Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am delighted to be class teacher for primary 4/3 this year and after a well-earned summer holiday, the children are settling into the new academic year. We are all looking forward to an exciting and busy term ahead. Here is a brief overview of the learning that will be taking place.

Literacy

All children will continue to follow North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy Programme. Primary 3 will continue to learn new spelling words and a new sounds weekly and this will be consolidated through class work and homework. Primary 4 children will now be working on Active Literacy stage 4, which is taught in a block of four weeks, with two

weeks being focused on teaching phonemes and their representations, one week on strategy spelling and one week on spelling rules. This encourages children to use their prior knowledge of phonics to enable them to have success in spelling. The children will also be introduced to diacritical marking. Diacritical marking involves investigating words – recognising and identifying which phonemes are contained within each word. Children are involved in listening carefully, and using the diacritical marking code to identify individual sounds and blends.

In reading, children are taught through a four part approach, comprising of:-

• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Writing linked to reading
• Talking and listening linked to reading

The books selected will provide children with quality opportunities for reflection and discussion. Primary 4 children will be introduced to six key comprehension strategies which, when applied, will help them make sense of texts and develop their overall reading development. The key strategies will be taught during a ‘modelling’ block this term, where the teacher will model the use of each of the strategies. During this time, the children will take home a different book to the one which will be read and worked on in class.

In writing we will be using the ‘Big Write’ approach, which is an enjoyable and motivating way for children to develop their writing skills. This promotes higher level talking and improves basic grammar, spelling and punctuation skills.

Numeracy

Children will begin this term by revising and developing multiplication knowledge and we will then further develop this by learning more about division then fractions.

We will then move on to place value, before working on addition up to 1,000. Children will also have regular opportunities to revise their mental maths skills on through a variety of practical activities in class.

R.E

In R.E we will be looking at the theme of ‘The beginning of the school year’. For this we will be exploring liturgical colours and reading and discussing Bible stories. We will also be exploring ‘God’s beautiful creation’ where we will be discussing the story of creation and our precious gift of life.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E our main focus this term will be games/athletics. P.E days will be Mondays and Thursdays but please note PE days may change. Therefore, please ensure your child brings their PE kit on a Monday and takes it home on a Friday. In Health Education the children will be working with Mrs Doherty on learning about road safety through the ‘Streetsense’ programme.

Social Studies

This term the whole school will be working on the topic ‘the swinging sixties’. We are all very excited about the topic and we have already had some interesting discussions about the topic. The children are particularly looking forward to learning more about Andy Warhol and the pop-art movement, as well as the moon landing.

Thank you for your continued support and please use your child’s homework diary to communicate any concerns/comments.

Mrs C McLauchlan – Class Teacher P.4/3