We have had an amazing last week in P2! Thank you all for your hard word and dedication this session. You will be amazing in P3!

P2 made the most of our indoor novelty race Sports Day. Well done to those who won 1st, 2nd or 3rd place and to all those who participated! Thank you to Tesco for donating fruit for us to enjoy after our races.

A huge well done to the pupil who earned a prize at prize giving this year too!

During Health Week, P2 took part in a wide range of exciting activities.

The pupils participated in activities such as curling, laser tag, litter picking, food tastings and a silent disco. Throughout the week, they demonstrated enthusiasm, teamwork and resilience while taking part in both active and educational experiences. The variety of activities encouraged the children to think about physical health, wellbeing, safety and caring for their community.

A huge thank you to our local optician, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Cotton Trail and Lochside for visiting our school and helping to make Health Week such an enjoyable and memorable experience for everyone involved. We would also like to extend a huge thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us for our den building session and family picnic. Your support helped make the week even more special!

Our P2 pupils have been working hard to achieve their Heritage Heroes Bronze Award.

They explored different types of homes in Catrine, how homes in Catrine have changed over time and discussed which wants and needs have changed and which have stayed the same. We then created a timeline of home interiors, arranging them from the oldest to the newest.

The pupils explored old photos of Catrine and identified where they were taken during our Heritage Hunt. They then visited the same locations, holding the old photographs, and took new photos to compare Catrine then and now. 

Our pupils explored the history of Catrine’s Cotton Mill. They investigated how the mill began, what it produced and how they helped Catrine’s community to grow. They then created line drawings of the Cotton Mill and designed their own patterned towels inspired by those made at the mill.  Mrs Watt brought in towels that were made at the Catrine Cotton Mill for the pupils to explore.

All of the pupils’ hard work has been brought together to create a P2 non-fiction text about Catrine’s heritage. This book will be placed in our school library, allowing pupils from all stages to learn about the history and heritage of our village.

Thank you to all the relatives and community members who took the time to share their memories and experiences of Catrine with our pupils. The responses have been fantastic and have helped bring our learning to life.

Twice a year, the children take part in our whole school ‘Big Talk Homework Challenge’.  This is where your child gets the opportunity to prepare and present a talk to the class.  This term the class has chosen to talk about ‘My Favourite Toy.’

Some ideas to include in their talk might be:

• What is your favourite toy?
• Who gave you it or where did you get it?
• How do you play with it?
• What do you like about it?
• How does it make you feel when you play with it?
• Any interesting facts about your favourite toy.

Please practise saying the talk out loud at home. Posters or slides to help the pupils with their talks are encouraged but pupils should not read from these – they should only act as prompts to aid the pupils’ talk.

We will begin Big Talk presentations next week. Please look at the list below to find what day your child will be expected to discuss their favourite toy.

Monday 11th of May

• Mirryn
• Fifer
• Coila
• Rosa
• Miller
• Riia
• Jessica
• Charlie

Tuesday 12th of May 

• Reuben
• Ethan
• Lucia
• Bella
• Lyanna
• Claye
• Allie
• Brie

Literacy

In literacy, our pupils have been exploring the u_e sound. They have also been focusing on writing grammatically correct sentences using Felix’s Foundations to help assess and develop their writing skills.

Numeracy

In numeracy, the pupils have been learning about fractions. They are now able to recognise that two halves and four quarters make one whole. They particularly enjoyed demonstrating this understanding using food and other real-life examples.

Across the Curriculum

During Health and Wellbeing, pupils have been learning to recognise and talk about their feelings. They are now able to identify a wider range of emotions and had great fun using facial expressions and body language to act them out while the class guessed the feeling being shown. Pupils also discussed the trusted adults and people they feel comfortable speaking to when experiencing strong emotions.

In addition, pupils developed key social skills such as teamwork, communication, and resilience while working collaboratively to design and build a variety of obstacle courses during outdoor learning. As they participated in each group’s course, they also worked on developing their physical skills, including balance, coordination, and strength.

Finally, the pupils created beautiful, spring garden–themed artwork to enter into this year’s Catrine Show. They then displayed their work in our mini art gallery and enjoyed giving feedback on each other’s pieces.

Our P2 pupils have had a very busy Term 3 and have earned a well deserved rest!

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday!

Literacy

The pupils have been learning to use find it, prove it strategies to answer literal, inferential and evaluative questions based on a text in literacy this week. They also learned to identify alliteration within a text and explored how it is used in poetry.

Numeracy

The pupils have been measuring the area of flat shapes using loose parts, counters and squares this week. Additionally, they have been learning to partition 2-digit numbers.

HWB

The pupils were also investigating how our nutritional needs change as we grow. The pupils enjoyed learning how to make a baby bottle for a newborn baby; feeding an older baby mashed foods and estimating how much milk 4-6 month old babies drink in a day. The pupils then created a healthy, balanced packed lunch that primary school aged children need to learn, grow and play.

Literacy

The pupils have been discussing the purpose of fiction and non-fiction texts in literacy this week. Additionally, the pupils have been continuing to learn how to sequence the main events in their reading books.

Numeracy

P2 have explored area in numeracy this week. The pupils can now confidently explain that the space covered by a flat shape is its area. They then used counters and squares to cover shapes in order to develop their understanding of area and enjoyed comparing areas using loose parts. 

Across the Curriculum 

This week, the pupils were learning to recognise the names of the 5 main food groups and their importance in our diet.  The pupils enjoyed tasting different foods from various food groups and could describe their flavours. 

The pupils were also eager to find out about the most famous person in Catrine as part of our Catrine topic. As a result, the pupils learned about David Dale who helped build the Cotton Mill in Catrine. The pupils then learned that water from the River Ayr was guided along the Voes to turn the big wheels in the mill to make cloth.

Thank You 

We would also like to thank Miss Campbell, our amazing student teacher, who has worked so hard to deliver excellent teaching and learning in P2. We wish Miss Campbell the best of luck for her next placement!

Well Done! 

A special well done to Miller in our class for reciting his Scottish poem at the Barony Burns Festival!

Literacy 

Our P2 pupils have been learning the o_e sound this week. They have also been exploring the main events in texts using What, Where, Why, How and When and can now use this knowledge to sequence the main events of texts in chronological order.

Numeracy

In numeracy, the pupils have been investigating lines of symmetry in shapes and everyday objects as well as having the opportunity to create their own symmetrical patterns using different materials. The pupils were also able to use their knowledge of symmetry to create a symmetrical Mother’s Day card.  Additionally, the pupils explored how to represent numbers in concrete and pictorial form during our Number Talks. 

Across the Curriculum 

As part of P2’s food and health topic, the pupils explored the origin and journey of food. Our pupils also had the opportunity to showcase the model cars they have been developing as part of their technologies project. All pupils were able to lead their own learning and engage in problem-solving strategies to construct model cars which could safely transport our Safety Officer, Chester. The pupils were able to evaluate their work and listen to peer feedback in order to  adapt and improve their model.