Primary 5 – Term 2 Update 

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to the P5 update for Term 2. 

Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) 

This term, our interdisciplinary topic will be ‘The Victorians in Scotland’. We will be exploring the life of Queen Victoria and the many accomplishments during her reign that had a significant impact on the people and children of Scotland. Additionally, the class will be learning about influential groups, as well as notable scientists and artists from this period whose visions helped shape the modern world. The children will be able to act out a day in the life of a Victorian school pupil and take part in a Victorian P.E. lesson. 

Literacy 

We have almost finished last term’s class novel, The Butterfly Lion and will be deepening our knowledge of comprehension strategies and questioning this term with our new class novel, Rivet Boy by Barbara Henderson. 

In writing, we have started work on narrative stories and after this, will then move onto response pieces. The class will continue to edit and redraft their work to improve clarity and detail.  

For talking and listening, there will be a health and wellbeing focus on friendships and what makes a good friend. We will also be improving our listening skills and the importance of listening to others. 

Numeracy 

Our focus for Numeracy in Term 2 will be Addition and then Subtraction. Groups will expand on their prior learning and add and subtract with 2, 3 and 4 digits, carrying and exchanging, what this looks like using practical materials and then spending some time exploring negative numbers and their real-world contexts. 

On Thursdays, Mrs Terras will be teaching the children about money and then moving on to measuring area. 

Health and Wellbeing 

Our P.E. sessions are scheduled for Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. Please ensure that your child brings in their P.E. kit on the correct day.  

The key areas for this term will be Gymnastics with myself and Football with Mrs Terras.  

Within our P.A.T.H.S lessons children will be looking at ‘The Control Signals’ (Stop, Make a Plan and Go) that help us calm down when we are faced with a problem. This will also link in with our friendship focus in Health and Wellbeing.  

We are broadening our studies in Health and Wellbeing to look at why groups of people may avoid certain food groups, viewing some of the statistics surrounding obesity in Scotland and how adverts we see on various platforms contribute to this. 

R.E.  

In term 2, we will be looking at many different topics such as Remembrance, how we honour our departed and the promise of eternal life through the month of November. December will be a month for learning about Advent as well as composing our own prayers. In both months, we will be researching some of the many Saints, how they were the models of Christian life and how they can help us through prayer. Mrs Terras will concentrate on the life of St Vincent de Paul on a Thursday. 

Expressive Arts 

Our expressive arts will be interwoven through our learning of our new class topic. We will experience techniques such as printing, allowing the children to create their own stamps and prints using everyday materials.  

Mrs Terras will be focussing on drama this term with the class using drama games, creating and evaluating group performances. 

Technologies 

We have been working on getting groups of pupils onto the school Glow network, resetting passwords and accessing educational resources as well as their pupil emails. I will be sending reminders of children’s glow log ins and Bug Club passwords home with them in the coming weeks, please keep an eye out for this.   

Our ICT time will also be used for word processing our narrative and response writing pieces, learning how to save those files and retrieve them.  

1+2 Languages 

Primary 5 will be learning some Spanish phrases to say hello, goodbye, introduce themselves as well as ask someone else’s name. In French, Mrs Terras will be looking at classroom vocabulary as well as the use of ‘le’, ‘la’ and ‘les’ before nouns. 

Thanks as always for your continued support

Miss Carr & Mrs Terras

Hello again everyone.  Here we are in term 2 with Killieween just gone and Christmas already on the horizon, where does the time go!  Here is a brief update of our learning focus this term.

Literacy

We will continue to read and complete our class novel, before moving onto developing ALP strategies through Bug Club guided reading texts.  There will be a particular focus on paraphrasing and identifying the man idea as well as continuing to explore and improve answering and asking a variety of question types. For writing, we are concentrating on persuasive pieces then looking at report writing and aim to use these skills on a topic that interests them.

Numeracy

This term our numeracy focus is on multiplication and division incorporating aspects of fractions decimals and percentages.  We will continue to use Number Talk strategies to develop mental strategies related to multiplication and division.

Health and Wellbeing

The PATHS focus this term is ­­­­­­­­­looking at organisation skills before moving on to working on resolving conflicts.  We will also continue to praise and compliment children through Pupil of the Day.  We are also exploring food and dietary requirements of people and factors which influence food choices.  We will also be investigating different nutrients groups and the importance of each.

In school, our PE days will be a Wednesday and Thursday where we will be focussing on gymnastics and football. In gymnastics, we will develop our knowledge and execution of shapes, jumps, turns, balances and rolls and even try some mini parkour.  In football, we aim to develop coordination and adopt different team roles.  We will also spend a short time looking at traditional Scottish dances.

IDL

Our topic this term is science based and is forces and friction.  We will be investigating the life of Sir Isaac Newton and his 3 laws of motion and discovery of gravity.  We will also be conducting some scientific experiments and discussing fair testing and hypothesising.

RE

In the month of November P7’s will be looking at the lives of Saints and understand that this month is dedicated to remembering the dead.  We will also investigate the notion of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.  We will also look at the period of Advent focussing on the story from different Gospels and how Jews were waiting for a saviour.

French

This term’s focus for French is ordering food from restaurants and associated vocabulary.

Technologies

This term P7 will access 3D graphics programme and use Tinkercad to create a variety of 3D designs.

UNCRC

This term pupil will be looking at some articles from the CRC in celebration of World Children’s Day and Human Rights Day.

Mr Bertoncini

Welcome back! We have had a great start to Primary 3, and it has been wonderful to get to know the children and really settle into our routines. The children are already making good progress and we are looking forward to another great term.

At the beginning of our first term, we explored the UNCRC Rights of the Child, and together created a meaningful Class Charter to ensure that our classroom is a place where we feel safe and where we can learn and grow together. As we continue into term 2 we will refer back to this ensuring our Class Charter is relevant and ‘felt’ within our classroom.

Here is an update on the upcoming term.

Literacy

We will be looking at a range of fiction and non-fiction texts this term. We will look at the features of both types of text and will use these for our reading and comprehension tasks. We will be focusing on continuing to develop reading fluency as well as becoming more confident using word attack strategies for unfamiliar words.

During writing, we will look at narrative writing. We will explore the structure of this genre and write our own narrative pieces. We will continue to have a focus on the use of accurate punctuation and the use of more sophisticated vocabulary as well as beginning to develop the skill of proof reading our work.

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

Numeracy & Maths

Using our place value knowledge and skills, we will continue to look at a range of strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems. The children will participate in a daily number talk activity as we develop our confidence in the use of mathematical language to explain our thinking.

In Beyond Number, P3 will explore measure with Mrs Terras, looking at the various instruments including rulers, metres sticks, measuring jugs and scales.

Health and Wellbeing

This term we will continue with the PATHS programme, reflecting and discussing a range of emotions and what these might look and feel like. We will also continue with the Do Be Mindful programme which will allow us, through the use of a range of strategies, to look at ways we can take a mindful moment each day.

We will look at our physical wellbeing and how we can keep ourselves safe, how to respond in a range of emergency situations and how to stay safe when walking, cycling and in a vehicle.

PE

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

• Dance
• Football

Children will require PE kit each PE day.  Please make sure your child is not wearing jewellery on these days as they will be unable to participate in the lesson for health and safety reasons. If your child cannot take part for any reason, please contact the school.

French

We will be looking at some basic French phrases and numbers this term through, songs, activities and games.

IDL

We will be exploring the role of the Romans in Scotland. We will use the text, ‘What the Romans Did For Us’ as a basis as we explore the topic, this will link with some of our literacy tasks.

Expressive Arts 

During art, we will use various mediums to create some beautiful artwork to link with various areas of the curriculum. As we approach Christmas, we will complete a range of Christmas arts and crafts.

The children will learn  Christmas songs and carols which will be performed during our Christmas Nativity, allowing us to experience the energy and excitement of performing for an audience.

Mrs Terras will complete a range of drama activities during which we will have the opportunity express and communicate ideas, thoughts and feelings through drama.

Religious Education

This term we will be continuing to learn a range of well-known prayers and will have opportunities each day for quiet prayer and reflection time. We will look at what a saint is, and think about how we are all called to be saints with the help of the Holy Spirit.

During Catholic Education week, we will think about how we are pilgrims of hope, looking at the meaning of the word pilgrim and how our faith brings us great hope and joy.

As we enter the holy season of Advent, we will look at the meaning of the Advent Wreath and reflect upon the importance of this great season of preparation.

Homework will be distributed on a Monday to be completed, and returned by Friday.

Keep an eye on the School App and your child’s Learning Journal profile for a snapshot of some of our wonderful learning!

Thank you as always for your support and I’m looking forward to a really great term with P3.

Mrs. MacKinnon.

Primary 2 Curriculum Update Term 2

Welcome to our curriculum update for term 2. It is sure to be a busy term as we prepare for all the fun and exciting activities, we will be part of in the run up to advent and Christmas!

Literacy

Last term our focus had been predicting what might happen in our books and to think about sequencing parts of a story we’d read. We also began to think about what the ‘blurb’ on the back of a book may tell us. During term 2, we will further increase our skills by summarising the key parts of the book, looking to context clues to help us decipher unfamiliar words.

We will begin to answer both literal and inferential questions orally whilst beginning on identifying key features of a book i.e. fiction/non-fiction, index, contents and labels. We will also continue with our usual spelling and common word activities that help pupils retain and recognise their spelling sounds/phonemes and common words in books.

In writing children will begin to explore narrative writing, building on their knowledge of sequencing the main parts of a book. They will then create, plan and write their own narratives. This will mostly be in the form of imaginative writing, however they may do personal writing in the form of a narrative of a diary entry. Children will also use their knowledge of nouns from term 1 and will learn more about verbs and adjectives, identifying these in texts we are accessing in class.

During term 2 we will also partake in some listening and talking games and activities to help children develop the key skills needed when in whole class or group discussions. These skills will be further developed when we begin weekly sharing information in our class ‘Show and Tell’ activities too.

Numeracy

Our focus in maths will be to revisit place value, recognising sequences and patterns in numbers 0-99 and how these patterns continue in larger numbers just beyond 100.  Last term the focus was addition and in term 2 this will move to subtraction and recognising the link between addition and subtraction in our fact families.

Children will spend time mentally counting on in 2s, 5s and 10s and developing mental strategies for the skills we have worked on so far. The will continue to recite numbers to 100 whilst developing their knowledge of money. Children will work with coins up to an including £2 and will consider different combinations of coins and different ways of paying for an item or giving change. This will be developed through our toys topic and our in toyshop.

In beyond number we will build on our knowledge of 2D shapes and their properties by learning about symmetry using mirrors to help us find the line of symmetry. Pupils will also develop skills measurement, using non-standard and standard units to work out an items length, height or weight. Children will regularly use their ‘Buys Bee’ jotters to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and develop strategies for any number problems.

Health & Wellbeing

All children will have the opportunity to be pupil of the day for a second time in term 2 and will continue to explore emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others. We will look at strategies for helping us deal with uncomfortable emotions and how we can help our friends if they are experiencing these emotions.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to be on a Tuesday and a Thursday and our focus in term 2 will be gymnastics and social dancing.  Children will also have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their listening skills, awareness of space and how to keep ourselves safe whilst using apparatus.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the Mother Mary in October, moving to Saints and Remembrance in November before visiting Advent and the nativity throughout December.

Topic (IDL)

In term 2 the focus of topic will be on science and how energy around is used to operate different toys we use. This will include electronic, battery operated and push and pull toys of now and in the past. The children will have the opportunity to explore different materials used in toys and predict what might happen during our experiments and toy building challenges.  Pupils will research the impact of energy and how toys have changed over the last century.

French (Modern Languages)

Children continue to familiarise themselves with basic greetings and expand their knowledge of number by increasing this to 20. Pupils will become more familiar with questions they can ask to learn someone’s name or age. As Christmas approaches we will also learn about how Christmas is celebrated in France.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils will continue to enjoy learning new topics across the curriculum.

Take care,

Mrs Travers