Welcome back! I hope that you have all had a restful time over the festive period. It is lovely to see all the children back in class and ready for another busy term. Here is an overview of term 3.

Literacy

For our reading focus, the children will explore two class books. In January we will read, ‘The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster,’ this will tie in with our Scotland theme as we explore Scottish stories and poems. The children will have an opportunity to develop their comprehension skills such as metalinguistics, prediction and summarising.

We will then move on to a non-fiction text,’ Cool Castles’,  which again will be linked to our learning about Scottish Castles. The children will look at the features of this non-fiction text. We will look at the skills of summarising and note taking. Children will continue to be assigned a Bug Club reader as part of their homework tasks.

During writing, we will look at report and explanatory writing. We will look at the features of these writing genres and use of reading and notetaking skills to link our reading and writing tasks.

Spelling will take the form of active spelling activities and the children will experience phonemes and blends at their working level.

We will continue to build on our knowledge of various elements of grammar, linking this to our reading and writing tasks.

Numeracy & Maths

The children will continue with a daily number talk, to develop a range of mental maths strategies. We will be looking at various strategies for solving multiplication and division problems.

In beyond number, the children will continue to look at time before moving on to money.

Health and Wellbeing

We will be continuing with our PATHs programme focussing on making good choices and working effectively with others.

We have been following the Do Be Mindful programme, focussing on mindful attention, we will continue with this programme as well as our various daily mindful tasks.

We will also look at the various ways of staying safe and how to respond to emergency situations. We will link this to the world of work.

PE

PE is on a Thursday and Friday. This term we will be covering;

• Fun fitness
• Basketball

Children require PE kit for all PE days. Please ensure that all items of uniform and PE kit have your child’s name clearly marked on them.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be continuing with our French conversational skills, and will be looking at numbers beyond 20. The children will engage in a range of listening, talking and writing tasks. We will be looking at the months of the year and will be investigating what school is like in France.

IDL

This term, we will be exploring the topic of Scottish Castles. We will look at the features, location and history of these historic buildings. We will link this learning with our literacy tasks and our expressive art tasks, where we will be looking at line drawings and adding shape, shade and tone.

Expressive Arts 

This term, we will be linking our learning in RE with our drama activities, allowing us to retell the story of the lives of some well-known saints. We will work on our characterisation skills and develop our sense audience and space.

We will link our artwork this term with our topic. Using the elements of tone, shape and shade the children will enjoy various art activities.

Religious Education

This term we will be looking at the importance and meaning of the Sacrament of Confirmation. We will explore the story of Pentecost and look at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can use these in our daily lives. We will read about the lives of some well-known saints, and reflect on how they are an inspiration to us.

As the term progresses we will look at the meaning of the season of Lent. The children will take part of class prayers and School Masses, and we will continue to build on our knowledge of common prayers and Mass responses.

 

Homework will continue in the same format as last term, it will be distributed on a Monday to be completed and returned by Friday.

As we start preparation for the Sacraments, there will also be some home tasks sent home in the Confirmation Work book for those children preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in February.

Keep an eye on the School blog and Learning Journals for updates on some of our wonderful activities and learning.

Thank you as always, for your continued support.

Mrs MacKinnon.