Primary 6 Term 2 Blog Post

Welcome to term 2, I hope everyone enjoyed their October week and had a chance to unwind after all of our super hard work during term 1! Term 1 has been a great start for Primary 6, class routines have been established, a positive working environment has been created, and expectations have been set for a successful year ahead.

Below is an overview of the learning and teaching taking place in P6 this term.

Literacy

Reading

In term 2, after finishing off our class novel ‘Wonder’ we will begin to work on Bug club books. Independent books will be assigned for children to read at home for enjoyment and books will be set for each reading group to work on in class. Daily reading tasks will be set for groups to complete independently after a reading input with the teacher and these tasks will be focused around our active literacy skills. In Primary 6 we have begun to quote from the text to back up our opinion, Primary 6 have made an exceptional start at this, and this is something we will continue to master throughout the school year. During our new topic – Titanic – we will begin to focus on reading and gathering information from various different types of texts, for example, biographies, newspaper articles, primary and secondary sources etc. I believe Primary 6 will enjoy this aspect of the topic and will hit the ground running with it.

Writing

Our writing day will be a Tuesday. The pupils will have the opportunity to discuss and plan their writing the day before and will be encouraged to take time at home as a homework task to think about the content of their writing. This term Primary 6 will be focussing on Persuasive writing. The pupils will use the OREO (Opinion, Reason, Example, Opinion) framework to structure their writing. Primary 6 will focus a different aspect of grammar/punctuation each week with the expectation they use this in their formal writing. Some pupils will be expected to up-level their writing by using tools such as thesauri and the VCOP pyramid.

Spelling

The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program, this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their level and stage. The pupils will work on the Active Spelling strategies, these include diacritical marking, syllabification and words within words as daily spelling tasks and have a spelling test each week on a Friday morning.

Numeracy

This term P6 will focus on The Four Operations (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division) and our Beyond Number topics will be to continue with Angles and Symmetry and Data Handling. The pupils will experience activities at their stage and level. Constant revision of multiplication tables will be encouraged across all groups. Sumdog and Topmarks games can help with the rigor of times tables at home.

Health and Wellbeing

Last term, through our ‘Wonder’ novel we focused on friendships, changing relationships and choosing kindness. This term, some Primary 6’s will have the opportunity to become Barnardo Buddies, which those who applied have already interviewed for, introducing them to the world of work. This will be a great opportunity and experience and will allow Primary 6 to develop their leadership skills. Moreover, they will be able to put their PATHS control strategies into place, modelling these to the lower school through teaching and playing playground games with them and helping to sort any conflict. We will begin a Health and Wellbeing topic looking at food and a healthy diet, discussing the choices we make. P6 will continue to engage in our weekly PATHS lessons and be encouraged to use their ‘check in’ cards and feeling jotters to report any worries or concerns they may have to the teacher. The ‘Pupil of the Day’ is up and running. This year we are complementing each other based on each other’s skills and talents.

Our PE days this term will be on a Wednesday and a Thursday. Our Wednesday sessions will be led by Kilmarnock Sports College in the morning until the 10th of November. Following on from this, from the 17th of November for the next four weeks PE will be in the form of Sport’s leadership sessions lead by Mark Devlin. Pupils are asked to come dressed for PE on these days – school uniform on top but leggings, joggers, trainers can be worn on the bottom. The focus in PE this term is football on Thursday and gymnastics on a Friday.

Expressive Arts

Through our class topic P6 will have the opportunity to experience a range of activities in Drama and Art pertinent to their level and stage. P6 especially enjoyed ‘Hot seating’ in drama last term which involves putting themselves in the headspace of a character and answering questions from their classmates as that character. This is something we will take forward in term 2, putting ourselves in the shoes of those aboard the Titanic.

RME

Throughout Primary 6 the pupils will listen to and engage with stories from the Gospel of Matthew. This term P6 will look at special dates in the liturgical calendar such as All Saints and All Souls Day. P6 will choose a Saint to research and present to the class. Moreover, we will enjoy 2-3 weekly visits from The Sisters to work with the children on mass responses and prayer.

2+1 Languages

This term, Primary 6 will be working on French as their main language and also some Spanish. So far in term 2, Primary 6 enjoyed working on a group task where they identified which countries spoke French around the world using maps. Moreover, pupils learned about the origin, meaning and typical traditions of Mexican celebration ‘El Dia de los Muertos’ (Day of the Dead) and produced some wonderful art work based on their learning.

In Primary 6 we promote hard work and amazing attitudes. Our reward card system allows pupils to gain reward cards for Wonderful Work, Amazing Attitude, and being a ‘Superstar’. When the pupils gain five cards, they can choose an individual reward. They can also choose to go for a class reward once everyone reaches five reward cards; this promotes teamwork within the class. Throughout term 1 many children achieved five reward cards and enjoyed an individual reward as a result of this, I have no doubt this will continue in Term 2 and we can hopefully work towards a class reward together.

If you have any queries or questions, please contact the school directly.

Thank you for your support and I look forward to a wonderful year in Primary 6.

Miss McKenna