Primary 3 Blog Post (Term 3 Update)

Welcome to our curriculum update for term 3. It is sure to be a busy term as we begin to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation as well as our whole school activities in the run up to Easter.

Literacy

During term 2 our focus was summarising skills and we will continue to revisit this skill regularly alongside our usual spelling and common word activities that help pupils retain and recognise their spelling sounds/phonemes and words in texts. Throughout term 3 we will develop our understanding of literal and inferential comprehension using the ‘Find It, Prove It, Talk About It’ strategies.

As part of our term 3 topic of Romans, children will be asked to find specific information, we will also be working on recognising different parts of texts (pictures, diagrams, charts and headings) and how to scan for and locate key words or topic related facts in texts. Pupils will be focussing on punctuation and the use of commas and the impact this has on texts for the reader, as well as beginning to use different punctuation in their own writing.

In writing, we will be focussing more on narrative story writing and report writing through our mini science topic on dissolving. 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 or when sharing information in a topic presentation activity.

Maths

In term 2, our focus was multiplication, with pupils mentally counting on in 2, 5 and 10, then using this repeated addition strategy to apply to the other times tables. As we move in to term 3 we will focus on division and the link between multiplication and division through fact families. We will regularly revisit the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables to retain our knowledge of these facts and use this understanding to look at the inverse calculation for division. We will also look at fractions, using knowledge of halving to help us understand how to find a fraction of an object or a number.

In beyond number, the focus in term 3 will be money, recognising coins and notes in pounds and pence and using addition and subtraction skills to add up the cost of several items bought at a shop or work out how much change to give. Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters as the term progresses 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 again in term 3 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 when we are with others in playground or in small group activities, where we can find ways to manage conflict or resolve disagreements.

In P.E, our sessions will happen on a Monday and a Wednesday and our focus in term 3 will be fitness, gymnastics block 2, and ball skills.  Children will have the opportunity to partake in some fun activities which support teamwork whilst focusing on developing their knowledge of how we keep our body healthy with fitness and nutrition.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be on the Sacrament of Reconciliation during January and February, with focus being on the Life of Jesus and Lent as we move into March.

Topic

In term 3 the focus of topic will be social studies and looking at The Romans and their impact in Scotland.  The children will have the opportunity to look at different aspects of Roman Society, Roman Gods and the Roman invasion in Britain. We will look at Roman inventions considered ahead of their time, such as bath houses, under floor pipes for water supplies, heating and sanitation. Pupils will also research and make predictions about substances that dissolve in water in our mini science topic, looking at how water can impact on substances and change their appearance/state.

We hope this is the start of another very successful term and that the pupils enjoyed the Christmas break and some well-earned rest over the festive period.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a very enjoyable festive break with your families.

In Primary 1 we are ready for a new year of learning!! Please have a look at the information below to see what we will be focusing on in each subject.

Literacy

Phonics – We will learn the remaining letter sounds of the alphabet this term while improving our word building skills.

Spelling – Now that we can read and write our sounds, we will be writing as many words as we can! Some of our common words cannot be sounded out so we have to practise the spelling of these in lots of different ways to help us remember the letter order.

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 hand writing will continue to be a focus to allow us to showcase our spelling skills with ease.

Reading – Now that we are starting to use worded texts, we will be developing our word attack skills, remembering to use our letter sounds to help us with unfamiliar words, while looking for our common words too.

We will also be developing our comprehension skills by answering questions about our texts. This term we will be looking at Traditional Tales, discussing character traits and sequencing the main events of the stories.

Numeracy

During our Mental Maths sessions, we will continue to practise counting forwards and backwards. We will also be seeing how quickly we can respond to more and less questions.

We will continue to focus on our addition skills, partitioning the quantities to 10 and learning the different ways to make each number. We will also be learning about the doubling and halving of quantities.

Towards the end of term, we will be exploring “Money”, initially brainstorming our ideas about when and how we use it. We will be introduced to all the coins up to £2, ensuring we can correctly identify these and as our addition skills develop, we will combine these coins to “pay” for goods in our class shop.

Through our topic work, we will also be exploring Data Handling; sorting a variety of objects into groups and recording and displaying the information that we have gathered.

Health & Well-Being (HWB)

Now that we have learned how to “Do Turtle” when things are becoming stressful, we are going to be problem solving for Twiggle and his friends by helping them overcome difficult friendship scenarios. We are confident we have the necessary knowledge and strategies to help them!

In other areas of HWB, we are considering the impact of physical activity on our bodies and identifying the physical changes we feel after a period of exercise.

We will also be discussing the importance of personal hygiene; reinforcing our tooth brushing and handwashing techniques.

As part of our “Shops and Shopping” topic, we will be looking at the range of food that can be bought in our local shops and investigating where it comes from. We will also have some taster sessions, ensuring we are mindful of food hygiene and safety when preparing our snacks.

During our PE sessions we will be completing a block of gymnastics, reinforcing the skills from last term while incorporating these into sequenced movements.

We will then introduce racquet skills, looking at how we hold and use a racquet before introducing ball control.

Fun fitness will be our final topic, developing each child’s personal level of speed, agility, stamina and strength through fun activities and exercises.

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

RE

The first half of the term will focus on the Holy Family and how life would have been for Jesus as He grew up in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. We will talk about the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and revisit our own

As we move towards Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, we will talk about the meaning of this special time. During Lent we will take part in special prayer and reflection times to prepare ourselves for the special celebration of Easter.

IDL (Topic)

Our first topic this term will be “Materials”. We will be exploring and identifying a range of materials, thinking about what they could best be used for and why. We will be investigating which materials float and sink then using our findings to help us build a boat.

Shops and Shopping will be our other topic this term. We will investigate the shops and businesses in our local community and consider the different jobs and roles that people can do. This will help inform our aspirations about the types of jobs we would like to do which we will express through a variety of role play activities.

Our shopping baskets will be FULL in our class shop as we become familiar with the act of exchanging money for an item.

Expressive Arts

Our art, music and drama will be linked in with our topics once again this term. Art and music will have an appreciation element with the children giving their responses to specific artwork and pieces of music.

Within music the children will be identifying various percussion instruments and using these to keep a steady beat.

We cannot wait to get started!

Mrs Duff and Mrs Strachan

It’s the time of year when our kids have lots of small slips and trips and enjoy sliding in the mud, and they often need a change of clothing to keep them comfortable for the rest of the day.

We are looking for some donations of childrens underwear (tights/socks etc) used or new to be handed in to the school, if you have any of these items spare, we would be very grateful if you could kindly hand these into the school office.

Thankyou

Aswell as the normal school lunch menu choices on the 25th of January, children will also have the opportunity to choose the traditional Scottish favourite of Haggis, Neeps & Tatties for lunch that day.

Shortbread will be available as the choice of pudding that day and the soup choice will be Potato & Leek.

We were delighted to invite Diane Campbell from Ayrshire Sports Ability to the school yesterday to present a cheque to us for £200 which we will use to purchase a Boccia Set (similar to bowls), which will be able to be accessed by all classes. Initially, Primary 2 will be piloting this. We will also be having a demonstration visit from Gary Seymour from Active Schools.

Well done to our amazing Eco Committee applicants who had to submit an application form and be interviewed as part of the selection process.

The successful applicants are: 

• Charlie and Eddie P4
• Vivienne and Myaa P5
• Sophie, Hannah and Carrie-Ann P6

Here is a reminder of individual class PE days:

• Primary 1- Monday/Thursday
• Primary 2 – Tuesday/Thursday
• Primary 3 – Monday/Wednesday
• Primary 4 – Wednesday/Friday
• Primary 5 – Tuesday/Thursday
• Primary 6 – Monday/Wednesday
• Primary 7 – Tuesday/Wednesday

A reminder that homework will resume again today.

Homework will resume again on Monday 16th January.

Registration week – Monday 9th January – Friday 9th January

For full information and application forms for the enrolment of Primary 1 children starting primary school in August this year please see the link below:

School admissions · East Ayrshire Council (east-ayrshire.gov.uk)

Please find our January 2023 Newsletter attached.

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year! 

 Wishing all of our pupils and their families a very Merry Christmas from all the staff at Mount Carmel.

There will be a reduced lunch menu on Friday 23rd December the choices will be as follows:

Soup – Lentil

Sandwiches – Gammon, Cheese or Egg Mayonnaise.

Thankyou

Our Christmas parties this year are as follows:

Primary 1-3 Tuesday 20th December

Primary 4 & 5 Wednesday 21st December

Primary 6 & 7 Thursday 22nd December

Children are welcome to come to school in their party clothes on the day of their party. Children can also be picked by up by an adult at lunchtime (12.15pm) to go home and get changed for their party, however, they should be back at school no later than 1pm.

Each party will begin at 1.30pm prompt.

Please view the current guidelines below regarding Scarlet Fever issued by Public Health Scotland:

 NHS

A reminder that the last day before our Christmas holidays will be Friday 23rd December. The school closes at 2.30pm.

Our Christmas parties this year are as follows:

Primary 1-3 Tuesday 20th December

Primary 4 & 5 Wednesday 21st December

Primary 6 & 7 Thursday 22nd December

A reminder that all children attending tomorrow evening’s performance must be collected at 6.30pm.

As you are aware we have been in the process of creating our Mount Carmel Antibullying Policy Statement.

Please see the draft version of this below.  If you have any comments regarding this please use our school query form on the website.

Anti – bullying Respect for all Statement.docx

Reminder that today we will be selling some of our class Christmas crafts and we will also be taking orders for our festive calendars. Craft prices will range from between 30p and £2 and calendars will be £2 each.

We will be accepting cash only today for those items. There will also be donation boxes for FOMC.

Tomorrow pupils in P4-7 can bring a Christmas jumper / tinsel etc with them to wear along with the rest of their uniform for the show in the afternoon.

For Thursday night’s performance they can come wearing their Christmas jumper /accessories etc.

On Monday 19th December all children are invited to come to school wearing their pyjamas for a special pyjama and movie day! They can also bring with them a cuddly toy if they wish.

We have 15 extra tickets available for our Nativity performances. If you would like a maximum of 2 extra tickets, please complete this form.

Tickets will be issued on a first come first served basis.

This form will close at 10am tomorrow morning.

Here is a little taster of some of the class Christmas craft items that will be for sale prior to our Nativity performances next week:

Tomorrow the children are welcome to wear a Christmas Jumper to school along with the rest of their school uniform. 

If you have any spare Christmas jumpers that you no longer need, we would be grateful if you could drop them off at the school. Likewise, if your child wishes to borrow a Christmas jumper for the day, we do have a very small selection kept in school.