our outdoor area, looking for natural resources to create scenes from the text. Pupils have also enjoyed some imaginative writing, describing the different lands that may arrive at the top of the Faraway Tree and using fabulous descriptive words to describe characters from the novel.
Our reading and spelling activities are now underway, and children have been working within groups to revisit previous sounds and texts, ready to use their skills and strategies to tackle new and unfamiliar spelling sounds and reading books. Our focus in writing currently is descriptive writing, and ideas will be developed from our class novel and mini topic!
Homework will be sent out this week, please check your children’s bags for a plastic wallet. Reading books will be attached to pupils’ accounts through our online Bug Club reading programme, however for the first few weeks, homework will consist of spelling and maths. These will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on a Friday.
Maths
Our focus in maths will be multiplication and division, with our circle maths group, however we will regularly revisit addition and subtraction as well as word problems to consolidate our strategies within the 4 operations of number. Children in the rectangle and triangle groups will continue to build confidence with numbers to 20 and the addition and subtraction strategies associated with these operations. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.
Health & Wellbeing
Our Paths Pupil of the Day has now begun, and our Pupil of the Day has been receiving lots of compliments and special jobs around the classroom. All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day. We will begin exploring emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.
In P.E, our sessions will happen indoors (Tuesday) once per week, and outside (Thursday) once per week and our focus will be on team games and ball skills. Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills, awareness of space and ball skills.
R.E
Our focus during R.E sessions will be on prayer, their meaning, the routines of the church and the celebration of Mass. As we will be beginning our preparation for Reconciliation later in the year, the sacraments will be discussed in depth, so children fully understand each of the sacraments and their importance in their relationship with God.
Mini-Topic
As the class novel is the Enchanted Wood, we will be doing a mini topic which focuses on houses and homes in both the rural and urban areas of our country. We will also focus on houses of the 1950s and compare this with housing today. As the characters in the novel have recently moved to the countryside, we will explore farming and the impact that has on our communities.
We hope this is the start of a very successful term and that the pupils are enjoying their return to school, with less restrictions in place!
Take care,
Mrs Travers
