Primary 3 have had a very busy few months since returning to school so we would like to share some of this learning with you.

In Numeracy and Maths the children have been learning numbers up to 1000 and they know how to estimate and round numbers to the nearest tens and hundreds. They have used concrete materials to explore Place Value and are currently learning a variety of strategies to help with addition. They use Number Talks most days and have been counting on from the highest number, using number lines, 100 squares and making friendly numbers to help with addition. They are learning to explain how they got the answer and this is really helping with their understanding. This will also help as they continue to develop skills in subtraction, multiplication and division.  The children are demonstrating that they are confident individuals as they eagerly share their responses, solutions and justifications.

In Literacy the children continue to work hard on their Spelling, Reading, Writing, Listening and Talking.  The children are working through the Active Literacy Spelling programme and are learning new phonemes and common words each week. They love to look for these sounds and words in their surroundings and get very excited when they spot them. Please encourage them to do this in their home and local environment also. The children are reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts each week and are developing their accuracy and fluency. They made their own Alien Masks after reading ‘Aliens Love Underpants’. They have loved listening to stories, sharing stories with each other and choosing books from our class library. Please continue to encourage children to read for pleasure as much as possible as this helps in all areas of Literacy.

I have been impressed with the quality of the stories that the children have written so far. They have recently written some spooky Halloween Stories, which saw them creating their own characters and settings, using some excellent adjectives to add to their story.

With October, being the month of the Holy Rosary the children have been learning how to pray the Rosary and have been learning all about our parish of Holy Family. We have been learning our Mass Responses and hymns to sing at mass. We have been learning all about Creation and Laudato Si. The boys and girls know that they have a responsibility to protect and care for the amazing world that God created for us.

Our IDL topic has been Space and the children have developed a range of skills across many areas of the curriculum, they learned about Neil Armstrong and completed line drawings of astronauts. They used their knowledge of 2D and 3D shape to create rockets and during Maths week, the children collected a series of materials from our local environment and put these together to create rockets in the yard. They have listened to lots of fun stories about Space and even listened to a story told by an astronaut from the International Space Station. They have learned the order of the planets from the Sun and have learned a mnemonic to help them remember. Ask them to tell you? They love to get it right. As we come to the end of this topic they are making a Diorama of our Solar System. I think you will be impressed.

Without doubt the highlight of the month for the children was the Halloween Party. The children were so excited and loved to dress up, play games, dance and have fun with their friends and teachers. It was so good to be able to celebrate this together in the hall.

As you can see, the children have had lots of fun learning activities and experienced many successes as learners over the last few months. Thank you for your continued support. Please see Twitter for any class pictures or updates throughout the month.

Well…where to begin with all the learning and fun that the children have experienced over the last month.

Prior to updating I asked the boys and girls “so what have we been doing/learning this month” they couldn’t wait to tell me and share their achievements.

Lauren – we have been learning about time.

Amber – we have been going to Mass more and saying lots of Hail Mary’s.

Laraib – we have been learning about Venn Diagrams and Carroll Diagrams.

Ava – I have really enjoyed the PE this month and making my First Holy Communion.

Dzeisonas – I just always love Maths.

Caobhin – I have really liked doing Athletics in PE.

Lacey – I loved saying the Rosary, learning all about Mary in the Month of May and making my First Holy Communion.

Connie – I have learned lots about time and Data Handling.

Holly, Grace, Olivia and Emily – We loved reading Horrid Henry

Maths and Numeracy

The children have worked extremely hard this month and have demonstrated their developing knowledge and understanding in the four operations and fractions by applying this to other areas in Maths such as Time, Data Handling and Angles. They all very enjoyed the active aspects of these areas and surveyed everyone in the school to gather data on favourite foods, colours and animals. I have also been very impressed with how quickly the children are picking up angles and compass points and they were able to identify a variety of right angles in our classroom and can give directions using North, South, East West, clockwise, anti – clockwise. Ask them to tell you their little rhyme for remembering the order of the Compass Points. Going forward we will be working on Symmetry and consolidating our number knowledge before the end of term.

Literacy

The Green Group are continuing to use the six main reading strategies of prior knowledge, metalinguistics, visualisation, inference, main ideas and summarising to help them gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading. They have been reading The Best Dog in the World and are enjoying learning all about the relationship between Denzil and Elliot. The children were given a home reading record and I have asked them to ensure they are choosing a book to read at home and to record it in their diary.

The Red Group have enjoyed reading all about the antics of Horrid Henry. They have been reading in groups, in partners and individually and are learning to read for longer periods. They have looked at some comprehension strategies such as visualisation, metalinguistic and main ideas to help them gain a fuller understanding of what they are reading. They have demonstrated this in their written work and we are going to try to read another Horrid Henry book before summer.

The Children have been exploring their senses when writing poetry this month. They have discussed the use of their senses to help them when writing.

Religious Education

Throughout the month of May the children have participated in class and whole school decades of the Rosary in devotion to Our Lady. They have been to Mass and have been learning some beautiful hymns including Bring Flowers of the Rarest. The boys and girls in Primary 4 celebrated the Sacrament of the Eucharist on the 14^th May and did themselves proud with their full participation in the mass responses and hymns. Their hard work and preparation was clear to see and we are very proud of them. As a class we celebrated

OTHER CURRICULAR AREAS

We have been busy over the last few weeks, participating in Health Week and in PE we have been developing our skills in Athletics, running, sprinting, jumping and throwing and we can’t wait to showcase our skills at Sports Day.

Our class Enterprise topic that the children decided; was that, they wanted to raise money to help the people of Ukraine affected by War. We watched news coverage and discussed the cause of and impact of the conflict in Ukraine. The children have written prayers for peace and used oil pastels to create a piece of artwork that shows the sunflower and the thistle combining the two national symbols.

We collaborated with Primary 2/3 and decided we would plant sunflower seeds to sell; the proceeds will be donated to a charity dedicated to helping support the affected Ukrainian families. The children designed persuasive posters and advertising posters to promote this throughout the school.  So far they have raised a fantastic amount, keep your eyes on Twitter for the final amount raised.

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at Sea Animals and exploring the habitats in the World’s Oceans.

Welcome back everyone and I hope you all had a happy and restful holiday break.

Maths and Numeracy

During the month of March pupils have been learning all about Fractions. They have worked hard throughout the month and can name the numerator and denominator, can name equivalent fractions and calculate the fraction of quantity. The children participated in lots of practical activities to deepen their understanding in this area. They are then going to take this knowledge forward and apply it to Telling the Time. As always, mental maths skills are a focus throughout the year and we encourage children to access Sumdog as often as possible and continue to practise the 2,3,4,5 and 10 Times Tables.

Literacy

The Green Group have been developing their comprehension skills using the story of The Twelfth Floor Kids. Children have been applying the six main reading strategies of prior knowledge, metalinguistics, visualisation, inference, main ideas and summarising. Going forward children will continue to apply these skills to help make sense of increasingly complex themes and narratives. It is important that children spend time not only reading the texts but exploring and discussing the language and tools used by the author to enhance the reading experience.

The Red Group are making good progress and are enjoying the range of novels that they are reading. In Term 3, we are going to look at longer novels and continue to work on answering in more detail and full sentences.

Children have been working on the genre of explanation writing this month; they have been learning about extreme weather forces and have been researching and reading about a variety of extreme weather forces. Children were able to demonstrate their learning in this area by completing an independent piece of writing about a topic of their choice. Children have also prepared a presentation to deliver to the rest of the class with a focus on timing, presentation, volume, eye contact and information. We have really enjoyed listening to these.

Religious Education

The children who are making the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Communion attended and participated in a retreat in the Church Hall. This was a very special and reflective time for the children to come together to appreciate and consider the importance and relevance of this Sacrament in their lives. We have also been spending time with Mrs Celino and Mrs Le Blond during Lent learning all about the Stations of the Cross.

OTHER CURRICULAR AREAS

We have come to the end of our topic on Natural Disasters and the children have very much impressed me with their enthusiasm and ability to retain so much of the information that we have gathered.

During Science Week, we completed a number of fun experiments using a variety of materials and substances.

On World Book Day we dressed up as our favourite characters and had a wonderful ‘Booknic’ in the hall where we shared our favourite stories and books.

We sadly said goodbye to Miss Bradley who has been working with us over the last month. Miss Bradley was a great help to us and she helped us make healthy fruit smoothies, taught us all about inference and even taught us some sign language. We will miss her very much and wish her well with the rest of her studies.

Going forward we look forward to celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Tuesday 26^th April and the Sacrament of Communion on the 14^th May. We are also looking forward to deciding on our topic focus for the final Term, which will involve lots of fun, and Outdoor Learning.

It was lovely to get the chance to speak with you all on Parents Evening and I want to thank you once again for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need to discuss anything.

Continue reading Primary 3/4 November Update →

The children in Primary 3/4 have had a very busy few months since returning to school so we would like to share some of their learning with you. 

In Maths the children have been learning a variety of approaches and strategies to aid them in their learning. In Number Talks they are developing secure mental strategies that they can draw upon when faced with any calculation. Through this the children demonstrate that they are confident individuals as they eagerly share their responses, solutions and justifications. The children know how to estimate and round numbers to the nearest tens, hundreds and thousands. They have used concrete materials to explore Place Value and this has really helped with Addition so far and will help as they continue to develop skills in subtraction, multiplication and division. 

In Literacy the children continue to work hard on their Spelling, Reading and Writing.  The Green Group have been learning all about phoneme families and are learning to use spelling strategies such as ‘word within a word’, ‘compound words’ and ‘syllabification’. Ask them to demonstrate how these help them work out tricky or new words.

The Red Group are working through the Active Literacy programme and are learning new phonemes and common words each. The children love to look for these sounds and words in their surroundings and get very excited when they spot them.

In addition to their various Home Reading Books, the boys and girls have been reading ‘Poppet’, a story about a baby African Elephant who becomes friends with a little mouse. The children have used this to develop their comprehension skills and are working hard to produce answers in full sentences.

In Health and Wellbeing the children have been learning about staying safe and healthy. They take every opportunity to get outdoors for PE and have been effective contributors to our school community by participating in Beat the Street. Friday afternoons are spent with their friends in Primary 2/3 at Hope Street Park as a fun way to end their hardworking week.

With October being the month of the Holy Rosary the children have learned how to pray the Rosary and have visited Holy Family Church every Tuesday with primary 2/3 to pray in the gardens. This has been a really lovely experience for us all and it is wonderful to see the children enjoying being in the Church again. Please try and provide this opportunity for children by attending Sunday Mass, especially if the children are making their sacraments this year.

The boys and girls also participated in their Class STEM challenge ‘Spaghetti Towers’ where they used Spaghetti and Marshmallows to design and build a freestanding tower. They loved this and look forward to doing more challenges throughout the year.

Our IDL topic has been the Vikings and the children have developed a range of skills across many areas of the curriculum, they made 3D Longships and explored symmetry when designing their own Viking shields. They also used the knowledge that they have gained to create posters giving others information all about the Vikings, their lifestyles and their beliefs.

The children have recently began to learn all about Climate Change and what is happening during COP26. They have been learning about what Pope Francis said in Laudato Si and are eager to demonstrate that they are responsible citizens by contributing individually, as a class, and as part of the whole school to help tackle the impact of Climate Change on their World.

As you can see the children have experienced many successes as learners over the last few months so what better way to celebrate this than a fun filled Halloween Party which they are so excited about.

Welcome to Primary 2/3’s final reflective Friday post for 2020.

Well done to all the boys and girls in Primary 2/3 on a successful Term 1 back at school.

The children have had a very different December than usual but as always have risen to the challenges admirably.

The children have managed to achieve excellent progress in Literacy and Numeracy and their ICT skills are developing very well. Today they managed to write and type their very own Elf Riddles inspired by the characters from our novel, The Christmassaurus. This week also saw the end of our Primary 2/3 games which the children have been competing in over the last few weeks. Teams Mario and Yoshi worked together to acquire points for their team. The children enjoyed this very much and learned lots of skills including how to be a supportive and encouraging team member. In the end there was only 1 point in it which saw both teams being awarded a Gold Certificate and medal.

The children have been learning about Advent and preparing for the birth of Jesus, we have been thinking of others and trying to be kind. The children have also demonstrated their artistic and creative talents with all their Christmas arts and crafts.

This month we wish to share our best wishes and love to you all over the holidays, thanking you once again for all your support this term. May you all have a safe, happy and healthy break. I look forward to all the exciting learning opportunities that await us in January.

Merry Christmas from Mrs Preston and Primary 2/3.

Welcome to Primary 2/3’s Reflective Friday post for November.

Another busy and hardworking month in primary 2/3. This week we have been reflecting on and discussing our achievements over the last few weeks and the children have all worked really well and I am delighted with their progression.

Our target this month was to try really hard to stay in our seats in order to keep everyone safe. The children all try really hard to stay in their class bubble.

This month we have agreed to look at Maths and how we could improve in this area. This month the children have all identified a personal target that they are going to work towards and I am sure that they will as always work really hard to achieve success in this.

In Maths we have spent a great deal of time working on addition and subtraction and I feel that the children are really confident in applying strategies to solve both written and mental calculations. We will continue to do this throughout the year through our Number Talks. This week we will be applying our skills and moving on to look at multiplication. The children will be looking at 2, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.

In Literacy the children have been learning trickier words and applying word attack strategies when reading and writing in class. They have been listening to popular fairy tales and are developing the ability to pick out the important parts of the story. We are now practising our letter writing skills with our first letter sent to Santa asking very nicely for a class elf. I hope he has heard our plea! We will continue to develop our skills in letter writing over the next few weeks. Please continue to support your children with handwriting and letter formation during any written homework tasks. I can see a real improvement in their handwriting.

In addition to our Christmas preparations and celebrations we are continuing to remember the real meaning of Christmas and the children will be learning about Advent as a time of preparation. We will be discussing ways that we can make a difference through our acts of kindness. We are still also looking at our Knights and Castles topic and the children really are very enthusiastic when discussing this. I have asked them to complete a personal project over the next few weeks, researching Scottish Castles. Choosing their favourite and explaining why? They should be able to share with us who lived there and when, battles or important dates and should also be able to identify the features of the castle.

I hope that the next few weeks will bring some well-deserved, fun, festive cheer for the children who have all adapted remarkably and worked incredibly hard during this first term.

This month we had reflective Thursday as Friday saw our class celebration for Halloween. Slightly different than usual but no less fun. The children looked fantastic all dressed up and I hope that you enjoyed seeing the art work that they created last week.

This month we have been extremely busy in class. The children have been working hard and it is great to see the progress that they have made. I hope that you enjoyed looking at all the wonderful work in their jotters?

In Literacy the children have been writing instructions and recounts and have been developing their comprehension skills through activities linked to their reading book. I have enjoyed listening to the children read and can definitely see an improvement in their fluency and accuracy so thank you for your support at home.

In Numeracy the children are moving on to subtraction, followed by multiplication and division. The children work very hard during class time and again I can really see how well they are doing. The children also very much enjoy Sumdog, which is a great resource tailored to the specific development needs of each child. In addition to this I select topics to support and consolidate the work that we are doing in class, so I really appreciate you encouraging your child to log in and spend some time this as part of their homework.

Health and Wellbeing/R.E and Topic

The children have been competing in the Primary 2/3 Class Games during P.E. They are either in Team Mario or Team Yoshi and are enjoying some healthy team competition by completing a variety of races, obstacles and developing skills in communication, timing, balance and footwork.

Throughout the month of October the children took part in praying the Rosary and the children loved bringing in their Rosary Beads to use during this time. In November we will be praying for all our loved ones who have passed and again thank you to those who have returned their list.

Finally in addition to the seasonal celebrations such as Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas, the children have been exploring the topic of Knights and Castles and can describe all the special roles of a knight and explain why their armour is so important and can even name some parts of this. Keep your eyes peeled for some fabulous artwork and your ears at the ready for some interesting facts.

Well done boys and girls on another successful month at school.