Our kids are just as scared as you right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off school sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like the summer holidays, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behaviour issues with your kids. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behaviour in the coming weeks. This is the normal and expected under these circumstances.

What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be okay. And that might mean that you tear up that perfect schedule and love on your children a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find a virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family.Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in the same position and they will all be okay. When we are back in the classroom, we will all get things back on track and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your children because they don’t want to do maths. Don’t scream at your kids for not following your schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.

If you can leave with one thing, it’s this: at the end of it all, your children’s mental health will be more important than their academic skills. How they feel during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they do during this time. So keep that in mind every single day.

We are including in this pack some maths, literacy and health and well-being activities but we must stress there is NO obligation to complete these activities, they are simply put in to help you, should you find your children need to complete something more concrete and academic based. There are also active games and activities included but I’m sure you as parents and carers will have many more ideas of your own.

We will not be strangers during this time and will always be available and contactable through GLOW and other means. (Login’s have been included in the pack) On here the children can post the things they are doing or get in contact with the teachers. Active learn details will also be included: books and numeracy activities will be available on this. There is also an additional list of websites and FUN activities that you can enjoy if you choose.

Your continued support is valued and always appreciated. If you have any more questions or queries that ungently need answered please feel free to contact us through GLOW and we will do our upmost to help you.

The P2 Team

March 18, 2020
by eacaroline.strain@glow
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Active Phonics information

Active Literacy and Phonics

Your child is following an Active Literacy and Phonics approach in class.

Active Phonics teaches and develops spelling, reading and writing skills in a structured way; and some of the words that we use in class to teach these skills may be new to you.

We hope this information will help you to support your child’s learning, homework tasks and understand what they are being taught in class.

What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. Your child will be taught about these as they progress through school.

We start by teaching the single letter phonemes. For example- ‘a’ as in ant, ‘b’ as in bat etc.

Homework tasks will be set to help your child recognise, say, sound out and use the single phonemes that make up the alphabet.

What is a cvc word?

Once your child has a good understanding of these single letter phonemes then they will start using these to make cvc words.

A cvc word is a 3 letter word that is made up of a consonant, vowel, consonant. For example- cat, dog, pet, fun etc.

Your child has been taught about vowels and consonants and will be able to tell you what they are.

At this stage the children are taught about blending these 3 sounds together to make a word.

The process of blending sounds together to make a word is a very important skill for reading, spelling and writing.

You can have lots of fun with your child making cvc words because they rhyme.

For example- your child could be given a cvc word such as cat and then try to say and make other cvc words that rhyme with that word. You can make up silly sentences or stories that rhyme and spot rhyming cvc words in story books etc.

In class your child has a magnetic board and letters they can use to make cvc words. They will put these magnetic letters into their Elkonin boxes; or write their word in an Elkonin box.

What is an Elkonin box?

This is what an Elkonin box looks like. Your child will use this to show each individual phoneme (sound) that makes up a word. Image result for image of an elkonin box

The skill of breaking words into their individual phonemes is very important for building spelling, reading and writing skills.

Cvc words have 3 phonemes and 3 letters.

However, the number of phonemes (sounds) in a word may be different from the number of letters in a word. For example-

Image result for image of an elkonin box

What is a joined phoneme?

Building upon the skills your child now has using single phonemes, blending them together to make cvc words and using elkonin boxes we begin to teach joined phonemes. Joined phonemes are 2 or more letters that are joined together to make a single sound. For example- the ‘sh’ sound and ‘ee’ sound in the word ‘sheep’.Homework tasks will be set to help your child recognise, say, sound out and use joined phonemes.Your child will have magnetic letters joined together to make a joined phoneme to help them make words with that sound.

For example- ‘ck’ in the words black, duck, muck, luck etc.

We will teach these joined phonemes in a structured way as your child progresses.

Your child may borrow magnetic letters to make words with you at home and elkonin boxes to record these words for homework.

We hope this information is useful and has helped explain some of the words that we use in class and the methods we are using to raise attainment in literacy.

As a staff team we see the value of this approach and the children really enjoy and understand what and how they are being taught. We hope you can see how it will help your child on their journey to becoming a confident and able reader and writer and you feel confident supporting them on their journey with us!

Thanks,

Mrs Strain P2St

March 18, 2020
by eacaroline.strain@glow
0 comments

P2st-Home Learning ideas

Do you want to draw a snowman?

If you click on this link it will take you to the Disney youtube clip where a Disney animator shows you how to draw Olaf exactly the same as in the Frozen movies!

https://youtu.be/lQ9Bmzw3ims

It’s quite tricky, but I have some amazing artists in P2St so why not give it a go on a rainy day?

Maybe someone at home will help out with some of it-or maybe you want to try it all by yourself?

Don’t forget that you can stop and start the video as much as you want so that you can follow all of the instructions.

Please share your Olaf pictures with us all on your Glow Blog.

Happy drawing!

Mrs Strain x

Hi P2St- This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme is ‘Kindness”

18th-23rd May 2020

This week is mental health week and the theme is ‘Kindness’.

We talked a lot about being kind in class, and I know you are all very kind.

When things are so different and lots of us are worried about things we never really worried about before; like Coronavirus, having to stay at home, missing our friends and family and lots more then it is more important than ever to try to be kind to each other and ourselves.

Here is a link to a story about Kindness to listen to and talk about as a family-

https://youtu.be/kAo4-2UzgPo

There is some information here about Mental Health Week (for your parents or carer) with some ideas to help you all be mindful about kindness to others and very importantly, to yourself.

seven-days-of-kindness-calendar

Be Kind, stay safe and well and happy,

Mrs Strain

Homework Resources and Ideas- Active Phonics

Primary 2

Here are some suggested websites that we use regularly in class to support our Active Phonics lessons that you can access at home-

Google search for YouTube phonics resources is a great source of short clips, songs etc. to help reinforce the phonemes your child has been taught in class.

These include-

Mr Thorne does Phonics
Geraldine the Giraffe
My Growing Brain
Alphablocks
Scratch Garden
Phab fonics
English4abc

Joined Phonemes that we have covered over the past few weeks in class are-

ue that makes the long oo sound- as in blue, clue, rescue
oo that makes the long oo sound- as in balloon, cool, moon
ea that makes the long e sound-as in tea, teacher, each
ee that makes the long e sound-as in tree, bee, meet
oa that makes the long oh sound-as in boat, coat, moat
ow that makes the long oh sound- as in arrow, crow, throw

March 17, 2020
by eacaroline.strain@glow
0 comments

homework

P2St

NEW glow blog and Bug club user names and passwords given out today.

December 4, 2019
by ealaura.milligan@glow
0 comments

P2 Nativity Information

Our Christmas Nativity is coming along well and with just two weeks to go we wanted to remind you of a few things.

Our show will take place on Tuesday 17th December at 10am.
We don’t have a running time as yet, however we would hope that the show would run to approximately 1 hour. (Any significant changes to this estimate will be communicated next week.)
In order for us to have meaningful rehearsals, could you please spend time each night reading and performing your child’s lines with them. If possible, we would like for all pupils to say their line confidently without scripts. Narrators and Inn-spectors will have a script due to the volume and frequency of their participation.
If any pupil has lost the lines card, please notify the class teacher so we can provide you with another copy to learn.
If you received a request slip, please send in any costumes as soon as possible.
Please encourage your child to be an active participant. There will be times to speak out clearly and confidently, there are several songs that need energy and actions performed but there will also be times when they have to sit and wait patiently. Your support in this is appreciated.

We are excited to share our show with you all and hope that you have a wonderful time if you can manage to come along and join us.

Mrs Kidd

November 21, 2019
by ealaura.milligan@glow
0 comments

Our Local Area

We have been learning about our local area. Primary 2K/S wrote letters to businesses and places of interest near our school. Yesterday we visited the Northwest Boxing Club. Have a look at our photos, we had a great time!

Here’s what we thought:

“We got to be active and nice and healthy.” – ELISE

“I went on the wrestling ring and boxed Ray.” – COLIN

“We got to punch things.” – AILISH

“We went to the boxing club to box Ray.” – MASON M

“My favourite part was getting to go on the ring sparring with Ray.” – CARTER

“I like boxing because it keeps you fit.” – LANA

“I liked boxing with Ray.” – ZOE

Ray told us The Northwest Centre has a Facebook page and that they were developing classes to provide opportunities for fitness for various ages so please check the page out, or call him for further details.

Mrs Kidd

November 6, 2019
by ealaura.milligan@glow
0 comments

P2 Christmas Nativity

Primary two will be presenting their Christmas Nativity Show in December.

Pupils were learning about the story today and we discussed the available parts. We would encourage every pupil to take part as there are a range of roles – speaking, non-speaking, acting, dancing, singing, playing instruments and making props or costumes.

Your child will be allocated a part within the next week. Speaking parts will be issued with their lines and we would appreciate if you could help your child learn these and to be able to deliver them confidently and clearly. The school will provide as many costumes as possible but we may need to ask for specific items that your child already owns. We will communicate this soon.

Mrs Kidd

October 22, 2019
by ealaura.milligan@glow
0 comments

Homework Jotters

Homework jotters will be issued by your child’s teacher.

Here is an example of what spelling tasks should look like once completed.

A word list will be attached to the jotter. Use this to help your child complete their spelling tasks.

Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check (LSCWCh) should be completed EVERY WEEK.
Your child can choose whether they complete Pyramid spelling OR Rainbow spelling. Please alternate between these tasks each week as this will build their confidence in class tasks too.

Please ensure your child only uses a double page spread to complete their spelling tasks. Work can be completed in this way either in a blank or a lined jotter as provided by the class teacher.

If you have any further queries regarding homework then please contact your child’s teacher.

Mrs Kidd