Primary 4 – Term 2 Update
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! Oh, yes it is!! I always find this term’s update quite emotional as you reflect on the end of a calendar year, but are only half way through an academic year.
The children settled quickly back into the routine after the October week holiday and were keen to focus on new learning.
In Literacy, this term we continued using the Big Cats reading resource (Nonfiction) in weekly sessions, in conjunction with our Science based Energy Topic texts. It aligned neatly with our writing focus on Non-Chronological Report Writing. The final pieces have been uploaded to Seesaw, where you can clearly see your child’s progression and next steps. The children have continued to develop their understanding of Literal, Inferential and Evaluative question types. They continue to make progress in their ability to ask and answer these question types. We continued to focus on developing our Comprehension Skills, Summarising Skills, Context Clues and identifying information skills. I was impressed with their ability to locate and highlight the necessary information I a range of texts across Curricular Areas.
In Numeracy we have focussed on the 4 Number Operations – Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. We always begin to embed the concepts with the use of concrete materials and Pictorial methods. We continue to develop our understanding and application of a range of strategies to solve calculations within these operations. This can be seen in the think board activities which we share on Seesaw. Term 3 will see us apply our Number and 4 operations understanding to Fractions, Decimals, Percentages, Time and Money.
Re and Health and Well-Being consisted of lessons on Remembrance and Lives of the Saints. The children were exceptionally reverent when praying for our relatives on the November Lists. In Jigsaw lessons we were Celebrating Difference and making sure that we don’t make assumptions based on appearance, or as your Granny would say “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover!!”. It culminated in a series of lessons during Anti Bullying Week before we began our Advent preparations.
We thoroughly enjoyed our IDL topic on Energy, which ended with our trip to Whitelee Wind Farm. It is a fascinating place to visit. The children, as always, were curious about the world around them and created magnificent questions to lead further investigation. We have group talks to prepare for in January and some final touches to our Digital Books before we begin our next IDL experience.
We were the first Committee to present at a Whole School Assembly. A role that we took very seriously!! We continue to work through our Action plan and our Christmas Jumper campaign was a successful start to the Preloved to ReLoved approach being undertaken within OLR.
Thank you for all your support this term. It is greatly appreciated. Rest well and enjoy your holidays together. I look forward to seeing you all in 2024.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mrs McGeehan
