Welcome back, parents and carers to Primary 1/2’s class blog, and Happy New Year. We have started 2024, and cannot believe we are half way through our year together; time flies when you’re having fun!

First of all, thank you to everyone who donated to our class hamper – the winner was very excited. We also really enjoyed our visit from Santa and Jingle the Elf. Thank you to all parents and carers who were able to attend.

We are excited to see which challenges the new year brings, and have already gotten started on some very grown up work.

Numeracy

We have been so lucky to have three teachers teaching our Numeracy and Mathematics: Ms Craig is teaching us time, Mrs Lafferty is teaching us money and Miss Clarke is teaching us fractions.

With Ms Craig, we have been looking at identifying o’clock and half past times. Some of us took it a step further and tried adding on and taking away 1 hour from a given time. We are so very clever!

“I have enjoyed reading the clock.” – Alana (P2)

“Time helps you know when you need to leave for something, like when to leave for school or gymnastics lessons.” – Reuben (P2)

“Miss Clarke has helped me with fractions. When we do fractions, we go in a big circle and some people got chocolate and then the people who didn’t get chocolate got pizza. Half the people got chocolate and half got pizza. Then we coloured in half of a shape in our jotters.” – Ebony (P2)

“Mrs Lafferty has been teaching us about money. I know about two pence and twenty pence. I even know fifty pence!” – Christopher (P2)

In Febraury, we will begin investigating multiplication and division. We will explore the relationship between doubles and the 2 times table, and we will use this to share to 2 equal groups.

We have continued to use our ‘Floor Book’. This is the big pad that we make notes on. Check out some of our pages:

We are developing our understanding in numeracy so well, we are so excited to work independently and in pairs to find our answers.

 

Literacy

We have all come on so far in our literacy journey. We can all write most common words independently, and we are developing beautiful handwriting in our jotters. We have even started to join our letters together. This will help us as we get older to become quick and neat note-takers.

“Handwriting helps my brain grow. I need to take my time to keep things neat and on the line.” – Cameron (P2)

“I like handwriting – it is fun!” – Lilly (P2)

In reading, we have all moved up a colour level in our reading books – well done, team! We have started answering simple questions about what happens in our books. We are learning how to write these answers in a full sentence so that our reader understands all the information.

“I like reading because I like reading to my friends.” – Amelia S (P2)

In phonics and spelling, we have continued to look at joined phonemes, and are now looking at different letters which make the same sound (e.g. ‘ew’ and ‘oo’). We are trying very hard to learn how to choose the correct sound when spelling a word. Some sounds go at the beginning, some sounds go in the middle and some sounds go at the end of a word. This is tricky!

“I know ‘ow’ and ‘ou’ sound the same!” – Jessica C (P2)

“We use trains on the wall in the class. Inside the trains are sounds that sound the same. ‘O’, ‘oa’ and ‘ow’ sound the same!” – Abigail (P2)

“Learning our sounds helps us learn words, too.” – Jaxson (P2)

In our taught writing lessons, we have been looking at information reports. This type of writing tells you facts about something. We are learning the difference between fact and opinion. We can’t wait to show off our writing on X when it is ready.

“Writing is fun because it helps you to write to your friends and it will help you when you get a job so that you can earn lots of money and have a nice life.” –  Reuben (P2)

 

PE

We have been splitting our PE timetable between using the gym hall and the outdoor quadrangle:

In indoor PE (Monday) we have been learning to dribble and pass a football. We are learning where we need to look and which parts of our feet to use to control the ball. We are absolutely loving this!

In outdoor PE (Tuesday) we are developing our fitness with a range of activities, and we are sometimes playing games of football to link fitness and our dribbling/passing skills.

“Football is fun because we can get our feet and kick the ball.” – Amelia McS (P1)

“I like to watch other people playing so I can learn.” – Colton (P1)

“PE is fun when we play games and when we are dribbling.” – Emma (P1)

“Football helps you make muscles when you kick the ball.” – Cameron (P2)

“PE is good for your muscles and helps your bones be strong.” – Euan (P2)

We ask that all parents and carers please ensure their child is dressed appropriately for the outdoors, including a warm jacket and leg coverings (e.g. trousers or leggings/tights). Thank you.

 

STEM

Last term during our STEM lessons we were learning about the life cycles of different animals on land and in the sea. This term we are leaning how plants grow. The children will learn the features of a plant and what a plant needs in order to grow. The children will also get the opportunity to plant some seeds so they can see this process and document how the plant grows over the coming weeks.

“The leaves die when it is winter because it is very cold.” – Billie (P2)

“Leaves grow back in spring because it gets warmer.” – Ashton (P2)

 

Other Areas

Monsieur Perroquet has been helping us learn our colours and numbers to 20 in French. We love singing songs and playing games to help us learn. We sing Tête, Epaules, Genoux et Pieds and play Jaques a dit…. to help us learn the names of our body parts in French, it is great fun!

We have continued to learn about social studies and,  since our last report, where we were learning about the Foodbank – we have learned about life on a Scottish Island vs Mainland, and are now on to learning about Tartan for our Scots topic.

“Tartan is colourful squares and rectangles.” – Parker (P2)

“Tartan art is fun to do because it looks cool.” – Joshua (P2)

In the next few weeks, we will develop our knowledge and understanding of Scottish identity and we will get to take part in a Burns Supper taste test (please note all allergies/intolerances/dietary requirements will be accounted for).

We are having so much fun in Term 2 and look forward to catching up with you again in Term 3. Bye for now!