Primary 1 Blog Post (Term 3 Update)

Hello and welcome to our term 3 blog post.  Primary 1 pupils were very bust last term, organising and performing our Nativity show, ‘Hey Ewe!’ They did such a great job and all pupils enjoyed the festivities, parties and the pantomime before we stopped for Christmas break.

UNCRC – Class Charter

The focus of children’s rights this term will be: We will be looking at the articles and rights involved and associated in Holocaust Memorial Day in late January, Safe Internet Day and Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and World Book Day and World Water Day in March.

Literacy

Our focus in term three will be to learn the next set of initial sounds/phonemes through songs and actions. Through this, pupils will explore words that begin with each sound and start blending sounds to create 2- and 3-letter words, supporting word building and recognition of common words. This will allow pupils to begin accessing early writing skills as they use their knowledge of sounds to word-build and structure a sentence.

Our reading and spelling activities will allow pupils to access early reading books, starting with those that incorporate the sounds we are learning and progressing to those with simple sentences and picture clues. As their knowledge of common words increases, children will be exposed to more books and rhymes to support these developing skills. We will begin to ask and answer simple questions about the books we are reading.

Our focus in writing will be increasing our use of descriptive words to give more detailed sentences about characters or objects we come across in our reading books. As we progress, we will become more independent and use our knowledge of sounds and common words to write sentences with more confidence.

Numeracy

Our focus in numeracy will be early addition skills and familiarising ourselves with the number stories to 10, as well as doubles and near doubles to 10. Children will build on recognsing number figures for 11-20 whilst subitising and identifying number patterns through hands-on activities that will increase their knowledge and confidence in using numbers.

In beyond number, we will look at basic fractions of whole and half shapes and finding a half of a whole number. As confidence builds we will introduce the idea of quarters too, then we will link this with time, the seasons and the idea of o’clock and half past.

Health & Wellbeing

Our Paths Pupil of the Day will continue as will growing a deeper understanding of emotions, building friendships, and meeting our Paths animals again, who will help the children navigate the many different feelings we may experience.

In PE, our sessions will be on Mondays and Wednesdays, and our focus in term three will be racquet skills, fitness and gymnastics. Children will have the opportunity to take part in some fun activities that support teamwork whilst developing their skills in what keeps us fit and healthy, in categories of exercise and foods/nutrients our bodies need.

R.E

Our focus during R.E. sessions will be on prayer, the routines of the church and the celebration of Mass.  We will also spend some time reading and discussing Bible stories relating to friendship and love, whilst considering the Easter Story as we near the end of term three.

IDL

We will be focusing on ‘Weather’ and ‘Plants’ in term three, gaining an understanding of how weather affects the world and how weather changes depending on where in the world you stay and what season we are in. We will look at climates and the conditions necessary to grow plants and crops successfully, which will tie in beautifully with our ‘Plants’ topic. Pupils will learn to label and name different plants of a plant and describe the growth process from seed to plant.

Modern Languages (French)

In French lessons, children will continue to build on basic greetings. We will learn songs and rhymes to help us retain this information and begin looking at weather in French too.

Homework

Homework will continue in term three. Please check your child’s homework bag weekly to ensure all homework is completed. Homework will consist of sounds/spelling, common words, reading and number activities as the children’s knowledge and skills increase. Homework will be issued on a Monday and should be returned to school on Friday.

We hope this is the start of a very successful third term and that the pupils will enjoy all that we do.

Take care,

Mrs Travers and Mrs Strachan