Thanks and Good Luck!

Over the past few years the children have been supported by Jason; (you may have heard your children mention him.) Jason is part of a team that provide sports activities and games for our children. He has coordinated multi sports clubs and helped facilitate health inputs and transition games. The children are so fond of him and he has an excellent way of motivating and engaging them throughout! Jason is leaving us this year to pursue his dreams of becoming a teacher! We wish him luck and believe he will be outstanding in this role when the time comes!

Thank you from all your Mount Carmel Family.

Oak Room

The Oak Room children have continued their tasks after the holidays and we are loving the better weather! This has allowed us to participate in outdoor painting with the sun in our faces.

We are working our way through group novels including ‘Westlandia’, ‘Doodlebug Alley’ and ‘Mouse Noses on Toast.’ We love to have some calm reading time after lunch to help our minds prepare for learning.

 Pupils this term are focussing on ‘Goal Setting’; this allows them to set a realistic target around their social and emotional development and staff are able to support their achievement of this. Discussions around perseverance and making choices are linked to this. Throughout this topic we will also continue to learn how to understand and manage our feelings.

Pupils will be supported with their hopes and fears around transition into the next academic session during our tasks this term, as we understand although exciting for some, this can be a daunting  time for others.

 Children are continuing to achieve success using their ‘Pot of Gold’ target trackers and we have already had a few special treats relating to these.

A special welcome to the children who joined the group after the Easter holidays, the feedback around this has been hugely positive!

As always your support is hugely appreciated.

Mrs Crawford

Welcome back to all families!

Pupils in the Oak Room have been very busy! The children love to come along to each session and are making great progress and great friends along the way!

This term pupils will continue to grow their social and emotional skills and will be using ‘Target Trackers’ in class to support them in this. As part of our Health and Wellbeing learning pupils will explore ‘friendship’ as a theme; we will focus on positive relationships and how we foster these and will explore issues and barriers to friendship such as bullying. Pupils will produce art work related to these themes and participate in group discussions.

The children are enjoying our group novel ‘Charlie Changes into a Chicken’, the pupils enjoy having a chapter read to them each day. This helps to regulate us and promotes conversation, attentive listening and group relationships.

Chat with your child around their attendance of the Oak Room, I am always happy to hear family feedback!

Mrs Crawford

Curriculum Update Primary 5                         October – December 2020

The children have been wonderful settling back into school life. They have adapted well to the new rules and handwashing throughout the day.

Here is an update on our learning that will take place in term 2.

Literacy

The class will be focusing on report and personal writing as part of our literacy tasks. Key features of the genre are categorising, note-taking and formal presentation.

Children will continue to access Bug Club as our school reading resource using texts to enhance their comprehension.

Numeracy

This term the children will experience measurement as their beyond number topics. This will involve length, volume and mass. We will be working outdoors for this so please ensure suitable clothing for outdoor learning is worn daily.

Our number process topics will be estimating and rounding and place value for the circles, rectangles and squares groups and addition and subtraction for the triangle group.

At home children will benefit from timetables revision and everyday life measuring e.g. time taken for filling a bath, weighing food items etc.

Health & Well-being

The PATHS programme will continue to shape our HWB learning. P5 have been picking a ‘pupil of the day’ since we returned in August giving compliments to their classmates daily. We have had excellent discussions about feelings and emotions and how we can manage them. P5 will look at friendship as well as mental and emotional wellbeing appropriate to their age and stage.

PE

Our focus on PE this term will be rugby the children will participate in this non-contact sport outside. We will also participate in outdoor games.

RE

We have worked as a class to support the children who are making their First Holy Communion. (Some having already made it) Booklets should be almost finished with the final task completed after the child has made their First Holy Communion. As a class we found this a special time for all the children as we have celebrated this Sacrament as a class.

This term the class will focus on Mary and Her significance within the Catholic tradition. There will also be a focus on Advent as the term continues.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Our topic for this term will be The Victorians in Scotland. We will look at many areas within this including Queen Victoria, Alexander Graham Bell and Industry. The children will use their ICT skills throughout to improve their research and presentation skills. We will read ‘The Lottie Project’ by Jaqueline Wilson together in class as a shared text.

Homework will continue to be issued every Monday and returned every Thursday. Please contact us if you require any support with this.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

Mrs McGowan and Mrs Crawford.

Primary 5 have been working hard! We have been participating in the Depute First Minister’s daily challenge. We are also part of the Sumdog Competition. We are giving our brains a number workout!

Today we looked at associated number facts to solve tricky problems.

Primary 5 have been very busy! We discussed masks in society and how we feel about wearing them. We shared our ideas and designed some fancy masks. We created artwork which showed our masks and our fabulous personalities underneath.

Welcome back to school! It has been so wonderful to welcome back the pupils of primary 5, they are settling in beautifully and have already started making progress in their learning.

Here is an update on our learning that will take place in term 1 August- October.

Literacy

The class novel this term is ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ by Roald Dahl. The pupils will complete various reading and writing tasks related to this appropriate to their level. This novel study also has links to other curricular areas including Health and Well-being, art and drama.

We will also continue using the ‘Bug Club’ reading resource to aid our comprehension skills.

Writing

P5 will focus on imaginative/ narrative writing this term. The class will be told the focus of their writing the night before so as to discuss ideas at home. This will be their ‘Talk Homework’.

Groups will look at planning their piece, punctuation, effective use of vocabulary and paragraphing.

Spelling

Groups will continue to experience the active literacy spelling programme, this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their stage.

Numeracy

This term the children will experience shape and time as beyond number topics. This will involve 2D and 3D shape tasks. During time activities they will look at time telling, duration, am and pm and some groups will look at 24hr conversion.

Our number processes topics will include division for the circles and rectangles groups, addition for the squares group and place value activities for the triangles group.

At home children will benefit from timetables revision and experience of telling the time in everyday situations.

Health and Well-being

The PATHS programme will continue to shape our HWB learning. P5 have already started ‘pupil of the day’ and participated in discussions around feelings and how we manage our emotions. P5 will also look at healthy choices and some substances that could harm our bodies, appropriate to their age and stage.

RE

Preparations for First Holy Communion are underway and we are supporting the pupils in class with this. Booklets have been sent home for parents to access for those children receiving the sacrament.

In class we will introduce the Gospel of Mark, our P5 focus gospel. We will discuss our talents and skills and this will form the basis of our class charter.

It’s good to be back!!!!!

We cannot believe it has arrived! The final week! A huge well done to all families for sticking with it, especially our young people working hard and getting on with their learning activities! It may not have always been easy but we are immensely proud of all of you!

All our hard work is paying off and proof of this is that Scotland have now entered Phase 2;  here is a child friendly version…

We have all played a part in getting the country here!

(Phase 2 is a staggered phase so please check government guidelines for exact dates).

We hope you enjoyed #ThrowbackThursday…more to come this week!

Some Monday Motivation…for those that need it…

Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

We hope that you all had a lovely weekend and a lovely week enjoying sports and heath activities. Another week of learning and only a couple to go before the holidays!

This Thursday the teachers will participate in #ThrowbackThursday, where staff share their highlights of this (unusual) year! Check it out on the well-being blog!

We are still all in this together, although it’s a while since we have been side by side…

Here are some ways to stay positive…

And finally some Monday Motivation…

Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

As it is health week there will be lots of fun, fab activities for everyone to try out! Remember a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body! Here are some activities to try throughout the week.

Some lovely ideas! There will also be lots of fun, healthy activities on your learning grids this week too. Now all we need is SUNSHINE!

Finally…some Monday Motivation…

Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

June has arrived! And it has brought with it lots of sunny weather! Everyone at MCPS hopes that all our families are enjoying the sunshine and making happy memories. We understand that some days are easier than others and always tell the children that all feelings are ok and all feelings are temporary. Remember…

We are already making great progress! That is because of everyone coming together as a huge community. This poster explains Phase 1 to children in child friendly language:

And finally some Monday Motivation…

Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

Morning!

Another week of learning and making memories with your families. Hopefully the good weather will return for lots of garden adventures.  This week is National Mental Health Week, some excellent resources available on the Education Scotland website.  A few quick tips if any children require support…

A thought for the adults…

And some Monday Motivation…

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Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

Good morning,

We hope that you all enjoyed the VE Day holiday and that again, you are all safe and well. At MCPS we use PATHS as one of our HWB resources; here is their ‘May Message’.

They have also published a calendar full of Social, Emotional Learning ideas…try a few.

And incase you need it…some Monday Motivation…

Good morning from all of us to all of you.  As always, we hope that you are well and finding positive ways to navigate through these strange times. We are working hard behind the scenes to create memorable, engaging learning experiences for all our pupils. We do, however, recognise the importance of good mental health in order to access any type of learning. We appreciate all that families are doing to support one another. If at any time you need to contact us please do so using the online form. Stay Safe. Together we are Team MC.

Please remember self care for adults is so important too.

And finally, some Monday Motivation…