We have had such a busy term with Play Projects, World Book Day, Parents’ Nights and our Scotland Assembly. It was great nice to see so many parents this term and share our learning with you.

Literacy

We have focused a great deal on Talk4Writing . The class has enjoyed learning stories, telling stories, drawing story maps and writing stories. What great imaginations everyone has! Our latest story, “Kasim and the Hungry Dragon” has inspired a great deal of discussion and led to lots of fabulous ideas. Everyone continues to read with their group and complete Higher Order reading activities. It is great to see the progress that children are making.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, we have covered a range of topics this term. These include measure, time and information handling. The children can practise all of these skills at home and demonstrate  their practical skills.  Multiplication and addition facts continue to be reinforced, as this has helped many children to develop greater confidence, and speed up their calculations.

Health

In PE we have been focused on large ball skills. Everyone has been practising throwing, catching, moving and finding space. We then worked on team skills and how to play games. It is so important to work together to try and score lots of points.

We have also spent the last two weeks participating in  “The Big Wheel and Walk”. This encourages pupils to think of the impact of travel, and to find safe healthy ways to travel where possible. Bikeability has also helped everyone to develop greater confidence in their cycling skills.

Reporting and Supporting Learners

This term  a new SWAY went out for each child focusing on a week of their learning. I’m sure that the children have enjoyed sharing these with you. You can also follow our learning through our Play Projects. Every month we publish a SWAY showing our learning. Links are in the Google Classroom or here.

Play Projects 2022-23. Part 2

February – World Book Day

Go to this Sway

Leaning can be supported by families  through our weekly Google Classroom activities and through Sumdog. Both of which can be accessed on a range of devices at home.

Thank you again for your support. We are now looking forward to warmer days and even more learning!

Literacy

Writing – We have been developing our use of descriptive language and using literacy techniques such as similes, metaphors, alliteration and onomatopoeia to make our writing more interesting to the reader. We have been focusing on developing characters through using descriptive language and the techniques above.

Spelling – We continue to use the Wraparound Spelling progression each week to deepen our knowledge of spelling patterns, how words and sentences are constructed and used effectively. We deconstruct words to see how many syllables they have and to think of rhyming words.  We continue to identify the root words and use prefixes and suffixes to grow our vocabulary and how these change the meanings of words. We have also been identifying the different parts of speech.

Reading Comprehension Skills – We have continued to use the Higher Order reading strategies to deepen our knowledge and understanding of what we are reading – whether it be short previously unseen texts, novels or animations.  We have revisited predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising skills.

Numeracy

During Terms 3 and 4 we have covered fractions, decimals and percentages and how these are all linked through the context of money.  We have revisited telling the time in 12/24 hour time and converting between 12/24 hour times using analogue and digital clocks.  We have explored reading timetables accurately, working out time durations and time zones around the World. Some of the children began exploring the relationship between time, distance and speed to answer word problems.  We are also exploring data analysis averages – how to find the mean, median, mode and range of averages.  We have also revisited adding hundreds and thousands and how to lay this out in a clear and logical way in our jotters.

H&WB

We have started to explore the use/ misuse of substances.  We have started exploring the safe use of prescribed and over the counter medicines.  We have also started to look at the effects smoking has on our body. We will also be exploring the effects of alcohol and illegal drugs.  The children have been surprised so far to find out that caffeine found in tea/coffee, soft drinks and chocolate is a socially acceptable drug.

During Terms 3 and 4 in PE, we have been developing our skills in badminton, football and volleyball. In each discipline we have focused on control, accuracy, tactics, teamwork and communication. We have also enjoyed another couple of sessions developing our skills in skateboarding.  We used a ramp this time for those children who wanted to challenge themselves even more.

Primary 7 have been planning the potted sports activities this term and have been busy trialling these activities and adapting them to suit the range of ages and needs across the school.  They have had fun trying out all the activities and providing feedback on how they could be improved.  Thank you to P6 for being our guinea pigs and trying them out for us too before the whole school completed them this week.

Outdoor Learning

This term we have enjoyed participating in play activities with the P2/3 class.  We have been using the new den building kits the school have invested in and have had lots of fun building shelters and dens.  We have developed a range of skills and become familiar with how to use the equipment safely.  Our creative thinking and problem solving skills have been tested lots!

IDL

Our IDL context last term was Global Goals – looking at sustainability and Fairtrade.  We have recently been discussing what makes a good birthday party and starting to consider what we would like to do to celebrate the school’s 40^th birthday.  Our Term 4 focus has been ‘Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds.’ We have been learning about the dangers of substance misuse and the effects this can have on our physical and mental health. We have also been exploring the systems and functions of the human body. In preparation for the academy we have been exploring ways to maintain positive mental health, peer pressure and setting healthy boundaries.

Good Luck

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the children for their part in making this an enjoyable year for us.  We wish them all the very best in their continued education at Forres Academy and look forward to hearing how they are getting on after the holidays.

From Monday 28th February the school lunches menu will be changing back to the original winter menu. The menu can be found here http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file106142.pdf

This menu will start on Monday 28th February at Week 1.