Primary One Term 2 Update
What a busy, busy term it’s been, filled with lots of learning and fun!
In reading, we have been learning more sounds and tricky words and are now able to blend our sounds together to read words. We were introduced to reading books at the start of this term and have been looking at the features of fiction books such as author, illustrator, blurb, front cover, back cover, character and setting. Every Monday we have been using our prediction skills to make a sensible guess about what our reading book might be about. We have been answering simple who/what/where/why/when questions about our reading books and completing comprehension tasks such as sequencing the events in our books, cutting and sticking a sentence from our book into the correct order and looking at true/false statements.
In writing, every Monday morning for soft start we ‘have a go’ writing about what we did at the weekend. The children have lots of opportunities to ‘have a go’ with writing during the week using their knowledge of sounds and tricky words and the word wall and sound mats on their desks to support them. We also have weekly writing lessons every Thursday morning. The children have been working on counting how many words are in a sentence, using capital letters at the start, finger spaces in between each word and a full stop at the end of a sentence. The progress your children have made since the start of the term is incredible! Some of us are even able to write more than one sentence independently! We have also been looking at different ways to open a sentence such as I, We, You, It etc. During handwriting lessons, the children have also been learning how to self-assess their work, circling the best letter formation on each row.
In talking and listening, the children have been working on good listening skills such as making eye contact, sitting still, thinking about their body language and listening carefully to all the words. They are now very good at taking turns to speak! The children have been encouraged to speak slowly and clearly, pronounce words and sounds correctly and speak with more grammatical accuracy. They are now able to follow multi-part instructions and answer questions more confidently. We have also had a few talking and listening presentations where the children have stood up in front of the class and shared a special picture/memory/toy and asked and answered questions on what they have listened to.
In numeracy, the children have been counting up to 100 and backwards from 50. They are also learning to count in 2s to 20, 5s to 50 and 10s to 100. They have been introduced to doubles and halves within 10. They are able to recognise the number names from zero – twelve. In mental maths, they have been looking at pictures of tens frames, dice, dominoes and dot patterns and discussing different ways to represent the numbers (I can see 7, 4 and 3 make 7, 2 and 5 make 7), they are able to tell me one or two more than/less than a shown number and can identify missing numbers on a number line. They have been learning how to add within 10 using counters, tens frames and their fingers to help and can answer missing number sums within 10.
In maths, the children looked at information handling and started by reading information off a pictograph and bar graph. They then used tally marks to gather their own information and presented it as a pictograph. The children have also been introduced to time this term. We began by learning all about what time is, why it is important and how it helps us with our daily routine and calendars. We then began to learn how to tell the time to the hour using analogue and digital clocks. The children really enjoyed this and picked up the skill extremely quickly! They have also been learning all about symmetry. They started off by creating a painting of a Christmas tree where we only painted half a tree then folded it in half to create a symmetrical picture! The children then used mirrors to check if a picture was symmetrical, had a go at completing symmetrical Christmas pictures and tried using a ruler to mark on a line of symmetry to a simple picture! They have also had lots of fun creating symmetrical pictures using duplo, 2D shapes, counters and natural materials during outdoor learning.
In RE, the children started the term off learning all about Mary. They know who Mary is, why she is important and that there are a different names for Mary. They understand the importance of prayer – how we pray, why we pray & when we pray. They are able to pray respectfully and can now pray ‘Hail Mary’. They have been discussing the importance of family and how we all belong to God’s family. We also looked at the importance of friends, how to be a good friend and that Jesus had 12 friends called ‘disciples’. During the month of November, we kept loved ones who are in heaven in our prayers and prayed ‘Eternal Rest’ for them every afternoon. During the season of Advent, the children helped prepare the altar with a purple cloth, a crib and we created a class advent wreath. They listened to the story of the Nativity and are able to explain what happened and who was all present at the birth of Jesus. Your children are also a credit to you when we attend mass with their fantastic behaviour and beautiful singing.
Our topic this term was ‘Living in Scotland’. We started off by reading the book ‘Katy Morag’ and looked at lots of different Scottish things like tartan, listened to Scottish music, Scottish food, Highland dancing, listened to bagpipes and watched a clip of Brave! We also had a taste of Irn Bru and shortbread on St Andrew’s Day! We then looked at the Scottish flag, our local area and how people travel around Scotland. We went on a walk around our local area and looked at the different landmarks. We also used tally marks to gather information on how people travelled in our local area. We went on a walk to Paisley Road West and used tally marks to see how many uses, cars, lorries and bikes we saw. We also looked at the different types of weather we get in Scotland and how the different seasons affect the clothes we wear and the activities we do. We kept a weather diary for a week and had a go at being a weather presenter during drama!
In health and wellbeing, the children have been taking part in weekly meditation activities and using Jigsaw Jack to help us discuss similarities and differences between everyone in our class. They know that it’s good to be different and differences should be celebrated as life would be boring if we were all the same! They know who they can talk to if they are hurt or upset and they know how to be a good friend and why our friends are special.
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and I will see you all in the New Year!
