Congratulations to our lucky Hallowe’en Raffle winners Gabo (primary 3), Luke (primary 4) and Madison (primary 5).

November Newsletter

Today the children have been having a fantastic day in school taking part in our Hallowe’en activities.  Thank you for purchasing raffle tickets for our Hallowe’en Trick or Treat bags.  From this we have raised £180 which will go towards purchasing items for our Christmas crafts.

We have lots of exciting activities planned for November, please read on to find out some more.

School Photographs

This will take place on Friday 5^th November.  All children will be photographed and family pictures for children in school will also be taken.  Please complete the slip sent home this week and return to school ASAP.

Class Videos

This term each class will issue a class video shoeing some of the things that children have been taking part in.  This video will be password protected with a text sent with password details to the main contact in school.  If you do not wish your child to be included in this then please contact the school directly or via the contact us form on the school website.

Sports Leadership Sessions

Our Active Schools link Mark Devlin will complete Sports Leadership activities with our Primary 5 and 6 children.  This will begin on Wednesday 17^th November for 4 weeks.

Children in Need

Children in Need takes place on Friday 19^th November.  We are aware that this is an expensive time of the year, we are asking for a £1 donation if you are able to.  This will be available on ParentPay closer to the time.  The children will take part in a special activity afternoon.

Parents/Carers Appointments

Due to ongoing restrictions parents/carers will again take place via phonecall.  These will take place between Monday 22^nd November and Friday 26^th November.  A letter will be sent home next week with further details for each class.

Book Week Scotland Gifting Event

Primary 1- 3 will have a special afternoon of activities for this on Wednesday 24^th November.  Children in Primary 1-3 can come to school dressed in their pyjamas on this day.  Primary 1 will receive a Bookbug bag, Primary 2 and 3 will receive a Read Write Count bag.

Class Calendar

We will again be offering a class calendar for sale, more details to follow for this.

Christmas Crafts

Each child will be creating a Christmas craft again this year.  Funds raised from this will go towards school funds.

Christmas Events

Each class will attend an Advent services at the Church – date to be confirmed.

An exciting opportunity for pupils to take part in Handball.

HANDBALL COMMUNITY CLUB

PRIMARY:P5-7 boys & girls

DAY:      Tuesday

TIME:    5pm-6pm

VENUE: St Joseph’s Leisure Centre (games hall)

DATES: 26th Oct to 14th Dec

COST:    Free

REGISTER HERE USING SMARTSURVEY BELOW:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Handballclub/

*Maximum 30 places – this is due to restrictions based on COVID 19*

Please only attend if you have registered a place. For more information please email: mark.devlin@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

P5-7 Handball Community Club

Primary 1 Curriculum Overview Term 2 2021

Welcome back to the Primary 1 blog. Here you will find out what Primary 1 will be learning about this term as they continue to grow as learners and as individuals.

Literacy

Primary 1 worked very hard last term to develop their phonological awareness. They have used this new knowledge to support them as they began to learn some of the initial sounds. Primary 1 will continue to learn two new sounds every week until they have learned all initial sounds (26). As Primary 1 grow in confidence, recognising and identifying initial sounds they will use this knowledge to word build. In addition to this, Primary 1 will be learning new common words every week alongside the initial sounds. Primary 1 will have lots of opportunities to practise each new sound and common words in a range of active ways in line with the Active Literacy approach to learning. As Primary 1 become more confident when word building and recognising common words they will focus on using these words to build simple sentences as well as apply this knowledge to read worded texts.

Primary 1 will focus on developing their word attack strategies as they develop their reading and writing skills. As Primary 1 begin to access worded texts, they will also begin to develop their prediction skills. They will look closely at their new reading books each week and make simple predictions (orally) about what they think their book will be about. This will help to deepen their understanding of each text as well as begin to develop their comprehension skills. In addition to this, Primary 1 will develop their sequencing and visualisation skills. They will listen to a range of traditional stories including Goldilocks and the Three Bears and they will have opportunities to role play the stories to ensure correct sequence before they independently sequence the story.

In writing, Primary 1 will focus on descriptive writing. The children will describe familiar objects before moving on to describe characters from known stories. Primary 1 will use the descriptive bubble to support this learning. The children will begin to describe orally. They will then focus on creating detailed drawings of objects and characters before attempting to write descriptions.

Primary 1 will continue to develop their talking and listening skills; understanding when to listen and when to respond, taking turns and communicating with others. They will also continue to develop their fine motor skills and pincer grip which will enable them to write their names independently as well as form letters and numbers in the correct way.

Numeracy and Mathematics

Numeracy – This term, Primary 1 will have lots of opportunities to practise and consolidate their knowledge of numbers to 10 as well as quantities to 10 in a range of different ways. As Primary 1 become more confident when comparing quantities, they will now think about “more” and “less”. In addition to this, Primary 1 will begin to learn about the concept of addition within 10. They will have the opportunity to use a range of concrete resources to develop their understanding of this new concept before moving towards applying their knowledge mentally. Primary 1 will have the opportunity to apply their learning through daily number talks.

Mathematics – Primary 1 will continue to develop their information handling skills this term. They will also gain an understanding of money through their shops and shopping topic. Primary 1 will learn to identify coins as well as understand that each coin represents a different value. As the children become more confident, they will have many opportunities for challenge by adding to find totals. Primary 1 will have the opportunity to put their new knowledge about money into practice as they role play in their very own shop. Primary 1 will also touch upon the concept of position and movement in term 2 as part of their fairy tales topic. The children will use their new knowledge of sequencing when undertaking this new learning. The children will also access coding software and use Spheros to apply their knowledge of position and movement.

Health and Wellbeing

Primary 1 will continue to develop their social and emotional skills through our whole school PATHS programme. The children continue to enjoy engaging with the puppets and love it when they visit our classroom. Primary 1 love giving and receiving compliments each day as part of “Pupil of the Day”. Primary 1 will continue to learn about their emotions through a range of activities and stories based around the PATHS puppets. The children in Primary 1 continue to engage enthusiastically with this programme.

Physical Education

This term Primary 1 will focus on developing their large and small ball skills including skills related to playing football. In addition to this, Primary 1 will have the opportunity to develop their social dancing skills in preparation for their class Christmas party. They will learn dances such as The Grand Old Duke Of York. Primary 1 will, as always, complete all physical activities with safety at the forefront. At the moment, one PE session takes place outdoors (Monday) whilst the second session takes place indoors (Thursday).

P.E. days will continue to be Monday and Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school dressed appropriately with either joggers or leggings and trainers as well as their school jumper on Monday for the outdoor session. Your child should come to school on full uniform on Thursday ensuring they have appropriate indoor gym shoes to change into for their indoor session. Please ensure all earrings are removed and kept at home on both P.E. days.

Religious Education

As November is the month of Remembrance, Primary 1 will learn about different saints including St. Andrew. The children will listen to stories from the Bible that will teach them about love and the importance of praying for loved ones as well as people who have died. Throughout December, Primary 1 will learn about the birth of Jesus. The children will learn how Advent helps us to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Primary 1 will participate in daily prayers around the crib as well as light the Advent candles at the appropriate time. During Advent, Primary 1 will be reminded of the importance of showing kindness and love during this time.

IDL

This term, Primary 1 will continue to make lots of links across their learning through their Fairyland topic. They have already enjoyed learning different traditional tales and have had opportunities to apply their knowledge through a range of related science, expressive arts and HWB activities. Primary 1 will also learn about different shops and different jobs associated with shops through their shops and shopping topic. They will develop their understanding of money through this topic. Primary 1 will set up their own shop which will enable them to apply their new knowledge of shops and money. In addition to this, as we approach the Christmas period, Primary 1 will think about how Christmas is celebrated in their local community as well as learn about Christmas traditions around the world. Primary 1 will also participate in the Christmas nativity. They will collaborate with the children in Primary 2 and 3 during this time. Primary 1 will develop many drama and music-based skills as they prepare their nativity performance.

Reminder

If your child has not already done so, please ensure that your child brings in appropriate outdoor learning clothes. This will allow your child to fully engage with any outdoor learning experiences.

Please ensure that you write your child’s name on any items of clothing they may take off throughout the school day, eg. jumpers. This will help to ensure your child doesn’t lose any items of clothing.

Thank you for visiting the Primary 1 blog, keep a look out for any further updates as term 2 progresses!

Thank you,

Mrs Dunsmore.

I hope you all had a relaxing October break and are ready to embark on the forthcoming Hallowe’en and Festive celebrations!! We are certainly ready for another busy term of learning in Primary 1/2, while still managing to get caught up in the fun and excitement of the Christmas term.

Literacy

Primary 2

In phonics we will continue with our joined phonemes (2 letter sounds) and become more confident in reading and writing these.

As we learn new common words, spelling will continue to be an important focus for us to ensure we can develop our independent writing skills.

We are working our way through the Bug Club texts, appropriate to our stage of learning. Please continue to login to these as required for our homework tasks. If there is any issue with logging on, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

During this term, we will focus on our word attack skills using our phonics knowledge and we will be developing our understanding of texts by answering literal questions. We will also be deepening our prediction skills by using the title, blurb and illustrations to justify our responses.

Primary 1

This term we will be continuing to practise our letter formation and pencil control skills to ensure we can write the letters we have been learning.

Now that we know some of the sounds the letters of the alphabet make, we will be “blending” these together to make words. These words will help us with our reading and writing tasks.

In writing, we will continue to describe people and objects, orally and pictorially focusing on colour, shape and size.

In reading we will be predicting what a text is about using the title, front cover and blurb. We will also be sequencing parts of the story in the correct order to check our understanding.

Numeracy

Counting will always be a focus in P1/2, ensuring we can count on and back from any number to give us the fluidity needed for mental addition and subtraction.

Primary 2

Our main focus this term will be addition within 10 and 20. Some children will be exploring the number stories (facts) to 20 including the tricky skill of “bridging” 10!

Within addition we will think about the mental strategies we use to answer calculations including counting on, doubles and near doubles.

Primary 1

Now that we have explored the numbers to 10 fully and have looked at “more” and “less”, we will be focusing on the concept of addition. We will begin by combining two quantities and understanding that when you do this, the quantity gets bigger. This will lead us on to learning our number stories, where we learn the different ways to “make” our numbers to 10. These number stories (or facts) are the building blocks to which all the other number processes are built upon, so we will spend a lot of time on these, ensuring they are well embedded before moving on.

Writing numbers can be tricky, so number formation will also remain a focus.

As a class we will also be exploring the properties of 2D and 3D shape, identifying the different types of shapes and describing them in relation to their number of faces, edges, corners etc.

We will also begin to look at the many aspects of “Time”. We already start each morning by looking at the days of the week and finding the date on our calendar, but we will also be learning the sequence of the months and their corresponding seasons. We will start to look at telling the time (on the hour and half past) using digital and analogue clocks as the topic progresses.

Health & Well-Being

We continue on with our PATHS programme by reflecting on the emotions we have been exploring and learning of ways to manage these. Our favourite PATHS puppet, Twiggle, will be helping us with this as he shows us how to do “Turtle”, giving us a strategy to calm ourselves when things get a bit too much.

Friendships continue to be a general focus and we will also be considering the importance of our mental health and who we can ask for help.

In PE we will begin our first of two blocks of gymnastics. The main focus for this block will be to develop our skills in travelling, jumping and rolling. During outdoor PE, the focus will be football, developing passing and receiving skills.

In preparation for the social event of the year (the Mount Carmel Christmas Party!!) the children will also be learning social dancing.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO TAKE EARRINGS OUT FOR GYM DAYS ON MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS.

RE

We have been learning about the importance of the bible in RE and have already read the story of “Creation”. We will continue to thank God for giving us a world of natural beauty and think about what we can do to help look after it.

Throughout November our theme will be remembrance. We will learn  what it means to be a saint, before exploring the lives of St Andrew and St Francis of Assisi.

As December arrives, we will celebrate advent together, preparing for the birth of Jesus by showing love and kindness to those around us as much as we possibly can. We will be exploring the story of the nativity through songs, role play and craft activities.

Inter-disciplinary Learning (Topic)

Our topic for the term ahead is Forces and Electricity. We will learn what a force is before exploring “push” and “pull”. Magnetic force will also be introduced and we will be experimenting with magnets and magnetic materials.

To develop our understanding of electricity, we will consider the items we use which need a power source to work. We will identify those which use a battery or mains electricity and will have the chance to construct a simple circuit.

We will consider the ways in which we can conserve energy and make power last longer.

Expressive Arts

Our art, music and drama work this term will be centred around the Christmas Nativity.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Duff

Hello and welcome to our second blog post of the session.  Primary 2/3 have been very busy, working hard within their groups and following the new routines and class rules we have in place in class.  We had a fabulous first term and the children are eager and keen to begin their new topics in our new term.

Literacy

Our class novel has been ‘The Enchanted Wood’ during term 1 and this has been well received by the children. We will continue to read this novel in class and will also read the follow-on books from the Magic Faraway Tree series.  This will be for fun and to keep the excitement and enjoyment of our first text going over the coming term.

Our reading and spelling activities are continuing to be enjoyed and worked on in class, at various times throughout the week. Children are using a mixture of practical, hands on activities such as play dough, salt trays, stencils and chalk boards to practice their spelling words but are also employing strategies such as ‘rainbow spell’ and ‘pyramid spell’ to reinforce their spelling knowledge at home and in class. We are using the Active Literacy phoneme stories and word building applications to help us recognise our spelling sound and words in texts we are accessing.

In reading we will continue to work on prediction but the focus will switch to sequencing and ordering events within the text, such as beginning, middle and end and what happen first, next and last in our texts throughout this term. Our focus in writing has been descriptive writing, and this will continue this term, as well as giving the children opportunities to write scientific reports, based on findings from the experiments we carry out during out topic of ‘Energy Around Us’.

Just a reminder that homework will continue to be sent out weekly on a Monday, so please check your children’s bags for their plastic wallet.  Reading books will be attached to pupils’ accounts through our online Bug Club reading programme and all homework should be returned to school on a Friday.

Maths

Our focus in maths this term will be place value and becoming more familiar with numbers to 100 with both our rectangle and triangle groups and numbers to 999 with pupils from our circle maths group.  We will also have a focus on money, as well as addition and subtraction, number talks, and word problems to consolidate our strategies within these operations of number. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters 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 is continuing 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 for the second and third time throughout this term.  We are continuing to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.

In P.E, our sessions will happen inside (Tuesday) once per week, and outside (Thursday) once per week and our focus will be on large and small ball skills, gymnastics and dance. We are building on our term 1 topics and hope to see the spacial awareness and team building skills further developed throughout this term.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on bible stories, saints and the nativity. As our Primary 3 children will be preparing for Reconciliation after the new year, the sacraments will be discussed in depth, so children fully understand each of the sacraments and their importance in their relationship with God.

Topic

Our topics over the next term will be ‘Energy Around Us’ where children will be given the opportunity to explore toys and how they move, looking at pushing and pulling and how magnets can be used to make objects move.  Children will hypothesise about what force could make objects move, carry out experiments and record their findings.

In the lead up to Christmas, we will have an enterprise topic where children will work in teams to budget for and buy resources, which will then become an item they can sell at Christmas time.  The children will hope to turn their budget and craft item into a profit which will be donated to charity. The focus will primarily be on the different roles within a working group, managing money and financial obligations, whilst looking at the benefits to charity, when a profit can be made.

As always, we hope this is the start of another successful term and that the pupils will enjoy all the different festivities that follow as we prepare for Christmas, celebrating Christs birth and the preparations and production of the infant Nativity!

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Hello again everyone.  Here we are in term 2 with Halloween already on the horizon and Christmas not long after.  Where does the time go!  Here is a brief update of our learning focus this term.

Literacy

After reading our class novel last term, we now aim to develop Active Literacy strategies through Bug Club guided reading texts.  There will be a particular focus on paraphrasing as well as continuing to explore and improve answering and asking a variety of question types. For writing, we are concentrating on persuasive pieces and aim to use these skills in a real life context (hopefully with the same outcome as last year’s letters).  So look forward to your child discussing topics, debating effectively and becoming even more convincing in getting what they want!

Numeracy

This term our numeracy focus is on multiplication and division incorporating aspects of fractions decimals and percentages.  We will continue to use Number Talk strategies to develop mental strategies related to multiplication and division.  The class are also working on skills beyond number with Mrs MacKinnon will be investigating the concept of probability.

Health and Wellbeing

We will look at various focus from our PATHS resource and continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day.  We are also exploring substance misuse in the form of alcohol, looking at different types, the recommend daily limit and how it affects the body.

For our PE, we will be visiting Ayrshire College on Wednesdays and participating in outdoor activities.  In school, we will be focussing on gymnastics where we will develop our knowledge and execution of shapes, jumps, turns, balances and rolls.  We will also spend a short time looking at traditional Scottish dances.

IDL

Our topic this term is science based and is space and its forces.  We will be investigating the planets in our Solar System, famous astronauts, phases of the moon, gravity and magnetism and the importance of the International Space Station.  We will also look at how technology has advanced since the moon landings and explore Elon Musk’s Space X programme as well as Virgin Galactic.

Mr Bertoncini

The Tempest photographer will be coming in to the school on  Friday 5th . There is a letter in school bags today to complete if you wish your child/children to be photographed with a sibling who also attends Mount Carmel.

Please note , unfortunately, we cannot allow siblings from nurseries/playgroups etc  to enter the school to have their photographs taken this year due to Covid 19.

Thank you for your co-operation.

There is still time to buy your Halloween Raffle tickets on         Parentpay !    

They are £1 per strip and the draw will take place in school this Friday .

There are some fantastic prizes to be won!

Welcome back!  We hope everyone in P5 is feeling rested after their October holidays and are now settled back into the school routine and ready to take on more responsibility in the upper school.

We are looking forward to new learning discoveries this term as well as building on our current skills and developing these further.

                  Literacy

Primary 5 will focus on our reading skills and comprehension strategies through accessing both Bug Club and Giglet texts both within school and at home for homework. We will be developing our fluency and expression as well as looking at both fiction and non-fiction texts this term to link with our IDL topic.

In spelling, we will continue to focus on our phonemes, blends and common words. This will take the form of activities related to the ‘Active Spelling’ resource pertinent to the ability and stage.

Within listening and talking, we will continue to practise listening to and following instructions. The children will also be encouraged to share their opinions on different matters as well as providing an explanation as to why they think in that way. This will be predominantly linked to our IDL topic for the term, but will encompass many of our curricular areas.

This term our formal writing lessons will centre on persuasive writing. We will use structured planning ideas to allow children to generate pieces and build upon helpful writing techniques to support this. We will also continue to revisit narrative genres using our description bubbles to aid writing and note taking for non-fiction IDL writing.

Numeracy

Pupils are working on concepts within groups focussing on 1^st and 2^nd level concepts. The circles and rectangles groups will focus on addition and subtraction this term, we will be using various strategies to help our numeracy confidence grow. The squares and rectangles will also focus on addition and subtraction at their level we will use number lines and our place value knowledge to practise our formal notation. All pupils will engage in number talks and interactive maths activities as well as looking at new strategies to develop their mental maths agility and recall. Times tables should continue to be practised at home to ensure quick recall. In Beyond Number, we will be looking at ‘Time’ as a focus within our respective groups.

Health and Well-being/ICT

We will be continuing to look at emotions and feelings this term and strategies we can use in dealing with them. This will be supported through our whole school ‘Paths’ resource.  In ICT, Primary 5 will continue to work on our basic computing skills and how these can help us in everyday life. Continued practise in class and at home of touch typing and login skills will improve access to various platforms currently used in school from Glow, Giglets, Bug club and Sumdog.

R.E

This month our focus has been on Our lady. We will be supported in our learning by Srs. Mabel and Juliet from Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish who will help us to learn prayers such as the ‘Angelus’. We will also focus on the lives of the Saints, the creation story and discuss themes such as ‘Remembrance’. In December, we will prepare as a class for advent and observe this through various school lessons, attending mass and associated activities.

Science/IDL

Our IDL focus this term will be science based looking at animal and their habitats and the diversity of living things. We will tie this in with a study of David Attenborough and the work he does. This will link to Art and literacy as well as STEM. This will be introduced as the term progresses once we have completed our ‘Knights and Castles’ learning.

Looking forward to another great term in P5.

Thanks again for your on-going support.

Mrs Crawford & Mrs McIntyre.

We would prefer it if children did not wear age inappropriate costumes to school on Friday.

As of tomorrow (26/10/21), the children will be coming round the classes with poppies.  We are accepting cash donations where possible via the charity collection tin only in return for a poppy.

Thank you

We have three fantastic Hallowe’en  trick or treat bags filled with a range of special Hallowe’en treats.  👻🎃💀

Look out on ParentPay from Monday for your chance to purchase 5 tickets for a £1.  The raffle will close at Midnight on Thursday with tickets being drawn on Friday. All proceeds from this will go towards school funds.

Good Luck!

Today some of our Primary 7 children have participated in Children and Young People’s Climate Conference.  This focussed on Energy, Transport, Waste and Natural Environment.

KRIS BOYD FOOTBALL CENTRE IS BACK !

Ayrshire College
Outdoor – Astro

Term 1 Start Date: Monday 25th October 2021
Finish Date for Term 1: Monday 6th December 2021

Day: Monday’s
Time: 4pm – 5pm
Age Group: Primary 1 – Primary 7
BOYS ONLY !
Cost: FREE

To book please use link below:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/KRISBOYD/

Any queries contact: cherryl.fulton@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

ROSE REILLY FOOTBALL CENTRE IS BACK !!

Ayrshire College
Outdoor – Astro

Term 1 Start Date: Wednesday 20th October 2021
Finish Date for Term 1: Wednesday 8th December 2021

Day: Wednesday’s
Time: 4pm – 5pm
Age Group: Primary 1 – Primary 7
GIRLS ONLY !
Cost: FREE

Book using the link below:

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/REILLY/

Any queries please contact: cherryl.fulton@east-ayrshire.gov.uk

We are delighted to announce that we made £81 from our recent “Dress Down Day”. This will go towards our school funds.

Thank you to everyone who made a donation.

On Friday 29^th October children are invited to come to school dressed in their Halloween costumes.

There will be fun Halloween activities throughout the day in their classes.

P6/7 Football Club

(open to boys & girls)

St Joseph’s Academy, Grassyards Rd, Kilmarnock KA3 7SL

Outdoor on an Astro Pitch – Please dress appropriately

(parents will be notified if sessions are cancelled via the email address provided, please ensure its correct)

Wednesday 20th October – Wednesday 24th November (6 week block)

P6 – P7

4pm – 5pm

FREE

Maximum 30 – Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. PLEASE ONLY REGISTER IF YOU INTEND TO COME ALONG AS SPACES ARE LIMITED

Register: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/P6-7FootballClub/

We hope all of our children and families have a fantastic October holiday.  Our holidays begin on Friday at 3pm.  School returns on Tuesday 19th October at 9am.

A reminder that Friday 8th October is an own clothes day.  We are asking for a £1 donation to be made for school funds. This is available on ParentPay.

Earth house had an amazing House Prize today. The children enjoyed their movie morning and cooking with Stephanie this afternoon. We are looking forward to some delicious cookies tomorrow.

Thank you to Stephanie and our amazing kitchen staff for organising this today.

A reminder that tomorrow’s school lunch will be a Munchie Box. This will contain a slice of pizza, 1/2 burger in a bun, chicken nugget and chips. Dessert is Strawberry tart or popcorn!

As you know our winning House, Earth will be rewarded tomorrow with a “Movie Morning” including popcorn, diluting juice and fun size chocolate bars. The film the children will be watching will have a “U” (universal) rating.

If your child is in the winning house and you would rather they did not have any of the above, please let the school office know as soon as possible.

We made £16.80 from our recent Rag Bag collection. Thank you to everyone who donated.