Another Thursday, another wonderful morning with our lovely Holy Cross Families. A massive thank you to everyone who came to spend the morning with us and joined in so enthusiastically with today’s activities.
This week we tried to keep in the favourites as well as adding some new activities. We wanted to put a bigger emphasis on writing this week, and fully utilise the materials in the bookbug bags and read, write, count bags.
Primary 1
Primary 1 had the option to join Mrs McNaught in our cosy reading corner. It’s important to have a safe, quiet (quieter than the school hall) and comfortable space for story time. This makes the idea of story time inviting and appealing to the children. Together they read ‘Eric makes a splash’. Eric is a very worried Panda but with some help and support from a friend he is able to work through his worries. This book was a great stimulus for talking about worries and what we can do when we do feel worried. There were lots of other books on offer that were also good stimuli for getting children to recognise feelings, talk about their own feelings and think about ways they can get help and support when they need it. As a writing opportunity we suggested offering children a diary or journal as a safe place to write about their feelings and help them organise their thoughts.
Sticking with ‘Eric makes a splash’, we had a floating or sinking STEM challenge for the Primary 1 children. They had to explore a variety of objects and were given the task of sorting which items could float and which did not. From there, they experimented with different materials to make boats and other vessels that could float. Many were successful in making paper boats but sadly their floatation was short lived but others were able to solve this problem using plastic bottles or wood as an alternative option. A follow up writing opportunity could be to write lists, classifying the objects as floating or not floating. They could also write instructions about the most effective way to build a model boat.
 
(I can’t find the picture of the AMAZING raft that was built by a Primary 2 but I will keep searching!)
Primary 1 also had the option of assembling and decorating empire biscuits today. They had to follow instructions and make a plan for their design before getting started. The results looked delicious! At home, let children join in with writing shopping lists, messages or designing menus for a special occasion. They love opportunities to write for a purpose!
Primary 2
Primary 2 were able to show off the types of activities they might try in class to work on spelling or reading skills. Lots of children enjoyed showing the bingo and jigsaw activities to their parents and others were able to use their magnetic letters to build words. I hope that some of you are looking out newspapers, leaflets or junk mail at home and using them to practise finding common words. Another tip is to cut the letters out from the headlines and use them to build your homework words.
The children also read ‘Open very carefully- a book with bite’. They worked with their parents to ask and answer questions about the story. They then completed some follow up activities about the character in the story. They thought about what a crocodile might dream about when they’re sleeping, what an alternative front cover for the book might be and what a day in the life of a crocodile would look like.
Primary 2 also read ‘A Tale of Two Beasts’ and discussed the story with their parents. They then had the option of using play dough and loose parts to model a beast. They were asked to write a short description of this new character.
Primary 3
Primary 3 had lots of fun exploring non fiction texts today and coming up with their own quiz questions to try out on their parents. This gave them the opportunity to practise the format of writing questions and to use lots of different openers to make sure their quiz had variety.
Sticking with the games theme, they then had the chance to design and play their very own board game. They had to think about writing rules, instructions and coming up with a company logo. It was also great to see so many showing off their maths skills and ambition in the finished products.
Primary 3 also had the opportunity to use their story dice from the read, write, count bags today. These are such a versatile resource that can be used in many ways to build vocabulary, imagination and talking & listening skills. It was great to hear some of the wonderful stories that were created after using these dice and very encouraging to see everyone’s effort in using them to create story maps as well as pieces of writing.
Next week we will shift the focus to be more maths & numeracy based! So please feel free to drop us a comment or DM on twitter (@holycrosspri) if there is anything specific you would like to know about. In the mean time please keep enjoying the packs at home and do let us know if you try out anything you learned at Family Learning Club.
See you all next week!
