Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to the start of Term 2 which promises to be a very busy and exciting term with lots of exciting events planned.

Here is a brief overview of the learning that will be taking place within Primary 4 this term.

Literacy

The children will continue to follow North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy programme for reading, writing, spelling, talking and listening.  This programme will enable children to further develop their literacy skills through exploration of a range of skills and strategies.

Spelling

The focus phonemes for this term will be ‘ie’ and ‘oe’ and children will explore different written representations for each phoneme.  Furthermore, they will employ spelling strategies and rules whilst learning a range of common and tricky words.

Reading

This term the children will be reading a selection of novels within their reading groups. Some of the novels will include George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Owl who is Afraid of the Dark and The Diary of a Killer Cat. This will allow the pupils the opportunity to apply the Active Literacy Comprehension strategies which were introduced to them last term during our novel modelling block. We will also work with a range of non-fiction texts this term apply our comprehension skills and linking to other areas of the curriculum.

Writing

This term we will focus on the genres of narrative and recount. Children will use a variety of stimulus to write interesting narrative stories focusing on ambitious vocabulary, paragraphing and punctuation. We will also write Recounts where pupils will use their own experiences and familiar stories to write about in their own words using their skills from narrative genre.

Numeracy

In numeracy, children will extend their knowledge of addition and subtraction through a range of active and written tasks.  The children will develop their mental agility through Number Talks and will be given opportunities to work collaboratively.  They will also investigate 2D and 3D shape and their properties, and create symmetrical drawings and patterns.

R.M.E.

Religious Education will be taught through the ‘This is Our Faith’ programme.  This term we have been learning about the Our Lady and the Rosary during the month of October. As we move into November our focus shifts towards Saints and the faithful departed. We will investigate the life of some saints and look at the qualities of what makes a saint and how this applies to our life. During the month of December we will look at the story of Advent and Christmas.

Health & Wellbeing

This term we will explore what it means to be Responsible with a focus on internet safety.

During P.E lessons we will develop our dance skills as we prepare for our festive celebrations.

Our P.E. days this year are Mondays and Fridays.  We would encourage children to keep their PE Kit in school from Monday to Friday to ensure that they always have it with them and refrain from wearing jewellery on these days.

Social Studies including ICT, Science and Art

Our interdisciplinary learning focus this term will be “Living Things & Their Habitats”. The children will compare a variety of habitats and explore a climate/country which is very different from their own; studying animals and plants that may be found there. This learning will also link to our Science focus which is food chains and what living things need for survival. The children will participate in a mini beast hunt and use their experiences in writing and art.

Please do not hesitate to communicate any comments or concerns using the homework diary and keep up to date with our learning through twitter.

Many thanks,

Mrs Bridge & Mrs Colton