There’s no homework for the rest of the year!

Merry Christmas!

Nativity

The children have been working hard on their lines for the Nativity. Some children have learned them off by heart already, which is wonderful.  Please help your child learn their line.  If your child has been absent, you will find their line on a small slip of paper in their homework folder.

Children should wear a Christmas t-shirt or jumper if possible with dark jeans/leggings/joggers. Please don’t supply Christmas headwear for the show as it can prevent the audience seeing children in the row behind.

Please bring clothes into school in a named bag by Monday 9^th December at the latest to ensure we have all clothes available for dress rehearsals that week.

Christmas shows are on Friday 13^th November at 10.30am and 1.45pm and those returning the ticket request form will receive tickets soon.

Growth Mindset

Today we talked about the need to persevere in learning and the importance of developing personal resilience when things get tough.

We continue to encourage a Growth Mindset throughout our learning through the language we use in class and through display and class routines. As we approach the end of phase 1 of our Growth Mindset Project, I will send home a new questionnaire for parents to complete.

Thank you in advance for completing this. It is part of the project to increase parental involvement in their child’s learning.  This is because we believe parental involvement is important in maximising the impact of classroom practice.  It is part of the project to provide an evidence base to the impact of communicating with and involving parents so thank you for the time taken to discuss Growth Mindset with your child and for completing the questionnaires provided.

Homework tasks this week

Growth Mindset

This is a talking task and there is no need to record or hand anything in.

Mapping

We have been learning to read plans and make plans of our class and playground.

We will continue our learning by reading simple maps. Please help your child create a simple map of the journey they make from home to school.

Think about roads and turns. You may mark on features such as roundabouts, crossings, traffic signals, bridges and other significant features that help your child know where they are in their journey. There will be an opportunity for children to share their work in class from Friday 6^th December.

There are no additional reading, spelling or maths homework tasks this week although all these areas of learning continue in class.

Thanks for your support with homework.

Please look out for letters in homework folders this week.

Ms Crawford

Primary 2 Homework Week beginning 25.11.19

Nativity

We have started rehearsing for our Christmas production ‘Wriggly Nativity’. The children are enjoying learning the songs and actions. Primary 2 will narrate the story. Please look out for your child’s line (small slip of paper) in their homework folder and help them to practise it.  Children should wear a Christmas t-shirt or jumper if possible with dark jeans/leggings/joggers.  Please don’t supply Christmas headwear for the show as it can prevent the audience seeing children in the row behind.

The Christmas shows are on Friday 13^th November at 10.30am and 1.45pm. Please see your child’s homework folder for the letter with ticket arrangements, which should be returned by Friday 29^th November.

Growth Mindset

Today we talked about what learning is. We shared our ideas. Learning is trying to work something out. You need to listen to the teacher and classmates.   It’s about questions.  You need to try hard.  Mistakes are good- they help you to learn. 

In class, we are going to start a question wall. We use the thinking routine I see… I think…. I wonder… to help encourage close observation, connections and generation of good questions, which will help us learn.

We talked about the importance of mistakes. Sometimes we feel bad when we make mistakes but mistakes are an important part of learning. When we make a mistake, Neuroscience tells us that our brains grow more than, if we solve a problem right straight away.  This tells us that we should not be afraid of making a mistake.  Mistakes are good because the struggle we experience when challenged help us learn. We can all learn from our own and others’ mistakes!

We are going to celebrate mistakes. Every week we will look at a Marvellous Maths Mistake of the Week.  We will use this as the basis for a class number talk and will work together to solve the problem and explain our thinking. When we make mistakes and we listen to others and try to understand- we enter the Learning Zone.  If we make mistakes and do not remember that they can help us learn, it is easy to take short cuts that prevent us from learning and growing our brains, such as copying answers or avoiding work or challenge.

Homework tasks this week

Growth Mindset Homework-

We will look a Marvellous Mistake of the Week at the end of the week.  Ask your child to tell you about mistake of the week- over the coming weeks.

Encourage your child to be curious and to question

Book Week Scotland Homework

The children received a Read Write Count Bag today with books, games and activities. Please explore the contents of the bag in place of spelling and maths homework this week.  Please hold on to the contents of the bag- I may ask the children to use the dice and counters in an upcoming homework challenge task.

Reading– your child will read their core reader in school this week due to alternate homework tasks. Please practise your line for the Nativity.

Spelling– your child will practise qu words in school this week due to alternate homework tasks.

Thanks for your support with homework.

Ms Crawford

This afternoon we continued our Growth Mindset Learning by reading the story of Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae.

Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. “Giraffes can’t dance,” they all jeer when it’s Gerald’s turn to prance. But with some sound advice from a wise cricket, Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune.

We talked about how we feel when we try something new and can’t do it yet. Although it can be an uncomfortable feeling, it is helpful to remember that with practice, the new skill will become easier.  It is important that we challenge ourselves even if we feel uncomfortable because when we challenge ourselves we enter the ‘learning zone’. We talked about the importance of keeping trying even if things don’t go well at first.  Sometimes it might take longer to learn something new than you thought or you might need to try different strategies. It is more important to spend time understanding rather than racing to complete work quickly.

Homework tasks this week

Growth Mindset Homework-

Talk to someone at home about areas of learning you find tricky? How does it make you feel? Have you ever taken shortcuts such as avoiding the task or cheating?  Talk about how avoiding challenge can prevent you from learning something new. Who could you speak to when you are feeling challenged?  What could you say to yourself or to a friend to encourage yourself or them to keep trying? There is no need to record this formally.

Book Week Scotland Homework

This is Book Week Scotland 2019. The children will receive a Read Write Count Bag next week with ideas to develop literacy and maths skills and books we will look at in class this week.  For homework, please help your child to think about a book they would recommend. Please fill in the sheet together (just 1 side although it was photocopied on two sides in error!).  There will be an opportunity for children to share their recommendations/reviews during the week beginning 25.11.19.

Reading– core reader (reading book);

Spelling– spelling pattern oa and common words (him, her, our, us)

Please encourage your child to:

Say the word   e.g. boat

Break it into the sounds e.g. b-oa-t (3 sounds)

Blend it- b..oa…t.(stretching out each sound)

Write it (whilst covering the word)

Check it (against the written format)

If possible tackle one column of spelling on 2 different nights. An active spelling grid is in the front cover of the literacy homework jotter. You should pick one to try on a third night.

There will be a spelling dictation on Friday this week.

Maths-There is no new maths task in recognition of the Growth Mindset and Book Week Scotland tasks.

Thanks for your support with homework.

Ms Crawford

If you’re looking for ideas for books that are linked to the A.R. program please feel free to check this website:

https://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType.aspx?RedirectURL=%2fdefault.aspx

The BL (Book Level) should link to your child’s ZPD.

This afternoon we continued our Growth Mindset Learning by reading the story of The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Vashti is a young girl who does not believe she can draw. One day, her teacher tells her to just make a mark and see where it takes her. She grabbed a marker and made a dot, and signed it. The next day when she saw it hanging in a frame, she told herself she could make a better dot than that! Vashti experimented and painted until she made dozens of dots in all different sizes and colors. At the end of the story, she helps encourage another girl to believe that she too can do anything she puts her mind to.

We thought about our special talents and attributes and those of our friends. We are all different and have different special talents but what is important to remember is that we can all get better at anything.  We may need to plan to use good strategies, ask for some help to begin with and keep practising but we can get better.

Homework tasks this week

Growth Mindset Homework-

Ask someone at home to help you think of something you can’t do yet or that you want to get better at.  This can be something in school or at home and will be your target.

-What kind of things will you need to do to get better?

-How will you know that you have achieved your target?

-Who could help you meet your goal?

-What Growth Mindset messages might you tell yourself in order to keep learning?

Please complete the target speech bubble with a grown-up. We will share our targets on Friday and you will review this at the end of the Growth Mindset lesson block.

Reading– core reader (reading book);

Spelling– spelling pattern oy and common words (this, that, then, with- I have noticed that some children are mixing th and f sounds in independent writing)

Please encourage your child to:

Say the word   e.g. boy

Break it into the sounds e.g. b-oy (2 sounds)

Blend it- b..oy.(stretching out each sound)

Write it (whilst covering the word)

Check it (against the written format)

If possible tackle one column of spelling on 2 different nights. An active spelling grid is in the front cover of the literacy homework jotter. You should pick one to try on a third night.

There will be a spelling dictation on Friday this week.

Maths-There is no new maths task in recognition of the Growth Mindset homework task. If you wish, please practise alternate counting (e.g. you say 26, child says 27, you say 28, child says 29) both forwards and backwards from different starting numbers (this is useful for counting on/counting back strategy for addition/subtraction).   It is easier to count forwards than backwards- so children will benefit from additional backwards counting practice.  It may be easier to separate forwards and backwards counting between days if your child gets confused by switching between them.  It can be tricky when we ‘cross the decade’ (the 10) particularly backwards (e.g. 21,  20,   19).  Work within 30 but if that is easy you may wish to try within 50.

Thanks for your support with homework.

Ms Crawford

Primary 1 have been learning about measure this week. We had some spooky visitors to the classroom.