St. Brendan's Primary School and Nursery

Welcome back to Term 3. We have been very busy already this term and there’s lots more happening. We welcomed Miss Smith to our class, a Post Graduate Student who will be working with us until the start of March.

Currently the Primary 7 members of our class are training to be Sports Leaders, along with the P7 class. This involves working with our Active Schools Co-ordinator to plan games and activities in small groups which the pupils will then deliver to our younger children during lunchtimes. The boys and girls are enjoying this responsibility and leadership especially as they have been given the opportunity to design and try out some of their own games.

While our P7 classmates were undertaking their training this week, our P6 classmates participated in a writing challenge. They had to work with a partner to write an interesting story with a snowy/wintery theme (our weather this week was our stimulus). The pupils had to ensure they included lots of similes and alliteration within their story. The boys and girls loved this change to their regular story writing lesson and, they had some amazing ideas!

Keep checking back to see what else is happening in St. Brendan’s this term. Our termly letter was posted earlier in the week to give you an overview of what’s coming up!

Dear Parent/Carer,

I hope that everyone enjoyed a fun and relaxing Christmas holidays and would like to welcome all of the boys and girls back for our third term in Primary 5. The children have enjoyed a productive fortnight back at school and have made a good start to a term that is sure to be filled with lots of learning as well as plenty of fun.

Literacy
As always, the class will continue to follow the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy Programme to support their learning in spelling, phonics, reading and writing.
The children will continue to complete a range of challenging phonics and spelling activities, making use of a variety of strategies that will help them to spell with confidence and accuracy. During this longer term, the children will undertake two novel studies. Titles include ‘The Santa Maria, ‘The Last Wolf’ and ‘The Magic Carpet Slippers’. Ensuring that the children complete all assigned reading at home is important as this means they will be prepared for the activities they will be given in class.

Numeracy
In numeracy, the class will continue to experience a mix of direct teaching, partner/group activities and written tasks to build and consolidate their understanding of concepts.
Over the course of the term, the class will explore the themes of time, shape, multiplication and division. The children will extend and reinforce their knowledge of all times tables, including the 7 and 9 times tables. I would encourage children make time to practice their times tables at home as being able to recall multiplication facts quickly and accurately is an important skill that we will be working on in class. I will be recommending some free apps in class that can help with this!

RE
This term, we will focus on the themes of Responding to God’s Call, Lent and Holy Week. We will be thinking carefully about the things that God asks of us as Christians and how we can live up this in our everyday choices and lives. The boys and girls will also have the opportunity to lead the Mass as we say a fond farewell to Father Brown on Thursday the 31st of January.

Health & Wellbeing
A wee reminder that PE for Primary 5 will continue to take place on a Wednesday and a Thursday. We would encourage children to bring their PE kit into school on a Monday and take it home on the Friday to ensure that they have it whenever needed. The children will continue to work with Motherwell College sports coaching students on a Wednesday morning for the remainder of the term. On a Thursday, Miss Cassidy will be working with the class to develop their skills in Badminton. She will also be helping the class to learn more about the importance of eating a healthy diet.

Cross Curricular
This term, our class topic will place a focus on Scotland. We will be learning more about the geographical features of Scotland and the processes that formed the beautiful mountains, rivers, coasts and islands that our country has to offer. We will be using maps to locate important geographical landmarks and thinking about how we can preserve Scotland’s natural beauty. Our science focus will link closely with this theme, as we will be learning about the materials that make up the land around us.

Again, please continue to communicate any queries or concerns using the homework diary.

Many thanks
E Burns
Class Teacher

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Here is a brief overview of the learning that will be taking place in our Primary one class during term three.

Literacy

Children will follow North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy programme for spelling, phonics and reading.

In phonics we will be consolidating all initial sounds and learning the phonemes sh, th, ch, ng, wh, ph, and ee. Children will be introduced to the phonemes through a multi-sensory approach. One phoneme will be introduced each week alongside three spelling words. Children will be able to recognise and write initial sounds and begin to blend sounds together and read three letter words. We have now covered all initial sounds within the alphabet. Please continue to revise all common words and sounds taught in term one and two 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 playdough to practise letter formation and early writing patterns. Please encourage your child to practise writing the letters using the correct formation.

Children will receive 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 addition, subtraction and measure. Numeracy is taught actively here at St. Brendan’s through stories, games, number rhymes and songs.

Social Studies

This Term, our context for Interdisciplinary Learning is Space. The children will be learning about the vastness of the sky and will be learning about the sun, moon and other planets. They will be responsible for making decisions about their learning, where they work and the resource they will need to complete tasks. There will be lots of opportunities for active learning through role play, creative, construction, writing, playdough and Numeracy.

Health & Wellbeing

PE this term will be on a Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon. The children will be working on gymnastics. They will be practising balancing, moving and controlling their bodies in different ways.

R.E.

In Religious Education the children will be learning about the Easter story and about the meaning and importance of Lent.

Thank you for your continued support. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

Many thanks

Miss Cochrane