St. Brendan's Primary School and Nursery

Dear Parent/Guardian,
We hope you enjoyed the Easter break. Here is a brief overview of the learning that will be taking place in our Primary one class during term four.

Literacy
Children will follow North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy programme for spelling, phonics and reading.
In phonics we will be learning the sounds ai, oy and oa as well as consolidating all of our initial sounds. Children will be introduced to the phonemes through a multi-sensory approach. One Phoneme will be introduced each week alongside three spelling words. Children are now able to recognise and write initial sounds and will continue to consolidate the skills of blending and sounding out unfamiliar words. Please continue to revise all common words and sounds taught to date regularly with your child so they are able to recall the sounds or words instantly.
We will be co-ordinating our handwriting with the sounds we are learning. Children will use whiteboards in class along with other kinaesthetic and visual materials such as plasticine to practise letter formation and early writing patterns. Please encourage your child to practise writing the letters using the correct formation.

Children will get two reading books each week. (Monday and Wednesday) These books give you an opportunity for you and your child to enjoy reading together. Children should begin to identify the common words within the reading books and use their knowledge of sounds to sound out words. You can help your child by talking about the pictures in the book to help find clues about the story and the characters and also encourage them to make predictions about what may happen next in the story.

Numeracy
In numeracy we will be learning about measure (capacity and weight), data handling, symmetry and fractions. Numeracy is taught actively here at St. Brendan’s through stories, games, number rhymes and songs.

Social Studies
This term the children will be learning about Dinosaurs. Through the context the children will learn to work as part of a group. They will also be responsible for making decisions about their learning, where they work and the resource they will need to complete tasks. We will be focusing on the past and learning about how dinosaurs used to live, what they used to eat and what they looked like. We will be learning how to use books and the internet to find out new and exciting information. There will be lots of opportunities for active learning through role play, art, water play, construction, writing and outdoor learning.

Health & Wellbeing
P1B:
PE this term will be on a Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.
P1C:
PE this term will be on a Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

The children will be working on ball skills and coordination. We will also be preparing for sports day by practising a variety of different races.

R.E.

In Religious Education the children will be learning about our catholic values. We will also be learning about Mary. We will be listening to a variety of bible stories and enjoying the messages they portray.

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.
Many thanks
Miss Burns and Miss Cochrane

May 2016

Dear Parent/Guardian,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. We are already working hard and are excited about the fun events which will be taking place this term. This is a brief outline of the work that we will be undertaking within the class during the fourth term.

Literacy

We will be continuing to follow the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy Programme in phonics and common words. This term we will continue to use the 5 A Day computer program in class to support the learning of phonics and common words. The children will continue to read one or two books per week with associated writing tasks in class to develop their comprehension skills. The children will be answering more challenging questions, creating their own questions and completing recounts of their reading books. In Big Writing this term the children will be given opportunities to write narrative, explanation and recount pieces of writing using our new topic Sweetie Land as our stimulus.

French

As part of our French programme the learning will be focused on the following areas; feelings, body parts, classroom objects, snack options and clothes.

 Numeracy

In Primary 2F we will be learning Fractions (1/2 and 1/4), Patterns and Relationships, Measure (Weight and Capacity), Time (O’clock and Half Past), Grids and Position and Movement and Ideas of Chance and Uncertainty. Within numeracy the concepts are taught and the children are given opportunities to learn as a whole class, with a partner and participating in active maths activities. During active maths the children will be given opportunities to put their knowledge into practice.

Religious Education

During the fourth term the children will be learning about Mary, Mass and God’s Loving Plan. God’s Loving Plan in Primary 2 focuses on God’s love for us, His creations and the love we have for our family. The teaching and learning will take the structure of a prayer service/circle time, Bible readings and written tasks.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E. the learning will be focused on Target Games, Striking and Fielding and Athletics. The children will move a range of objects from a starting position to a set target, they will move their body or an object into space to score/prevent runs and they will prepare for Sports Day by practicing a range of athletics activities. Please ensure your child continues to bring their P.E. kit to school on a Monday and takes it home on a Friday. In Primary 2F the children will be learning about substance misuse through the ‘What’s the Score’ programme. They will be learning that medicines are drugs and that they can make you better when used correctly although they can also be harmful when not used properly.

Interdisciplinary Learning

This term we will be learning about roles and responsibilities and setting up a business through our Sweetie Land topic. We will be using the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a stimulus to begin our topic. The children will be given the opportunity to create their own sweetie, a wrapper and a poster to advertise it. We will be discussing the difference between needs and wants. The children will be using their numeracy skills to gather information about their favourite sweeties and then record this in a graph. During I.C.T. we will be using Scratch Jr on the iPads where the children will create their own community based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The children will work in cooperative groups to create a small business selling sweets to their peers in school.

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

Kind Regards,

Mrs Debbie Ferns

Class Teacher Primary 2F