We are in desperate need of the following items for our “Spare Clothing” collection-

Tights, socks (boys and girls) and leggings in any child sizes please!

If you have any of these items which no longer fit your child/children please  hand them in to a member of staff at the main door or give to your child to bring in with them, thanks.

Please note: We do not need any other form of children’s underwear, clothing or school uniform as we have a plentiful supply just now thank you.

Please click the link below to see the full information about

East Ayrshire Young Carers

and the different ways on how and where you can donate.

Tomorrow is Children In Need day!

Just a reminder that children are encouraged to come to school wearing something spotty. There is still time to make a donation of £1 via ParentPay. Please keep your donations coming in. Thank You.

Our whole school target for this month is :

“Fabulous Friends”

During our October target of “Marvellous Manners”, children received certificates and House Points for displaying good manners throughout the month, and in general there was a definite improvement in manners across the whole school. 

From Monday 16th November, indoor PE will resume and each class will be allocated a 1 hour slot. Children will not be required to change for PE but we ask that they bring gym/indoor shoes.

Strict hygiene measures will be in place to clean equipment and the hall will  be suitably ventilated. Outdoor PE will continue weather permitting.

Primary 6 have been busy these last couple of weeks….

Primary 6 enjoyed the Halloween theme day and looked super all dressed up in their costumes. They took part in some fun Halloween activities including making skeletons using cotton buds.

Primary 6 have been working hard since they returned from the October holiday. In Literacy, they have been writing their own short story over three weeks looking at suspense openers, characterisation, and effective conclusions. This week the pupils will be redrafting and publishing their stories and designing a front and back cover too. Their stories will then be shared with other pupils in the school to enjoy and give feedback on.

The pupils are enjoying the new Rainbow Reward time on a Friday afternoon. This week they chose to go outside and use the ghillie kettle to make hot chocolates. Miss Mudge was a confident individual using the ghillie kettle for the first time herself! There were some ‘bumps’ along the way (not using the ghillie kettle properly and the fire not starting) but everyone eventually enjoyed a lovely hot chocolate.

During our PATHS lessons, Primary 6 has been discussing problems and solutions relevant to their age and stage. This week they took on the role of ‘problem solvers’ and wrote ‘fictional’ problem-solving letters. I was impressed with the strategies they suggested in their letters and the mature responses to the problems presented to them.

The pupils are working on their first Pope Francis Faith Award presentation on their hobby or interest. The pupils are enjoying using PowerPoint and the Internet to make their presentations interesting for their audience. We also watched Father Martin’s ‘Christ the King’ assembly that he kindly recorded for the pupils at Mount Carmel.

We still have lots of work to do before we move into festive activities in the lead up to Christmas. I am very proud of all pupils so far and I am looking forward to celebrating their achievements throughout Primary 6.

Miss Mudge

You still have time to donate to the Poppy appeal via ParentPay. Donations will be accepted up until 3pm tomorrow (11th).

Hello and welcome to our blog post for term 2.  Primary 4 have had a busy first term, looking at our mini topics on animal classifications and deforestation.  Children have been working hard in literacy and numeracy within their group and are ready to move on to our new topics within each curricular area.

Literacy

Our reading and spelling activities from term 1 will continue as children focus on their Bug Club reading texts, recognising spelling sounds and phonics within these texts and using their awareness and strategies to tackle unfamiliar words.  Reading with expression and fluency will also be a focus whilst using our skills to make appropriate predictions about the text whilst giving reasons for reaching this understanding.

Whilst children have a good grasp of the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts, children will take these skills forward, being able to use key words to locate relevant information from a range of books useful for our topic.  They will be able to find, sort and organise information related to specific tasks within fiction and non-fiction texts and make notes in own words that will be used as the basis for their writing.  In writing our focus will be on extending sentences and paragraph length, whilst using interesting openers and connectives to join sentences and a wide range of descriptive words.

Maths

Our focus in maths is number and number processes, focussing on place value and partitioning numbers to understand the column value.  Those working within the circle and rectangle maths groups will be focussing on numbers up to 9,999 and addition and subtraction strategies when dealing with 4 digit numbers. Those in the square group will continue to develop an understanding of 3 digit numbers, whilst making the link between multiplication and division.  Division will be the focus for this group and developing strategies to help with division problems.

Children will regularly use their ‘Thinking It Through’ jotters to develop problem solving skills, applying knowledge of number to new contexts and developing strategies for any number problems.  We will also encourage these skills through our daily number challenges and number target board!

Health & Wellbeing

All children have had the opportunity to be pupil of the day and enjoy wearing the special sticker and privileges that come with this.  We will continue with this so as each child have the opportunity again in term 2. We have been exploring emotions, comfortable and uncomfortable and how we recognise these emotions within ourselves and in others.  We now have a bank of strategies to support us when we feel uncomfortable, and these emotions will continue to be explored as we reach a deeper understanding of how these feelings can impact on us and how to seek help or support.

In P.E, our sessions will continue to take place outside where possible, on a Monday and Wednesday afternoon, however we can now access the hall once per week and indoor sessions will commence soon.  Our focus will be on developing racquet skills further through badminton/tennis and on fitness, building stamina and strength through a variety of exercises.

R.E

Our focus during R.E sessions will be the sacraments as children prepare for their Confirmation and First Holy Communion.  We will look at the Sacrament of Baptism and how this is the starting point in our journey with God. The booklets which support First Holy Communion will be issued, later in term 2, to those pupils who are taking part, and there will be activities for parents to complete at home with their child.  This will also be our in-class focus, so children fully understand each of the Sacraments and their importance in their relationship with God.

Topic

Our topics for term 2 will be ‘The Vikings in Scotland’ and ‘Food Chains and Webs’ in science.  The focus in our Viking topic will be to look at Viking life, society, and class systems.  We will explore Viking Gods as well as look at the impact of the Vikings in Scotland. In science, understanding food chains and food webs of animals from different environments and ecosystems across the globe, will be the focus.  We will also examine the impacts human beings are having on food chains too.

We hope this is the start of another successful term as we navigate the continued impact of the pandemic on our lives.  Please be assured we will continue to keep things as normal as possible for our children, despite the different restrictions in place.

Take care,

Mrs Travers

The Scottish Child Payment is a new payment for families on certain benefits or tax credits to help towards the costs of looking after a child. It is £40 paid every four weeks for each child UNDER the age of 6yrs.

It opens on Monday 15th February 2021, however applications are being taken now.

Full information can be found here:

https://www.mygov.scot/scottish-child-payment/

Just a reminder that Children In Need day is this coming Friday (13th)!

Children can come to school wearing something spotty….thank you to everyone who has donated so far and please, please keep your donations coming in via ParentPay .

A reminder for parents/carers that children’s Homework Folders should be returned to school on a Thursday please. This is to give enough  time for it to be quarantined and for the teachers to correct it.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Click on Pudsey below to donate quicker !!

Reminder that Children In Need day is Friday 13th November. We are encouraging the children to wear something spotty  on the day in return for a £1 donation via Parentpay.

+The theme for Dyslexia Awareness Week is:

“Unlocking Potential”

Children will be taking part in activities in class throughout this week

We are required to have adequate ventilation across the school. 

As we move into the winter months, children should dress warmly for being in class.

As we are now in Tier 3, face coverings must now be worn when dropping off and collecting children.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Primary 5 took part in a pumpkin competition last week. There were lots of amazing designs. It was very difficult to choose a winner! Well done everyone who took part. Our house captains chose our winning pumpkin.

Damon was our winner!  He won a voucher for The Works.

Reminder

*** Flu Immunisations for pupils are tomorrow in school***

Today we received our certificate from the Ayrshire Hospice! We raised a grand total of £75- which is tremendous. Thanks to everyone who donated.

Primary 1 are back from the October break and ready to learn!! We have a busy and fun filled term ahead including some “spooky” activities for Hallowe’en before getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas as part of the Mount Carmel school community.

Literacy

This term we will be continuing to practise our letter formation and pencil control skills to ensure we can write the letters we have been learning.

Now that we know some of the sounds the letters of the alphabet make, we will be “blending” these together to make words. These words will help us with our reading and writing tasks.

We are very excited that we are becoming “readers” in Primary 1 and will soon be bringing home our first texts with words in them. We will be making predictions about the stories we read in class, using the title and illustrations to help us.

During writing activities, we are continuing to talk about our ideas for our stories, using pictures to help us.

Numeracy

Now that we have explored the numbers to 10 fully and have looked at “more” and “less”, we will be focusing on the concept of addition. We will begin by combining two quantities and understanding that when you do this, the quantity gets bigger. This will lead us on to learning our number stories, where we learn the different ways to “make” our numbers to 10. These number stories (or facts) are the building blocks to which all the other number processes are built upon, so we will spend a lot of time on these, ensuring they are well embedded before moving on.

Alongside addition, the children will be introduced to the numbers to 20, looking at how these numbers are constructed and sequenced.

Numbers are tricky to write, so number formation will continue to be reinforced in class and through homework tasks.

Health & Well being

We will continue to welcome our PATHS puppets to help us talk about our emotions and friendships. We have been talking about the kinds of things friends do together and have discussed what makes a good friend.

We have been exploring our emotions and sharing our experiences and we will be looking at ways to help us manage our feelings.

Through our topic, we will be exploring the people who can help us when we need someone to talk to or feel unsafe.

We will also be talking about ways to keep ourselves safe when indoors and outdoors.

Topic

Our topic this term is “People who Help Us” and will be very relevant in terms of our health and hygiene awareness in school just now. We will begin by considering the people who help us within our school community and will move on to look at the roles of those who help us in our wider community, eg, police officers, nurses, fire fighters.

RE

During RE we will continue to give thanks for God’s love. We will explore how this love is shown through the “People who help us and care for us”. We will give thanks for these people and for the care they have shown us.

As the term progresses, we will celebrate advent together, preparing for the birth of Jesus by showing love and kindness to those around us as much as we possibly can. We will be exploring the story of the nativity through songs, role play and craft activities.

PE

Our PE will continue to be outdoors (weather permitting) . Please continue to dress your child in joggers and trainers on our gym days which are now Monday and Thursday!

Thanks for your support

Mrs Duff

Please remember that tomorrow is our –

Halloween Theme Day !

Children can come to school dressed up for the day and they will take part in fun activities in their classes.  All classes will also visit the Onthank Pumpkin Trail tomorrow, so please send your child to school with a waterproof jacket and suitable footwear as , even if the weather is dry , the Trail will still be very muddy!!

On Saturday 31st October, the following Mount Carmel Pupils will make their first Holy Communion:

Zak, Harry ,Damon and Megan K 

Please keep them in your prayers

Primary 1/2 Curriculum Overview Term 2 2020

Welcome back to the Primary 1/2 blog. Here you will find out what Primary 1/2 will be learning about this term as they continue to grow as learners and as individuals.

Literacy

Primary 1

Primary 1 worked very hard last term to develop their phonological awareness. They have used this new knowledge to support them as they began to learn some of the initial sounds. Primary 1 will continue to learn two new sounds every week until they have learned all initial sounds (26). As Primary 1 grow in confidence, recognising and identifying initial sounds they will use this knowledge to word build. In addition to this, Primary 1 will be learning new common words every week alongside the initial sounds. Primary 1 will have lots of opportunities to practice each new sound and common words in a range of active ways in line with the Active Literacy approach to learning. As Primary 1 become more confident when word building and recognising common words they will focus on using these words to build simple sentences as well as apply this knowledge to read worded texts.

Primary 1 will continue to develop their talking and listening skills; understanding when to listen and when to respond, taking turns and communicating with others. They will also continue to develop their fine motor skills and pincer grip which will enable them to write their names independently as well as form letters and numbers in the correct way.

Primary 2

Reading – This term, Primary 2 will be developing their reading skills through focusing on the skill cloze procedure. The children will focus on punctuation, unjumbling sentences and finding and locating missing words/information using their Bug Club guided reading books, this will allow the task to be differentiated appropriately. Primary 2 will also continue to develop their prediction skills this term, they will progress their previous learning of orally providing predictions through group discussion to written predictions in relation to their Bug Club reading books. In addition to this, Primary 2 will continue to develop their sequencing and visualisation skills. They will continue to read/listen to a range of traditional stories including Goldilocks and the Three Bears, they will have opportunities to role play the stories to ensure correct sequence before they independently sequence the story.

Writing – Primary 2 will develop their imaginative writing skills this term. They will use a range of familiar contexts including Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas to develop this skill. They will use a range of stimuli to engage their imaginations including detailed pictures, video clips and physical props. Primary 2 will focus on developing their use of vocabulary to set the scene as well as describe characters and build tension where appropriate. Primary 2 will also focus on developing their functional writing skills (instructions). The children will use their prior knowledge of sequencing to support their learning about instructions. Primary 2 will also learn all about imperative (bossy) verbs during this term. The children will write a range of instructions including; how to wash your hands, how to brush your teeth and how to cross the road safely. Primary 2 will role play each of the experiences before writing instructions to ensure understanding of the correct sequence.

Spelling – Primary 2 will continue to learn new phonemes in accordance with the Active Literacy programme. They will learn a new joined phoneme as well as new common words each week Primary 2 will continue to develop their knowledge of phonemes and spelling strategies through an active approach. They will continue to apply this knowledge alongside the development of their sentence structure skills. Primary 2 will continue to use the Phonic Bug resource to support and enhance their knowledge of new phonemes.

Grammar – Primary 2 will continue to work on using punctuation such as full stops and capital letters as they continue to develop their sentence building skills. Primary 2 will now focus on extending their sentences through use of connectives including “and”, “but” and “because”.

Primary 1/2

Primary 1/2 will have some new opportunities to develop their talking and listening skills this term. They will participate in a solo poster presentation as part of their Grandparents topic.

Numeracy and Mathematics

Primary 1

This term, Primary 1 will have lots of opportunities to practice and consolidate their knowledge of numbers to 10 as well as quantities to 10 in a range of different ways. As Primary 1 become more confident when comparing quantities, they will now think about “more” and “less”. In addition to this, Primary 1 will begin to learn about the concept of addition within 10. They will have the opportunity to use a range of concrete resources to develop their understanding of this new concept before moving towards applying their knowledge mentally.

Primary 2

Numeracy – This term primary 2 will continue to develop their number processes. Primary 2 will focus on developing their understanding of addition and subtraction within 20. As well as learning and consolidating their number bonds within 20. They will work on deepen their knowledge of addition strategies and applying these within different contexts such as number talks and word problems.

Primary 1/2

Mathematics – Primary 1/2 learn about position and movement in term 2 as part of their beyond number concepts. The children will build on their knowledge of instructional writing and sequencing when undertaking this new learning. The children will also access coding software and use Spheros to apply their knowledge of position and movement. In addition to this, Primary 1/2 will learn about measurement this term. They will work on developing their knowledge of length, capacity and volume. Primary 1/2 will develop this new learning through a hands-on approach.

Health and Wellbeing

Primary 1/2 will continue to develop their social and emotional skills through our whole school PATHS programme. The children continue to enjoy engaging with the puppets and love it when they visit our classroom. Primary 1/2 love giving and receiving compliments each day as part of “Pupil of the Day”. Primary 1/2 will continue to learn about their emotions through a range of activities and stories based around the PATHS puppets. The children in Primary 1/2 continue to engage enthusiastically with this programme.

In addition to this, Primary 1/2 will learn about how to keep themselves safe including what is meant by medicines and harmful substances. Primary 1/2 will learn to identify which substances may be helpful and which may be harmful in given situations as well as suggest ways to get help in unsafe and emergency situations, such as seeking out an adult and calling the emergency services.

Physical Education

This term Primary 1/2 will focus on developing their large and small ball skills including skills related to playing football. In addition to this, Primary 1/2 will have the opportunity to develop their social dancing skills in preparation for their class Christmas party. They will learn dances such as The Grand Old Duke Of York. Primary 1/2 will, as always, complete all physical activities with safety at the forefront. At the moment, all PE lessons will continue to take place outdoors.

P.E. days will continue to be Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure your child comes to school dressed appropriately with either joggers or leggings and trainers. Your child must continue to wear their school jumper as part of their uniform on PE days.

Religious Education

As November is the month of Remembrance, Primary 1/2 will learn about different saints including St. Andrew. The children will listen to stories from the Bible that will teach them about love and the importance of praying for loved ones as well as people who have died. Throughout December, Primary 1/2 will learn about the birth of Jesus. The children will learn how Advent helps us to prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Primary 1/2 will participate in daily prayers around the crib as well as light the Advent candles at the appropriate time. During Advent, Primary 1/2 will be reminded of the importance of showing kindness and love during this time.

IDL

This term, Primary 1/2 will be completing the topic Grandparents. During this topic, Primary 1/2 will learn about the 1950s and 1960s as this is the key period relating to the children’s Grandparents. The children will compare their own lives to the lives of their Grandparents when they were a similar age. The children will also compare their school lives with their Grandparents school lives. In addition to this, as we approach the Christmas period, Primary 1/2 will think about how Christmas is celebrated in their local community as well as learn about Christmas traditions around the world.

Reminder

If your child has not already done so, please ensure that your child brings in appropriate outdoor learning clothes. This will allow your child to fully engage with any outdoor learning experiences.

Please ensure that you write your child’s name on any items of clothing they may take off throughout the school day, eg. jumpers. This will help to ensure your child doesn’t lose any items of clothing.

Thank you for visiting the Primary 1/2 blog, keep a look out for any further updates as term 2 progresses!

Thank you,

Mrs Dunsmore.

Welcome Back to Term 2  

I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday.  

Below is an overview of the Term 2 learning and teaching.  

Literacy  

Reading 

We will be using the Bug Club core readers to aid and build on our active comprehension skills. Pupils will focus on a chapter each week and work on tasks around the chapters they have read. Pupils will also work on specific skills such as inference this term. Some pupils will start to use direct quotes from the text to justify their answers to comprehension questions.  

Writing 

This term Primary 6 will continue to focus on Narrative writing and Figurative Language (Similes, Alliteration, Personification, and Metaphors). Pupils will focus on purpose and audience: they will have the opportunity to write stories for some of our younger pupils to listen to and enjoy. We will focus on a different aspect of grammar/punctuation each week. Our writing day will be on Thursday. The class will be told the focus of their writing in the homework grid sent out on a Monday.  

Spelling 

The spelling groups will continue to experience the Active Literacy spelling program, this will introduce common words and focus phonemes pertinent to their stage. The pupils will revise the Active Spelling strategies throughout Term 2.  

Numeracy 

This term we will be focusing on the four operations within the context of decimals and long multiplication. We will also cover 2D and 3D shapes and a money and finance topic. Mrs. McIntyre will also focus on Beyond Number topics on a Friday. The pupils will experience activities at their stage and level. The revision of multiplication tables will be encouraged across all groups. Sumdog and Topmarks games can help with the rigor of x-tables at home.  

Health and Wellbeing 

Our focus this term is Internet Safety. This topic ties in with our class topic of digital skills. Our weekly PATHS lessons will focus on social and emotional lessons. The pupils enjoy ‘Pupil of the Day’ and are great at giving each other lovely compliments. 

Our PE days are Tuesday and Wednesday and is it very important the pupils bring in a jacket these days. I have also suggested to the pupils that they bring in a change of bottoms just in case our PE days are ‘rainy’ – that will become a certainty coming into the winter months. The pupils understand that I will try my utmost to deliver PE lessons outdoors, however, this might become tricker as we come into the winter months.  

IDL 

Our class topic this term is Digital Skills. Stong digital skills are vital in today’s world. Pupils will learn about different aspects of Office 365 such as Teams, Forms, and PowerPoint. We will also be learning how to email correctly. Pupils will learn how to use different features of our school iPads and will create and edit videos to highlight learning in the class. Our topic ties in nicely with Literacy – using word processing to publish writing and creating reports. Office 365 can be downloaded FREE from the pupils’ Glow account.  

RME 

Throughout Primary 6 the pupils will listen to and engage with stories from the Gospel of Matthew. We have already started looking at The Bible as our sacred text. In the months of October and November, we’ll be looking at the story of Creation. During the month of December, we will look at the Nativity through the Gospel of Matthew.  

The pupils are also working hard to gain individual reward cards for Amazing Attitude, Wonderful Work, and being a Superstar. When the pupils gain five reward cards, they can trade them in for an individual prize or keep them until everyone gets 5 cards each for a whole class reward 😊  

Thank you for all your support.  

Miss Mudge 😊  

Please use the link below to view information for P7 Parents/Carers whose children are due to transition to St. Joseph’s Academy  in August 2021.

P7 Parents Information Presentation

This year , because of the current situation with Coronavirus, our fundraising for The Earl Haig Fund Scotland will be slightly different.

Instead of having the usual collection tins in school which are passed round the classes for donations, we have set up a Parent Pay item where we are suggesting donations of £1 where possible.  We will thereafter distribute poppies to the children on Wednesday 4th November.

All donations made will be passed directly to

The Earl Haig Fund Scotland.

Pumpkin Trail Visit

Please remember to supply your child/children with suitable outdoor/waterproof clothing  for tomorrow’s visit, as it will no doubt be ……….