We hope you all had a lovely Easter break and enjoyed spending time getting outside in the Spring air, despite the weather.  Fingers crossed the weather is looking up and we will have a lovely sunny summer. 

Last term was a fun filled term with World book Day, Burns Supper, Neilsland’s Got Talent and Comic Relief Danceathon.  Wow – lots that kept us all busy!  We had the overall winners of Neilsland’s Got Talent in Primary 1 – Congratulations to Myla and Aya Rose. 

Numeracy 

We have been learning to: 

• count forwards using the forward number sequence and count backwards using the backwards number sequence up to 30. 

• subtract within 10. 

• recognise coins to £2 

 

This term we will be learning to: 

• identify missing numbers within addition and subtraction sums 

• identify odd and even patterns within a sequence of numbers 

• recognise ordinal numbers to 20 

• recall and memorise our number bonds to 10 

 

How can you help us? 

• use number flashcards, help us to recognise and identify all numerals to 50 

• use toys or objects to accurately count out amounts within 20 

• practise formation of all of the numbers and number names to 20 

• continue to encourage us to find numbers, shapes and patterns in our environment 

Literacy 

We have completed our single phonemes and we know the whole alphabet.  We are now learning our joined phonemes (sh, th, ch, ng). In school we use the pink magnetic boards almost every day to make, blend and read simple CVC (Consonant, vowel, consonant) words.  You can use the flashcards at home to practise this too. 

We use the 5 finger strategy – Say it, Make it, Break it, Blend it, Read it, Write it. 

Say it – say the word 

Make it – with magnetic letters on the pink board 

Break it – break the word up by separating the sounds (phonemes) 

Blend it – starting at the beginning, move the sounds and blend the sounds (phonemes) together 

Read it – read the word aloud 

Write it – write the word 2 times, remembering a finger space between each word 

Every week we have 3 new common words which we are learning to recognise with increasing accuracy to develop our reading fluency.   

How can you help us? 

• share different kinds of stories with us (fiction, non-fiction, poems) 

• encourage us to recognise and identify all of the sounds (phonemes) that have been taught. 

• practise the correct formation of all of the phonemes – doorwayonline.org is a super interactive resource for letter and number formation and you have a copy of the formation rhymes we use in school. 

• encourage us to sound out and blend sounds (phonemes) together to read words. 

• encourage us to recognise and read all common words which have been taught with increasing accuracy to develop fluency in reading 

• encourage us to identify words in our environment. 

 

 

Learning Across the Curriculum 

Social Studies 

We learned about Scottish weather, constructed our own rain gauges and measured rainfall over a period of 2 weeks – it was a lot!  We also monitored the weather and looked different forecasts – we decided long range forecasts were not very accurate day to day.   We also created art based on weather during our parent open afternoon.  It is still displayed proudly along the wall in our classroom. 

This term we are going to be learning about Vikings – people in the past and how they lived differently to us.  We will find out information on differences between life today and Viking life.   

HWB 

In PE we have been working on gymnastics – jumping, rolling, balancing and putting weight on our hands.  We are hoping that this term we will get the wall bars out and put our gymnastics skills into action. 

We also spent time looking at healthy foods and prepared and tasted fruit and vegetables.  We used knives for chopping and graters to change the texture.  We enjoyed tasting the fruit and vegetables and shared our likes and dislikes.  We even looked at food from other countries and Mr Gibbons kindly came in to share Mexican food with us.  We tried lots of foods with different tastes and even surprised ourselves with some new foods we liked.  Thank you Mr Gibbons. 

STEM with Mr Connor 

 P1 have had lots of fun in the last term learning what forces are (a push or a pull on something). We had a great time finding out which toy vehicle rolled the furthest using ramps and we also made some cool air rockets . This term we’re finding all about germs – what they are, where they come from and how we can keep them away. By the time you read this we’d have done a very ‘icky’ experiment with bread which your child might tell you about!