Miss Christy – Page 3 – Carmondean Primary School Blog

Primary 1 27.4.20

Good morning!
We hope that you had a fantastic weekend with your family. What did you get up to? We hope that you managed to spend some time outside. Miss Christy, Miss Daun and Miss Cunningham are all missing you so thank you so much to everyone who has posted on the Learning Journals to show us all your hard work. Every time we see a photo it makes us smile!

This week we are continuing our learning through the learning grid format.

Here are the literacy activities for the week:

Literacy Week 4

The maths activities:

Maths week 4

And some activities from other areas of the curriculum:

IDL Week 4

These learning grids will also be sent out through the Learning Journal messages where you can download them onto your computer, tablet or phone. This week we have trialed using a short video to teach new concepts in maths. Please let us know if this is helpful for the children. We are hoping to use this format more in the next few weeks and hope that it eases some of the teaching pressure at home. The video will be sent through a dropbox link in the Learning Journal messages. We will also be sending out a message with your child’s reading homework.
Thank you for all your support in this time. We really appreciate all the hard work you are putting in to maintaining some sort of normal at this time for the children.
Please let us know how we can support you.
The Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1’s learning this week

Good afternoon!
Here are some more pictures of the super work Primary 1 have been up to over the past few days.

We are so impressed by the dragon pictures you have drawn, what talented artists we have in P1!

We are also pleased to see so many of you completing activities from the Rights Respecting Schools Award. It is great to see you are all keeping healthy!

You have also been busy completing the learning grids. We are impressed with the progress all the boys and girls are making, but here are a few highlights…

Primary 1 22.4.20

Good morning Primary 1s. It’s another lovely sunny day today and I hope you are managing to get outside to make the most of this sunshine. I am noticing lots of signs on spring during my daily exercise. I have seen blossom forming on trees, baby lambs bouncing in the fields and some warmer weather showing us that summer is on its way.

What have you seen as you go out and about?
We hope that you managed to read or listen to the story of the Enormous Turnip yesterday. Has anyone managed to make the vegetable soup from the learning grid? I love in the story that everyone worked together to help pull the turnip out. What examples of people working together have you seen in the past week? Maybe you and your family worked as a team to complete a jigsaw puzzle, or have you been out in the garden working together to grow some flowers or food?
Today, if you have time, we would like you to take part in a drama activity. Click on the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03g6w29 and follow the instructions as you pretend to be different characters in the story.

As a school we are currently working towards re-accreditation of our Gold Rights Respecting Schools Award. UNICEF have created some activities that can be completed at home to continue the work we would have been doing in class. These activities give the children an opportunity to learn about their rights and think through how they access them.
This week we are looking at Article 24, the right to health care. Can you complete any of these activities over the coming days and post your work in the Learning Journals? You can also post your work with the hashtag #RRSA on Twitter, or share it on the RRSA Facebook page.

The link for the coronavirus book is here (Coronavirus book). It is a super book, explaining the current situation in a way that is appropriate for children.

We hope that you all have a wonderful day.
As always, if we can be of any assistance please get in contact.
The Primary 1 teachers

Primary 1’s fabulous work

Good afternoon Primary 1s!
We hope that you are all keeping well and are able to get out into this lovely sunshine. I can’t wait for my afternoon walk later on.
We are so impressed by the work posted on the Learning Journals so far. It is clear that you are all working really hard at home, it makes us very proud teachers! Here is a small selection of the photos uploaded so far this week.

Primary 1 3.4.20

Good morning Primary 1s
I can’t believe that we have now been learning from home for 2 weeks! We hope that you are all keeping well and are behaving nicely for your families! Thank you so much for all the hard work you have been posting on the Learning Journals, we are loving keeping in touch with you this way. How are you getting on with retelling the story of Goldilocks and the three bears? I am so impressed by the stories I have seen so far!
If you have any learning activities left on your Learning grids then please feel free to finish them off either today or over the break. Here is a good website with a variety of Easter tasks you might want to look at over the holidays https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Easter/
We hope that you and your families have a fantastic Easter holiday. Please stay safe and have a lot of fun in and around your house. We will be back in contact on Monday 20th April and cannot wait to hear and see all you got up to!
Thank you for all your continued support.
Happy Easter!!!

The Primary 1 teachers

Primary 1 31.3.20

Good morning Primary 1s
Today is the last day in March… can you remember the month that come next? Maybe this song will help you to remember?

We hope that you are all keeping safe and healthy. It has been great seeing all the hard work you have been up to over the past week. Thank you to everyone who has posted in their learning journal to show us the fantastic activities you have been doing at home. Later today we will hopefully post some more photos showing a selection of this work.
Today we would like you to complete 3 activities from the learning grids posted yesterday, preferably one literacy, one maths and one from the other curricular areas. Our focus fairy tale this week is ‘Goldilocks and the Three bears’. If you have the book of this story in your house then why not read it? If you don’t, here is a link to an audio version: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio/goldilocks-three-bears
Ask your child to close their eyes as they listen and imagine the story playing like a movie. After listening to the story, and only if you have spare time!, ask your child to retell the story. We would love to see some of this work on the Learning Journals and so, if you are able, why not film your child retelling the story. Your child could draw pictures or make playdoh/ craft models showing a few of the different scenes in the story as a prompt. Take your time with this task. It could be a project to be completed for the rest of the week, or over the Easter holidays?
Thank you for all your continued support.
The Primary 1 teachers

Primary 1’s learning

It has been fantastic seeing all the photos of the hard work being done at home. Thank you to everyone who has posted so far on the Learning Journals. We are very impressed.
Here are a few photos we received over the past week.

Primary 1 26.3.20

Good morning Primary 1s.

We are missing you loads and hope that you and your family are keeping safe. We have loved seeing some of the work you have done at home on the Learning Journals. If you have not yet posted then please do over the next few days. It is a great way for you to share your hard work and for us to stay in contact with each child. If you have forgotten your password or haven’t used this platform before, please email the school office and one of us will sort you out! Alternatively, you can post a comment on the blog and we can help you with any queries you have there.
You should still have your ‘Home Learning’ pack given out last week and we encourage you to keep working through the activities there. Our plan is to issue a new set of learning grids (similar to the Homework sheet) each week on Monday, but please don’t feel any pressure to have completed all of last week’s work by then. We are trying to be as flexible as possible because we appreciate that every household will have different conditions to work within.

Today’s suggested learning activities are:
Reading – We are keen to continue developing the children’s reading skills whilst they work from home. There are a few online resources which provide access to e-books and we will be sharing these with you over the next few weeks. Today have a look at starfall (link below). The book we would like the children to read is ‘Mox’s shop’. Most children should be able to read the words in this book and so we encourage you to sound out the words and only play the audio if there is a word that you get stuck on. After reading the book draw a picture in your yellow jotter showing your favourite part of the story and try to write a sentence describing what is happening. My favourite part was when Mox dropped the eggs all over the floor! Remember a sentence needs a capital letter, finger spaces and a full stop. Parents please don’t worry if spelling isn’t correct, at the moment our main objective is to build the children’s confidence having a go and hearing some sounds in words. If you are supporting please encourage the children to write their letters correctly. You might also like to play the ‘ot’ and ‘og’ games next to the story?
https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-classic/?mg=m

Maths– In maths this week we have been learning to split a number of objects or a shape into halves and quarters. If there is a particular activity your child enjoyed doing throughout the week why not try it again. Think about when we use halves and quarters in real life. For example, when making lunch you might cut your sandwiches in half, or if there are 4 people in your house you might give each person a quarter of an amount of sweeties after tea? Get creative and post your everyday examples on the learning journals. We might post some of your best ideas on the blog next week?! Make sure that you child understands that each part of the half or quarter must be the same (equal). Sometimes in class I do examples where I don’t share the objects equally and ask the children to say why it’s not fair! If you want to continue this learning, there are a few good games on Education City. Log on to the website and search under ‘subjects’ for numeracy. Then click on Early***. The games appropriate for the learning this week are called:
Half your cake and eat it https://ec1.educationcity.com/content_select/index/3/2/1/7#/c=26149
Half and Half https://ec1.educationcity.com/content_select/index/3/2/1/7#/c=26148
Half baked https://ec1.educationcity.com/content_select/index/3/2/1/7#/c=26150
At the moment Education City is struggling with the number of people accessing it. When I was planning this lesson I found that pressing ‘reload’ when the error message appeared allowed me to get on the page. If that doesn’t work then maybe try again another time. The games require children to be able to visualise splitting a group/ shape in half and this will be difficult for most Primary 1s at this stage in their learning. To support your child I would suggest using objects found around your house. For example, if it says select half of the cakes and there are 10 cakes I would get out 10 objects (coins, pencils, rubbers, bead etc) and 2 plates. I would ask the children to split the 10 objects between the 2 plates equally and then select their answer on the game.

Fairytales– Continue with your challenge to create Jack’s beanstalk. We have really enjoyed seeing the progress in these creations on the Learning Journals and are looking into ways of sharing your pictures with everyone. Once your beanstalk is made, why don’t you act out the story of Jack and the Beanstalk using toy figures in your house. You could always make puppets of the main characters by drawing them on paper, cutting them out and sticking them on sticks from your garden? If you need a reminder of the story the BBC has broken it up into 14 sections https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/english-ks1-jack-and-the-beanstalk-home/zff42sg

Thank you for your continued support.
Please continue to post on the Learning Journals and comment under the blog to let us know how you are getting on.

Miss Christy, Miss Daun and Miss Cunningham

Primary 1 23.3.20

Good morning Primary 1s! We hope that you had a lovely weekend and managed to get out in the sunshine a little. Miss Christy, Miss Daun and Miss Cunningham are missing you all and hope that you are keeping safe and well.
Today we would like you to think about setting up a routine for your time at home. We have created a suggested timetable and will attach it to this blog. We hope it helps.

Home learning routine

Why don’t you try 1 or 2 activities from your ‘home learning’ pack today? We would love it if you could show us how you are getting on by posting in your online learning journals. If you are struggling to get on please email the school office (wlcarmondean-ps@westlothian.org.uk) and we will try to assist.
Look out for our daily blog post with more ideas of how to continue your child’s learning at home. We aim to post every morning before 10am.

Thank you for all your support
The Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 11.3.20

We have had a very exciting week in Primary 1 already and have more to look forward to. The museum trip was a huge success, we all had a great time and learned lots. The children behaved very well and showed great interest and insight into dinosaurs. We attended a workshop with the museum staff, explored the T-Rex exhibition and explored the gallery. I am sure your child told you all about it! Maybe they could share their favourite part with you and something that they learned.

We are very excited about our open afternoon on Thursday (tomorrow) for parents and carers to come and see what we have been learning about dinosaurs. The children have lots of work and pictures they would love to show you! This open afternoon is from 2:45-3:15pm.

In phonics we have been learning the sound ‘ng’. The children were great at coming up with ‘ng’ words, for example, stronger. They are doing very well with their new sounds. In maths we have been practising our numbers up to 30. We looked at a hundred square to see if we could identify what numbers come before, what numbers come after and any patterns. Next week we are going to start with counting in 2s.

Just a quick reminder that our PE is on Thursdays and outdoor learning is on Wednesdays.

Thank you for your continued support.

Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 4.3.20

Primary 1 are in the middle of another busy week. This week we are learning the sound ‘ch’. We have thought of lots of words containing the sound blend and are making progress writing these with accuracy. In maths we are learning about position and movement. The children have enjoyed programming movement paths using beebot robots and watching them move. We have also been working on the positional language of up, down, forwards, backwards, left, right and between. The children enjoyed following instructions wearing blindfolds and listening for instructions in drawing exercises.

Our dinosaurs topic is coming to an end next week. This week we learnt about volcanoes and the impact of an eruption on the dinosaurs. We really enjoyed making our own volcano with baking soda, vinegar and soap and watching it erupt in the playground. Next week we are taking a trip to the National museum in Edinburgh. We are going to take part in a few seminars and will go to the T-Rex exhibition. Here is a link to the website for you to look through with your child: https://www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/national-museum-of-scotland/tyrannosaurs/

Next week we also have planned an open afternoon for parents and carers to come into school to see what the children have been learning about dinosaurs. The classrooms will be open from 2.45-3.15 and the children will have a few examples of work they have done to show. We will be making invitations for this event on Friday so look out for them for more information.

Tomorrow is World Book Day. Each child is to bring in a book from home to read in class. Try to pick a book your child knows well so that they can talk about it to their peers.

A reminder that tomorrow afternoon and Friday morning are our shared start and finish. These sessions are opportunities for you to come to our classrooms to see an online resource we use in class- education city. Each session will be exactly the same so it is only suggested that you come once. Tomorrow you are invited to come between 2.50 and 3.20 and on Friday between 9 and 9.30.

A reminder PE is on a Thursday so please come prepared with a named PE kit.

Outdoor learning is on Wednesday afternoons. Thank you to everyone who comes prepared with wellies and warm coats. The children love this session!

Thank you for all your continued support

The P1 teachers

Primary 1

Hello everyone!

Primary 1 are back and ready to learn after their February break. This week in maths we are consolidating our learning on addition and subtraction. We are looking at mixed sums, both addition and subtraction together. This means we need to be extra careful when we are looking at the signs so that we know what operation to do.

In reading we have looked at the common words, ‘with’, ‘us’ and ‘so’. We discussed the spelling of these words and used them in sentences. This week for comprehension we drew a picture and wrote a sentence for what we think will happen next in our book. Can your child tell you what they predict will happen after their book is finished?

We are almost at the end of our dinosaur topic which the teachers and children have loved! We have learned lots about dinosaurs. We have our last dinosaur to write about in our fact file tomorrow and we are excited to see what dinosaur it will be!

Primary 1 enjoyed learning more French last week for Modern Languages Week. We looked at colours and commands.

It was lovely to meet so many parents on Tuesday and Wednesday evening at the parent consultations. Thanks for your continued support.

Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 11.2.20

This has been another busy week in Primary 1. In phonics we are moving on from learning single sounds to blends. This week we have been learning the sound ‘sh’. The children enjoyed making sea shells and thinking of lots of words with ‘sh’ at the start and end. The common words we have been learning are ‘she’, ‘come’ and ”from’. Please try to write these at home and use them in short sentences.
In maths we are revising our knowledge of subtraction using a variety of resources to help us count. The children are really impressing us with their ability to take away from up to 20, well done!
Today is ‘Safer Internet Day’. We spoke to the children about the devices they have at home and who they should tell if something goes wrong or doesn’t seem right. Please continue these discussions at home and read through the leaflet in your child’s homework folder.
Tomorrow we will be going to the nursery garden for outdoor learning. The garden may be wet and muddy so please make sure that your child has appropriate shoes and clothes that can get a little muddy. We will do our best to avoid children getting too muddy and wet.
A reminder that this weekend is our February break. The children are off school on Friday, Monday and Tuesday and return to school on Wednesday 19th February. We hope you all have a fantastic break!
Thanks for your continued support.
Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 28.1.20

Primary 1 had an exciting afternoon yesterday. We made dragon masks to celebrate Chinese New Year! We learned about the story of how the years were named after animals and then we watched a dragon dance. We coloured in our masks using bright colours and cut them out. It was so much fun!

In maths we are continuing with adding small amounts in our head. The children are being encouraged to discuss what strategies they are using. This helps them to practise and share ideas. They have been using their fingers, cubes, 10s frames, rekenreks and number lines.

In phonics we are learning q and x this week. These are the last two sounds of the alphabet that we need to learn. The children are doing really well with practising their sounds and letter formations.

Please continue to read regularly with your children at home and complete the homework. One of the homework tasks this week is to prepare a 1-2 minute talk on a dinosaur of their choosing. Each child will present their talk to their class next week (Monday or Tuesday). They can make a poster or bring in photos to go along with it. We can’t wait to hear each other’s talks!

Just a quick reminder that PE is on Thursdays and outdoor learning is on Wednesdays.

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for all your support

Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 22.1.20

This has been another busy week in Primary 1. We have been continuing our learning about dinosaurs. Yesterday another letter arrived from Professor Rex asking us to investigate the job of a paleontologist. Lots of the children would like to be a paleontologist when they are older so it was a great opportunity to talk about the skills they need to develop in school now to help prepare. In order to practise being gentle around delicate fossils the children picked chocolate chips out of cookies. It was great fun and the children especially loved eating the cookie when they were finished! Tomorrow we will be researching the diplodocus and writing a factfile on it. If you have time at home tonight why don’t you look up the diplodocus online and see what facts you can find?

In maths we have returned to a focus on addition. We are moving away from a reliance on cubes to count amounts and are encouraging the children to add small amounts in their head. We are continuing to revise numbers to 20 at the same time and any help you can give at home is much appreciated.
In phonics we are learning y and z this week. We only have 2 more sounds (q and x) left to learn and the children are very excited to know all the letters in the alphabet. We are continuing to work on blending these sounds together to make 3 and 4 letter words. The children are making great progress in this!
Today each child will be reciting the poem ‘Roguey Poguey’ in front of the class. We will then chose 2 winners to represent the class in front of the whole school in Friday’s Burn’s Day Assembly. Good luck to all the children.
A few reminders:
PE is on a Thursday. Please send your child to school prepared for this with a named PE kit. PE is in the morning so it is helpful if your child comes to school with their PE clothes under their school uniform.
Outdoor Learning is on a Wednesday afternoon. We will try to get out every week and in all weathers so please send your child with suitable footwear and clothes.
Many of the children are asking for water throughout the day. Please send your child to school with a named water bottle each day. The children are allowed to take a drink at story time and during the day when they are not with the teacher.
Thank you for all your support
Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 10.1.20

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year!

Primary 1 have an exciting term ahead. Our new topic is dinosaurs and the children are loving it so far! They are all very engaged as they enjoy sharing what they already know about dinosaurs and what they want to find out about them. We received a letter from the well renowned palaeontologist, Professor Rex. He asked us to look after his dinosaur egg.

In numeracy we have been exploring numbers from 11 to 15 and we will move on to looking at the numbers 16 to 20 next week. In literacy Primary 1 wrote letters to Professor Rex asking him questions about dinosaurs and the egg that we are looking after. We can’t wait to see if he replies!

The children have been given a Scottish poem to learn and recite as part of Burns Day. Two pupils from each class will be chosen to take part in the competition on Friday 24th January.

Our PE days are on Thursday and we will be starting up our outdoor learning again on Wednesdays (letters will be issued shortly). Homework was handed out on Tuesday and is due back on Tuesday 21st January.

Hope you have a great weekend.

The primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 11.12.19

Primary 1 have been very busy in the run up to Christmas! Earlier this week they had their first nativity dress rehearsal in front of an audience. They preformed brilliantly and were proud to show what they have been working on to others in the school. We have watched the Primary 2 and 3’s nativity this week as well. Our Christmas party is next Thursday, the 19th December. It will be in the afternoon and children can come to school with party clothes to change into after lunch or they can go home for lunch and come back dressed for the afternoon.

This week in maths we have been learning about shape. We have explored 2D shapes, specifically circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. Primary 1 enjoyed describing the different shapes to each other and are becoming more familiar with them. Today and tomorrow we are going to be looking at 3D shapes. As part of this, we will be describing and sorting everyday objects.

In writing, we have been continuing to remember our full stops, capital letters and to spell some common words correctly. We are using the sounds that we have been learning in phonics to help us. Last week we wrote a letter to Santa and this week we are going to be writing an invitation to our nativity.

We have a whole school talent show next Monday and the children have been busy practising their songs. Each Primary 1 class are singing a different Christmas song, the children have the option to take part in the performance. It is Christmas jumper day and so the children are welcome to come to school wearing a Christmas jumper that day.

Homework was handed out last week for the final time this term, it is due in next Monday 16th December. The children have also been given their new reading books for this week. Please continue to practise reading at home.

Thank you for your support.

The Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1

Primary 1 have had a busy week! We have been practising our nativity every day and it’s beginning to look great! Letters giving information about tickets went out earlier this week and the children can’t wait to show off all their hard work. Please continue to practise the songs and any lines your child might have at home. If you need to provide any clothes for costumes you will have received a letter home. Please let us know If you have any difficulty with sourcing anything.
In phonics we have been working on blending together the sounds we have learnt so far. The children are working really hard on hearing all the sounds in each word and blending these together. Thank you for all the support you have given with this at home.
In maths we are continuing our work on subtraction. The children are using their fingers, cubes and tens frames to take away from up to 10. They are beginning to recognise written sums and can write out sums in their jotters.
Tomorrow is our St Andrews Day Assembly. We have been busy learning the song ‘I sent aff for cheese’ and will sing it in front of the whole school tomorrow morning. In the evening it is the school Christmas Fair. The fair runs from 6pm until 8pm and is always a great event. If you haven’t yet got tickets, contact the office and they will be able to issue them.
Our PE times have recently changed. We are now getting PE on a Thursday morning with Mrs Fergusson our PE specialist. This will take the place of our Monday slot. Please send your child to school with a PE kit on a Thursday morning. For the next few weeks we are unlikely to be going outside for outdoor learning. We will be using this time instead for nativity rehearsals.
Thank you for your continued support
Primary 1 teachers.

Primary 1 30.10.19

The primary ones are all very excited for Halloween tomorrow! We will be learning more about it and will hopefully do a few crafts in the afternoon to celebrate!
This week we have been consolidating all the letters we have learnt so far. The children are making great progress writing these sounds, recognising them and identifying words with each sound at the beginning. The children are beginning to blend the sounds they know together to make short words. Thank you for all the work you have been doing at home to practise this with the sound cards in the homework.
In maths we have been continuing our work on addition. The children have now learnt to write sums using the add sign and equals sign. We are still using concrete materials to assist our addition so if you are practising at home please remember to give your child objects to support the sum.
Tomorrow we will be taking the children to the nursery garden for outdoor learning. Please send your children to school with wellies and a warm coat.
Thank you for all your support. As always, we are available before and after school if you have any questions.
The p1 teachers

Primary 1 23.10.19

Welcome back after the holiday! We hope that you had a lovely break, it was great seeing the children again and hearing all their news yesterday.
This week we are learning the letters ‘c’ and ‘k’. The children will be learning how to write these letters and will be thinking of words containing both sounds. Please practise these sounds at home and use the letter cards in your homework pack to make short words (cat, kip, neck etc).
In maths we are beginning to learn about addition. This week we will be doing a lot of practical activities creating and combining 2 sets of objects. The children have been very good at doing this so far.
The children are very excited for Halloween just now. Yesterday we changed the play areas in the classroom to include lots of Halloween themed activities. The children have enjoyed dressing up in spooky costumes, writing magical spells and using spiders to count out amounts.
On Thursday we are planning on going to the nursery garden to do some outdoor learning. Please come to school with wellies or shoes which can get muddy and a warm coat.
Thank you for all your support
Primary 1 teachers