The boys and girls have been sharing their lovely memories and news from the Christmas holidays after their break. They worked so hard during Term 2 and definitely deserved lots of time to play and rest! We were delighted to welcome our new pupil Ryan into Primary 3 in December. The boys and girls used their kind, friendly and positive attitudes to welcome Ryan into our class. We are very excited to begin Term 3 and find out about all the interesting things we will be learning about.
Literacy
We are continuing to develop our skills throughout all aspects of Literacy. The children have been working hard to learn lots of new phonemes and common words and are tested every Friday morning. Sionainn said, “We have been very good at dictation. We practise our words using robot, rainbow and bubble writing.” The boys and girls have also been developing their comprehension and vocabulary through a variety of different reading tasks. James said, “We have been practising writing character profiles. We write about their appearance and personalities.” The children also used their dictionary skills to find the meanings of words related to Christmas.
We spent lots of time on descriptive and narrative writing during Term 2. To help us create interesting pieces of narrative writing, we watched lots of different videos and engaged in group and whole class discussions to talk about the setting, complication and resolution. “We watched videos and then we made plans. Then we did our writing and used paragraphs and interesting words,” explains Mason. It has been fantastic to look through the children’s jotters and see the progression of their work throughout the year – they have a very proud teacher!
Maths
During Term 2, we covered measure, money, fractions and the four operations. We are working on recalling multiplication facts quickly and accurately. Ollie said, “We have been practising our 3- and 4-times tables. We made fortune tellers and learned a song to help us remember them.” Enja enjoys challenging subtraction problems, and said, “Taking away is fun because you have to try and figure it out. You use your brain or sometimes the cubes to help you.”
We are now revisiting fractions to help consolidate our knowledge. “We were comparing fractions using the more than and less than or equal symbols,” said Ava. The children have been using lots of concrete materials to help them understand this concept. Mrs Potter will also begin teaching a ‘Time’ topic this term, and then we will revisit our ‘Money’ topic to develop our skills even further.
IDL
The boys and girls have been enjoying their visits from Mrs Marnie every Monday afternoon to practise their French. Jay said, “We’ve been counting in French and learning all the colours of the rainbow.” This term, the children will be learning how to describe the weather.
We have also been looking at different foods and how we need a variety of different things to keep us healthy. “We got a plain plate and had to draw things like vegetables and dairy. We looked at sweet and salty things and oils and spreads too” – Alaina.
This term, the infants will have the exciting opportunity to participate in music, dance/drama and art sessions every Friday afternoon. They will be practising a variety of expressive arts skills, including colour mixing, expressions and rhythms and beats.
STEM
Last term and this term we are working on ‘Forces’. We looked at push and pull and had a tug of war contest in the playground! To investigate friction the children worked in groups to roll a car down a ramp onto different surfaces. We also blew on ping pong balls with straw – which was great fun! Chester’s favourite part of STEM so far was, “Rolling the cars because we rolled them down hills. Some of them went slow and some of them went fast.”
Rookie Rockstars
We were so lucky to have a visit from Abbie from ‘Rookie Rockstars’. The children learned the words to five different rock songs and performed them live to an audience during their very own concert, alongside some great head banging and air guitars! Sophia said, “My favourite part was when we were on the stage singing songs because we saw all the parents in front of us.” Devon had a great time because, “I’ve never been to a concert before and being the rockstar was fun.”
Christmas
Primary 3 participated in lots of Christmas-based activities last month, including creating Christmas crafts and researching Christmas traditions around the world. “We looked up different countries and what they eat for Christmas. I was with Olivia and we found out what they eat and how to say Merry Christmas in French. It is ‘Joyeux Noël’” – Kayden.
We also had a fantastic time at our Christmas party. Eva said, “I liked the games. We played musical statues.” The boys and girls were so well behaved for their ‘Special Visitor’ and showed off their beautiful manners (and smiles!) when collecting their presents.
Nativity
Our Nativity, ‘Away in a Manger’, was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who came to the performances. Calum said, “Our Nativity was fun because we all had parts as the narrators.” The boys and girls in Primary 3 did themselves proud by practising their words and song lyrics hard both in school and at home. Isla loved that “all the mums and dads were clapping for us after the songs.” It was great to see how confident the children were when speaking in front of a large audience.
