We had great fun today in Primary 1. In the morning we made placemats for our movie afternoon snacks, we also made a special Santa star to take home. In the afternoon we watched Father Christmas and our class favourite The Gruffalo, as well as enjoying  tasty snacks and some outside play.

In primary 1 we are continuing to use our numbercards to build  numberlines. We have begun to think about what the numbers between 10 and 20 look like and where these numbers sit on the numberline. We use our finger to count up and down the numberline and find numbers before, after and in between. Today we used the numberline to help us add numbers.

Primary 1  have been working hard on learning to read. We have been continuing to practise using our sounds to read and write small words. We have also been learning to read tricky words that you cannot sound out. In our reading groups we have been taking turns to read aloud, we have to listen carefully and follow as others read. We also complete work in a workbook  about the different characters in our reading books and make up our own sentences using word cards. We also enjoy spending time  looking at and reading  books from our class library.

We have also been enjoying the Christmas story and sharing different Christmas books together.

Primary 1 worked very hard to create this wonderful Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Door. Later in the week we will be going to look at all the decorated doors in the school.

It’s starting to feel very Christmassy in P2/1. Our classroom door is decorated and our stick children are wearing scarves and Santa hats and are relaxing with a good book!

We’re continuing our picturebook advent each day and have read some lovely stories, including one about how Santa’s reindeer are actually girls, because the boys lose their antlers each winter.

We’ve been looking more closely at the months and seasons. We’ve been doing cotton bud printing of trees in different seasons and talking more about what happens in each season. We made a winter display for our classroom where we all worked together using different materials to make a snowman. Then we did a fantastic job cutting out our snowflakes and concentrating to make sure we didn’t cut them in half!

In numeracy we’ve been building our number lines and making our own sums. We’re continuing to practise our number bonds to six.

In literacy we’ve been revising all of our phonics and are steadily working our way through in alphabetical order. We will continue with our double sounds in January. We’ve been doing lots of word building, using our sounds to help us. We’ve also been writing some Christmassy sentences. 

For health and wellbeing we’ve been talking about the school values and are starting to consider what they mean to us. We’ve been focusing on compassion and in circle time spoke about being kind to other people and being considerate of each other’s feelings.

We were very excited this week now that it’s December. Each morning we talk about the day, date and season and were delighted to finally change our board to winter and the 1^st December! Because so many children open advent calendars before they come to school we all know the date each morning! For our class advent we are taking it in turns to unwrap a picturebook each day, this morning it was How the Grinch stole Christmas.

We’re doing lots of writing and word building in our jotters, on whiteboards and in our play. In our writing this week we drew a black pen picture of ourselves putting hats on and wrote a story about putting on our hats. In numeracy we’re continuing with our addition, this week using numicon to help us.  We’re also now looking at numbers to 15.

We have started our Christmas crafts – last week we made reindeer for Mrs Ryalls’ corridor displays and this week we did a great job very carefully painting robins on wooden discs. All classes are decorating their doors and we’re having a snowy woodland scene.

What a quick week!

This week in P2/1 we’ve been doing lots of reading. We’re enjoying reading in our groups and talking about the characters in the stories. On Monday we learned the y sound and did a great job thinking of lots of words starting with y. In our writing this week we wrote a story and drew a black pen picture of ourselves brushing our hair, focusing on the who, what and where. We practise writing on white boards every day – we write our key words, tricky words in our reading books and also use our sounds to make our own words.

In our handwriting lessons we start by working on our core, then our shoulders, then a crossing the midline activity and finally work with playdough to get strong fingers. This week we’ve made hedgehogs and dinosaurs. Then we practise our letter formation. This week we’ve looked at r and n.

In numeracy this week we’re continuing with our addition stories. We set up a Kingsland Shop and practised our adding and counting.

On Wednesday we watched an assembly with Mrs Hope, who told us all about St Andrew’s day and read a lovely poem. There was also a quiz and we found out about some of the other patron saints in the UK.

We’re continuing to talk about filling our buckets. In circle time we drew little pictures and talked about what had filled our buckets this week.

We made poppies for Remembrance Day and took them home.

We have been very busy in ELC learning about staying healthy and keeping safe. We made our own crossing and learned about when it is safe to cross the road. We had great fun creating an assault course and did lots of jumping, running and hopping to keep healthy. We have been talking about healthy choices for snack time and have been making charts to record our choices and to help us plan for snack.

We’ve had a great week reading the picturebooks in the P1 Book Bag which all Primary Ones are bringing home today.

We started the week reading My First Book of Birds. We talked about our favourite birds and the birds we have seen in our gardens and on walks. Yesterday we went for a bird watching walk around the school grounds. We learned how we have to be still and very quiet when we’re looking for birds. Around the school we saw a robin and three crows. On the hill we could see some birds in the distance in the trees at Hay Lodge Park and seagulls over the parish church.

On Wednesday we read Brenda is a Sheep. In the story Brenda pretends she is a sheep but secretly plans to eat her sheep friends with mint sauce! We all enjoyed the story and were not fooled by Brenda’s antics. We did black pen pictures of Brenda, taking our time on the detail of her jumper and we wrote about the who and what of the story.

On Thursday we read This is a Dog! We made our own dog masks and while they were drying we did some drama, acting out the different animals in the story and thinking how the different animals might eat, drink and play.

This morning we voted for our favourite picturebook for the Bookbug Picturebook Prize, watch here for the winner…

Also this week, we learned the ‘qu’ sound and did some great cutting and sticking to make ‘qu’ queens. Each day we’re practising our sounds and our writing on our whiteboards. We’re trying to put all of our words together to write short sentences.

On Tuesday afternoons Mrs Thomson is teaching us all about time. This week we made some fantastic clocks to take home. We’re also continuing with our addition, using cubes to help us and practising our number stories.