We could not be prouder of our Primary 7 poets. Here is the winning entry, enjoy! Glasgow Smiles Glasgow oh Glasgow what a welcoming place Come to us for a warm embrace Sectarianism gone, we’ve moved on We’re united … Continue reading →
This term, Primary 1 families were invited to take part in another Family Learning Club. The focus for this club was ‘Playing with Sounds’. This is an initiative to involve parents in playing games that will reinforce early literacy skills. Our main focus over the course of these sessions was to reinforce and further develop children’s phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with the sounds of spoken language. It is an essential skill that is the foundation for developing reading and spelling skills. It is an aural skill so there are plenty of fun opportunities to reinforce this skill which don’t involve writing or reading.
The reason these sessions are game based is primarily to make them fun for all of you and not feel like an additional task or chore to complete. Playing games at home can increase a child’s confidence and social skills, boost their brain power and memory and develop their language skills.
Over the course of the sessions we explored the ‘Playing with Sounds’ games and you were able to take these home to continue the learning at home. We also played a number of rhyming and sounds based games to give you further opportunity to develop phonological awareness. The children particularly enjoyed the rhyming games and requested that the activities are even harder for next time! The biggest thing they all agreed on in their feedback was that they loved having their parents in school and that having you here helped them to learn. Thank you so much for coming a long and supporting these sessions.
Within the take home games there were suggestions for a ‘Chat Together’ time. I have listed some of the ideas from Chat together below so that you can continue the family learning fun even without the packs. If you weren’t able to make the Family Learning sessions, the ideas below are very simple but effective ways to reinforce your child’s phonological awareness and a fun way to boost their literacy skills. Have a try at home and let us know how you get on.
Chat together ideas
Sing nursery rhymes and songs
Miss words out from nursery rhymes and songs and wait for your child to finish the line.
Play ‘”I spy with my little eye” using initial sounds e.g. ” I spy with my little eye something beginning with p”. Change it up to make it harder, ” I spy with my little eye something ending in p”.
Play ” I hear with my little ear something that rhymes with star” e.g. car
Read rhyming books to your children – the local library will be well stocked but you will also find examples in the Bookbug bags you’ve collected over the years.
Practise sounding out 3 syllable words- use objects you can show them around the house. Build it into your routine i.e. as you wash the dishes, hold up a baking tray and ask them to count the syllables e.g ba(1)- king(2) tray (3) so three syllables.
When you are reading a story to your child, say some of the words in individual phonemes e.g. The f-o-x saw the chickens in the farmyard. Ask your child which word it was.
When you are reading stories together, ask your child where they hear certain sounds in words. Take turns to do this. If you were reading Farmer Duck, ask you child: Where do you hear the d in duck? Or ask, what sound do you hear at the start/middle/end of duck?
P5b visited Govanhill Library yesterday, following on from World Book Day. The library staff gave the class a talk about how to find the books they are looking for and let them explore the wide variety of books available. The … Continue reading →
P5b had a great day celebrating World Book Day 2019! We dressed up as characters from some of our favourite books, read an early bedtime story to our buddies from Primary 2 and chose a book to keep at the … Continue reading →
Or nurse or health visitor or radiologist. Whoever you might want to see on your visit to the Primary 1 Health Centre, will be available so long as you book through our receptionist.
Primary 1 have been learning about the world of work. They have worked with staff to develop a health centre role play corner where they are exploring the different roles of people that work in this setting. They are using their drama skills to act the part of various health care professionals or patients. They are learning to take care of patients of all ages with all ailments. They are having a go at writing for a purpose when they book appointments, take patient notes, fill in records or write prescriptions. They are using fine motor skills to apply banadages, operate medical tools and swaddle babies. They are counting medicications and working out times for appointments. They are creating posters to inform patients of healthy lifestyle choices. They are doing all of this while communicating with each other, taking turns and sharing.
Along side this play area, Primary 1 children have the opportunity to explore sand and water play. They have been filling, pouring and measuring as they prepare to learn about weight and capacity.
I wanted to write a blog about all the learning and skill development going on in the play area as I’m sure if you ask the children, “What did you do today?”, they’ll reply “We played!”.
Earlier in November we invited Primary 1 to Primary 3 parents to join our Family Learning Club and we were overwhelmed with the response. This initiative came about as we thought about, how to make the most of the wonderful Bookbug and Read, Write, Count packs that were being gifted to the children from the Scottish Book Trust.
On Thursday 22nd November we launched the Holy Cross Family Learning Club, which turned out to be the biggest family learning session we’ve seen at Holy Cross. We were delighted to welcome you all in and with the commitment and enthusiasm you gave to the activities. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
If you missed out on the club or were there but want a reminder of what was on offer then this is the blog space for you.
Primary 1
The Primary 1 Bookbug bag contains:
‘One Button Benny’ story book
‘I am Bat’ story book
‘Eric makes a Splash’ story book
colouring pencils
magnetic numbers
whitebaord
dry wipe pen
Each year group had a range of activities to take part in. For Primary 1 there was a comfy reading corner where we read and discussed ‘One Button Benny’ (spoiler alert- he’s a hero). Parents were given a keyfob with question openers on it to give an idea of how to guide the conversation when discussing stories.
Make time to read for enjoyment at home, find a cozy and comfy space, put away any distractions and share the reading with your child. Take it in turns to ask questions or make comments. Make full use of the pictures to find clues about the story and where it is going. Encourage them to read words that they know but read to them as well. Setting a good example or model of how to read is one of the most important steps.
Following on from the story the children had the opportunity to create their own Robot friend from Playdough and loose parts materials. They could describe their Robots abilities and appearance. This activity generated a lot of imagination, creativity and talking and listening opportunities. There are cards available that tell you how to have a go at making your own playdough and what literacy and numeracy skills you can develop at the same time. If you didn’t get one this week, let us know and we’ll make more. If they weren’t into play dough they had the chance to use paper and colouring materials to draw Benny and have a go at writing a description.
The children had to be careful not be captured by the Fitness ‘bots who were out to capture the lazy children of Earth and keep them captive…or at least that was the context for our third activity. The children were captured by Fitness’ bots and taken to a planet (large hula hoop) where they had to take part in a variety of exercises to prove they weren’t lazy and actually fit enough to return to Earth. They had to roll dice and add the results together to find out how many exercises they had to do.
Primary 2
The Primary 2 ‘Read, Write, Count’ bag contains:
‘Open Very Carefully’ story book
‘A Tale of Two Beasts’ story book
Finger Puppets
Meteor & Rockets board game
pencil
writing book
This week Primary 2 focused on ‘A Tale of Two Beasts’ . The children read the story with their parents and discussed it, taking turns to ask questions from their new keyfobs. There were activities and worksheets related to the story for children and parents to work on together.
Primary 2 enjoyed making theatres for their finger puppets out of ‘junk’. They used boxes, cartons, tubes, glue and a whole host of materials to deisgn and build these theatres. They worked with each other and with their parents and we hope you are all at home now enjoying many a performance from your finger puppet friends.
Our families also had a variety of board games to have a go with. ‘Guess Who’ was a firm favourite! We hope you’re continuing the fun at home with your Meteor and Rockets game. Board games are a great way to develop talking, listening, numeracy and problem solving skills. They’re also great for spending quality, fun time as a family.
Primary 3
The Primary 3 ‘Read, Write, Count’ bag contains:
‘Picture Atlas’ Non Fiction book
‘There’s no Dragon in this Story’ story book
Story dice
Ocean Commotion
Money bingo
pencil/notebook
The Primary 3 children had fun looking through the contents of their bags. They read ‘There’s no Dragon in this Story’ with their parents and went on to design and describe their own dragon. This gave them the opportunity to use their imagination and engage in discussion with their parents.
They also had an acitivity where they had to read and follow instructions to make icing and decorate some gingerbread men. This activity can be done in so many ways depending on your talents in the kitchen but the very simple set up that we had was very popular. Following recipes are a great way to have fun together but also to develop sequencing skills, comprehension and measuring skills. As if that’s not enough, there’s the added bonus of a tasty reward at the end.
Primary 3 also had a variety of games on offer. Many had a shot of Ocean Commotion from their Read,Write, Count packs and others enjoyed, pairs, snap and happy families (both the card game and the chance to spend time together).
You have all been so kind with the positive feedback we’ve recived and we’ve taken your suggestions on board as we start to plan the next session. We think there will be plenty more for you all to enjoy. We’ve also spoken to some of the children who took part and their feedback has also been very positive. When asked what they thought of the family learning club they’ve reported that they enjoyed junk modelling, ginger bread men, games etc. but their most very favourite part of the whole experience was having you, their parents, here at school. Thank you for bringing that joy to their day!
We are so looking forward to having you all back next week!
Today we had great fun when we visited Govanhill Library. We learned about what was there and how we can use the library. We heard two great stories, then we had time to look at the books. We even got … Continue reading →
In prepartion for World Book Day, we have been designing our own comics. We are working as a team to create one GIANT comic book. This will be on display for all to read at World Book Day tomorrow. We can’t wait!
