We would like to extend a warm welcome to Nicola Macy and Alison Wood from the SAC team who will working on literacy within the school until 17th June. 

We are also delighted to welcome Mrs Gillian Morrison to  Mount Carmel . She starts with us this Thursday and takes over from Mrs Gallacher in the office.  Mrs Morrison will work Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

” Be Yourself Day”

We are going to be celebrating our individuality by having a non- uniform day on Friday 6th May and are asking kindly for a £1 cash donation  which will go towards  school funds for our health week which begins w/c 9th May,  and allow us to provide some lovely activities for the children during  that week .

To link in with mental health week, we are encouraging the children to come dressed in something that makes them happy. It is not fancy dress; however the children should come dressed in colours that make them smile. Appropriate clothing for school please and , as always ,no football strips etc.

On Saturday the 7th May, the children that are preparing to celebrate their Holy Communion are encouraged to attend a retreat alongside Father Martin at St Josephs parish.  This retreat will begin with a mass at 10am which parents are invited to attend along with their child. After mass, the children will stay with Father Martin and the team to continue their preparation for Communion. The children should then be collected at 2pm at which time there will be a short parents information meeting about the upcoming sacrament.  We hope that you are all able attend. It will be a day filled with prayer and lots of fun!

As we head into our final term, Primary 1/2 are “in training” for moving up to the next primary stage.  As well as pushing on with new learning, we will be working hard to consolidate the learning that has taken place throughout the year.

Literacy – Primary 2

Phonics – we will continue to follow our Active Literacy framework which will involve the introduction of split phonemes this term – magic “e” words. There are lots of these to learn so we will be working very hard to read and spell these.

Spelling – we will continue to practise our very trickiest of common words so we can write these effortlessly in our sentences.

Writing – Narrative writing will be our focus this term. We will use our skills in descriptive writing to create detailed settings and characters.

Handwriting will continue to be a focus this term, ensuring we are correctly forming our letters and taking care with their size and position on our lined pages. We will be paying special attention to the formation of our capital letters, making sure these are always the correct size.

Reading – Our focus will be reading for information this term. We will familiarise ourselves with the features of non-fiction texts and use the contents/index/sub-headings to help us find the information required.  We will also be introduced to the skills of “skimming” and “scanning” texts for keywords.

 

Literacy – Primary 1

Phonics – Now that we have learnt all the sounds in the alphabet and are using these to make and break words, we are going to start learning the sounds made by two or more letters such as “sh” “ch” “th” (joint phonemes).

Spelling – We will continue to practise the spelling of our tricky common words to ensure we can use these when writing sentences. We will learn some new words to add to our ever growing bank of vocabulary.

Writing – We are continuing to develop our skills in describing this term as well as having a go at writing some words and sentences by ourselves.

Letter formation and handwriting will continue to be a focus to allow us to showcase our spelling skills with ease.

Reading – Reading for information will be a focus this term. We will look at non-fiction texts and record the facts we learn.  We will also continue to practise our decoding skills by reading all types of text whenever we can.

 

Numeracy – Primary 1 and 2

The focus for Numeracy this term will be centred around number processes.

P2 – We will be exploring numbers to 100 by ordering the numbers through each decade and ensuring we understand how the quantities represented by each number are made.  We will also be doing lots of counting to ensure we can confidently count forwards and backwards to enable our addition and subtraction.

We will also be grouping and sharing materials to develop our understanding of multiplication and division.

P1 – Now that we have been introduced to the addition facts to 10, we will focus on subtraction. We will initially explore this concept using concrete materials before developing mental strategies to help us solve calculations.

We will also be focusing on the teen numbers……taking steps beyond our “terrific ten”. We will look at the quantities represented by the teen numbers and ensure we can recognise, record and order the numbers to 20.

As part of our Houses and Homes topic, we will be using position and movement to help us follow and design maps. We will also develop our Data Handling skills by collecting, recording and analysing the information we gather.

 

Health & Well-Being (HWB)

During our last term of PATHS lessons we will be introduced to some new emotions. We will explore each emotion in detail, thinking about how each emotion looks and feels and will consider whether it would be a “comfortable” or “uncomfortable” feeling.

We will also continue to reinforce our strategy of “Doing Turtle” and will use our PATHS sessions to talk through our feelings about moving into our new class at the end of the year.

We will be thinking about our food and how some foods are better for us than others. We will explore where some of our food comes from and have some healthy eating taster sessions.

We will also be learning about our amazing bodies and the correct names for each body part.

In May we will take part in our whole school Health Week during which we will have the opportunity to try different sports and activities.

During PE we will be focusing on Athletics, Striking and Fielding Games and Dance.

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR TAKING ALL EARRINGS OUT FOR GYM DAYS ON MONDAYS AND THURDAYS.

RE

During the month of May, we honour “Mary”. We will recite our special prayer of the “Hail Mary” and revisit the stories of the Nativity, Annunciation and Visitation; giving special consideration to the role of Mary in each one. We will prepare our class altar in honour of Mary and learn to say the Rosary.

During this term, we will link our RE with our HWB through the teaching of “God’s Loving Plan.” We will be thanking God for our amazing bodies! We will learn the names of the body parts and consider the choices we can make to help look after our bodies.

We will also talk about the needs of a new born baby; learning about the tasks and equipment required to look after a baby.

 

IDL (Topic)

Our first topic this term will be “Houses and Homes”. We will explore our local area and consider the types of buildings which are located around our school. We will investigate the different types of homes in our community before choosing two different types to describe the features of in more detail.

We will consider the role of an engineer and identify some constructions in our area which will have had an engineer’s input. We will then use our technology skills to design and build our “dream houses” using a variety of materials.

Our second topic will be “Living Things” during which we will have the opportunity to sort animals into groups according to a variety of characteristics; such as physical features and habitats. We will also learn the names for the young of common farm animals and look at the life cycle of a butterfly.

During this topic we will make links with Literacy; finding information from texts and recording this in a variety of ways. We will also link up with HWB by exploring where some of our food comes from before preparing and tasting it.

A very busy and exciting term ahead for P1/2. Lots of learning, playing and exploring to do but also lots of preparing, as we get ready to take another step onto the next stage in our school journey.

Mrs Duff

During Health Week next week, can we ask if the children can come into school with comfortable trousers on with the school polo shirt and jumper also. No football colours.

Also, we would encourage our children to bring in a healthy snack on this week particularly.