Literacy

This week our new sound was ‘ff’. Our reading task this week was to make predictions about our books looking at the pictures and words for clues.  Our writing this week was an exposition piece in which we would explain why we would be responsible pet owners.

Numeracy

Our focus this week was recognising and writing number words. We were interpreting graphs and find errors in our data handling work and used clues to find the answer to another Esti Mystery.

Science

Our new science topic is magnets. We used our lovely new class box to explore our classroom and find magnetic and non-magnetic items. We also thought about items that used magnets in everyday life and a few pupils brought in examples from home.

Art

With the start of Spring we decided to draw and paint some cute bunnies for our gallery wall. We were very pleased with them.

Technology

This week we used the laptops – we named the various parts, we spoke about how to care for them, we logged on and then opened a word document. We then typed some text using different colours and sizes of font.

Literacy

This week we learned how to use magic e with words with the e vowel sound. Our writing this week was inspired by a short film called ‘Bubbles’  where the children told the story of this animation.  Our reading tasks this week focused on the characters and sequencing of our books. We continued with our word boost words this week: jiggled, fortress, abbey, particularly, fiddlesticks and fainted.

Numeracy

This week P2 were introduced to the Esti – Mysteries and had to estimate a number after listening to some clues to help them.  We continued to use bundles of tens to help us to subtract numbers to 50 and we practised counting through the decades. We played time bingo to help us to recognise the times on the clock faces.

HWB

Each day this week we completed an activity to promote awareness of Children’s Mental Health Week. We focused upon growth as we develop our skills mentally and physically over time. We thought about the changes we had already encountered in life and changes that may happen to us in the future. We decided upon possible jobs for the future based upon our skills and talents.

Linlithgow Palace

This week we thought about life in the past at the Palace and security to keep the Royal Family safe. We practised writing our own signature with a quill and the signatures of the Royals. We discovered that secret codes were often used to keep the Royals safe at the Palace so we tried to write an important message backwards! We used construction materials to try to make a model of the Palace with a drawbridge and a fountain. We used the internet to access a 3D model of a statue from the fountain and used this artefact to make a detailed sketch.

Linlithgow Palace by Historic Environment Scotland on Sketchfab

RERC

This week we spoke about the liturgical calendar and the colours linked to the holy events. We looked very closely at the objects on our class altar and discussed the meaning behind them.

Winter Olympics

We discussed some of the events at the current Winter Olympics in China and the possibility that we may be a competitor one day as we may have a hidden talent that we have not discovered yet! We tried to make the Olympic Rings using materials in our classroom and we drew a picture of the cute mascot called Bing Dwen Dwen.

There was a special day at school this week!We counted all the days on the computer and on Monday it was our 100th day in Primary 2. To celebrate we had to work as a team to build a paper cup tower with 100 cups. One cup for each day of awesome learning! The best part was ….knocking the tower down.

Literacy

This week we were using magic e with u to build new words. Our narrative writing this week was based upon a different version of the Three Little Pigs where the pigs were mean and the wolf was very kind.  In reading we were set tasks to understand the reading and had to choose which sentences were true or false.  We also collected more words for our word boost wall: slithered, lurked, squealed, villagers, pace and bragged.

Numeracy

This week were using bundles of tens and single straws on our place value mats to find the answers to subtraction within 30. Using bundles of ten or dienes rods made it easier to work out the answer. We found out more about the history of time and learned that Ancient Egyptians used obelisks to tell the time over 4000 years ago. We practised drawing the correct size of hands on clock faces to show o’clock and half past.

Health & Well-being

We discussed the ‘power of yet’ to help us have a growth mindset and to realise that although we may find some tasks challenging that with practise and a positive attitude we will learn these new skills. We made warm fuzzies to help with our resilience. If we are having a bad day we can hold our warm fuzzies or talk to them and we will feel much better.

RERC

This week we enjoyed participating in the online Candlemas Day Mass. We could identify the important items on the altar that we discussed the day before such as the font, the lectern and the tabernacle.

Social Studies – Linlithgow Palace

This week we learned about the first Royals who lived at Linlithgow Palace when it was first built 597 years ago! The Stuart kings seemed to like the name James. We also found out about the famous lady called Mary, Queen of Scots. We learned that the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland and spotted them on a video of the Palace fountain. We learned about the Lion Rampant and spotted them on the crests at the entrance to the Palace. We then made some delicious royal biscuits that were very fancy and fit for a Royal banquet at the Palace.

Literacy

This week we learned more about ‘magic e’ and how it changes the sound in words with i and o. We created a report on cats for our writing assessment and we challenged ourselves by learning a poem in Scots about a chicken called ‘Choukie Hen.’

Numeracy

We used a book called the ‘Shopping Basket’ by John Burningham as our school celebrated a Maths through Stories week. Using this text we used cuisinaire rods as an introduction to bar modelling. It was a fun way to connect literacy and numeracy in our learning.  In our time studies this week we learned about the different ways to measure time: seconds, minutes and hours. We then participated in a few challenges where we had to estimate how many things we could do in a minute: How many teddies could we put in a jar? How many times could we write our name? How many bricks could we build in a tower?

Health & Well-Being

We thought about the different factors that affect our energy levels: the time of day and the food we eat. At home we spoke about our resilience role models and in class we watched Boundin’ and then created a class treasure book where we shared the things that made us feel happy if we were having a bad day like the sheep in the cartoon.

Science: The Sun & The Moon

We learned about the rotation of Earth which creates night and day and about the different time zones across the world.  We were excited to see the Wolf Moon on the 17th Jan and learned that it was not dust that changed the shape of the moon but the rotation of the moon through it’s monthly phases and the way the light from the sun is reflected on it’s surface.

STEM

Our challenge this week was to create new chairs for the three bears. They had to be comfortable and at the right height for each bear. We had some ingenious ideas and most of them survived the seat testing at the end!Great team work too.

We started our week with a couple of assessments to check our growth in learning.

Literacy – This week we were learning about the sound -y at the end of a word. We were sequencing a narrative story which will be our focus in writing for the next few weeks.

Numeracy – We used rekenreks to help us to find the answers quickly to subtraction sums within 20.  We are learning about time. We were thinking about sequencing our day and worked as a team to put events in our day in the correct order.

Science – Our focus is the Sun and the Moon. We learned some fascinating facts about the size of the sun and that it is a star made from gas.

RERC – This week we learned from the Gospel of Luke what happened to Jesus when he visited Jerusalem as a young boy.  We looked at the locations of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth today  and compared them to how they would have looked when Jesus was a boy.

Expressive Arts – Our drama task this week was to prepare for a journey to Space and we worked together to make a space rocket. Our art focus was on the artist Paul Cezanne and we used charcoal and watercolours to re-create a still life painting in his style.

Spanish – We were learning how to say ‘I like …’ in Spanish. We have been responding to the register in Spanish and try to say our tray colour at school lunch in Spanish too.

STEM – We had fun working as a team to create a bridge and a boat that the Gingerbread Man could use to keep himself safe as he crossed the river. There were some fabulous design ideas and that Gingerbread Man was even spoiled with a boat that had a hot tub onboard !

Literacy

This week in literacy we learned our new sound ‘igh’. We wrote letters to Santa asking him for a little gift in our best writing.  We continued to learn our common words and complete reading comprehension tasks.

Numeracy

We have been learning how to add to twenty using various methods to help us: – number lines, counters and Numicon. We are also making connections between number fact families.

Christmas

We have been studying different parts of the Nativity story and discussing the Holy Family. We enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch, watched an online pantomime and wore our Christmas jumpers to school. We have been busy making lovely Christmas crafts in class too.

Health & Well-Being

We read the story book called ‘The Cloud’ and thought about different ways we can cheer someone up if they are feeling like they have a dark cloud above their head.  We watched how to clean our teeth properly and discussed the importance of brushing every day and making good choices for the care of our teeth. We had a chat about safety with electricity.

Literacy

This week we revised our vowel diagraphs from the past four weeks. We wrote an information report on Santa’s workshop.  We completed our listening skills task book that we have been working on this term and continued to enjoy reading our group readers and learning more Fry’s words each week.

Numeracy

We were learning how to make an amount of money using different groups of coins and give change from amounts up to 20p.  We looked at packets of foods to find out how much they weighed and then we used scales to read the measurements.

Health and Well-being

We read a story called ‘Eric makes a Splash’ and discussed how friends can help to get us back to the green zone if we find ourselves in blue, yellow or red. Friends can be very helpful when making good choices.

Religious Education

This week we learned about St Andrew and his friendship with Jesus. We discussed the start of advent and the importance of the different candles on the advent wreath. We reminded ourselves of the Nativity Story as we learned the songs for this year’s Nativity and put our Nativity Scene on display in our classroom.

Art

We used a brown envelope to create a 3D gingerbread man. We learned how to sing ‘Feliz Navidad’ and created a Spanish banner for our classroom decorations.  We ended our week creating logos for our Pupil Leadership groups.

All our work this week was completed in our Snapshot jotters and we look forward to sharing them with our families next week.

Literacy

What an exciting week we have had in literacy celebrating Scottish Book Week and taking home our Read,Write, Count bags.  On Monday afternoon we had our Book Bag Launch where we opened up a huge, heavy parcel that had been delivered to our classroom. Inside there was a book bag for everyone. We then took part in activities linked to the contents. On Wednesday we celebrated book week by making our own mini-books, bookmarks and designing book covers. We enjoyed some online stories on the ipad using ‘Bookflix’.

Numeracy

We continued with our studies in counting money. This week our focus was finding the correct coins to match a price tag, we also played games matching coins and counting amounts in purses. We were using the colour, shape and size of coins to help us to identify them. In our measure task this week we were using different tools to measure length in our playground. We used trundle wheels, metre sticks, tape measures and rulers. We even found a tape measure that was 10 metres long so had fun using that to measure the fence.

The Senses

Our experiment was to test our sense of smell. We had to identify six hidden scents. Some were good scents and some were bad scents! Most of us recognised the mint, orange and fish smells. However banana, garlic and onion were not so easy. Some pupils thought that garlic was a pair of smelly socks or a hamster !!

Health & Well-Being

We read a new story book called My Monster & Me and identified the different zones of regulation that the main character was experiencing throughout the story. The boy in the story had a worry but he felt much better after he shared the worry with his grandma. We thought about five ways we could help ourselves if we have a worry or a problem.

Catholic Education Week

This week we developed our understanding of our faith. We designed prayer cards after thinking very carefully about all the things we are thankful for. We enjoyed learning some new hymns to sing at Mass. Our Laudato Si task was thinking about the weather changes and how that will affect the birds in our area. We used cereal and pipe cleaners to create beautiful bird feeders to hang on the trees in our playground. We know that birds will appreciate us thinking about them.

Literacy

This week we were using the vowel diagraphs ow and ue to build words and use in our dictation sentences. We wrote an information report on ducklings as our new genre for developing our writing skills.

Numeracy

This week we explored money. We played games to develop our awareness of the value if the different coins and put them into order. We decided that it would be fun to have a class shop so that we could count money in a real life setting. After much thought we decided that a pet shop would be perfect so it opened for business on Friday. We were introduced to measure using non-standard units. We used lollipop sticks to measure the length of classroom objects. First of all we had to estimate the length and then we used the sticks to check our predictions.

The Senses

Our experiments this week tested our sense of taste. We tried different solutions on our taste buds and had to work out if the flavour was sweet. sour, salty or bitter. We then had a vote to find out which was our favourite taste and realised that there was a mixture of favourites. We also discussed that your preferences may change over time and you may like a flavour that you didn’t like before.

Remembrance Day/COP26

We spoke about the significance of Remembrance Day and had a two minute silence at 11am on the 11th November. We made our class cross that will be placed at the War Memorial at Strathbrock.  We decorated our pebbles that we brought in from home with images of a happy planet and then placed them on the bridge outside our school. We hope that the COP26 event make good decisions for the future of our planet.

Spanish

We learned how to sing Happy Birthday in Spanish and then made a Spanish birthday card to give to our friend.

Literacy

This week we were learning the new vowel diagraphs: ay and ea and using them to word build and write sentences. We had our final week focussing on writing descriptions and we were describing Paddington Bear.  We are very proud of our progress in writing and meeting our writing targets.

Numeracy

We were exploring number patterns using the big number square in the classroom and then made number pattern frogs to help us remember in class. We also found out about odd and even numbers.  We were developing our skills with the tessellation of 2D shapes.

Topic

We started our new science topic on the senses. We found out the names for the different parts of the eye and then we tried out the ‘Magical Milk’ experiment which tested our eyes to watch rapid changes in the liquid.

Art

We created some precious paper pups using paper collage. We decorated our pebbles for the school COP26 display. We were thinking of designs that would reflect our natural world and the sustainable goals.

Literacy

This week we were learning the diagraphs:  oy and oa. We used two new resources to help us with our word building – Doorway speller on the ipads and the random word wheel on the Smartboard. Both were a big hit with the class. Our PM Writing theme this week was writing a description of a wind chime so we put our technology skills to the test and created a wind chime to hang on the tree outside our classroom. We then wrote a description using full sentences. Our Pupil Support Workers got a lovely surprise when they spotted it on the tree this morning.

Numeracy

We are concentrating on making patterns. This week we were sorting out patterns and naming them: polka dots, checks, zig-zags, wavy, floral, ombre, striped, two tone. There are so many to discover! We used our knowledge of them to design a pair of socks for the P2 Sock Shop.  Having spent a few weeks exploring 3D shapes we are now investigating 2D shapes. We used these shapes to make some shape monsters to put up on our display wall.

HWB

This week we were learning about the importance of a good night’s sleep. We found out that in P2 we need 10 to 12 hours sleep, so early to bed on a school night is a good idea. A good night’s sleep will give us:

• —Energy
• —Brain power
• —Time to grow
• —Time to digest our food
• —Restore and  mend our bodies
• —Better skin and hair
• —A happier mood

Literacy 

We were learning two new diagraphs this week, the sounds ee and oo. We used them to build words and played a matching game.  We practised the correct formation of p and k. For our final week of writing a recount we wrote a story about planting in our garden. We used our writing targets to check that we were doing a great job.

Numeracy

This week we were counting collections up to the number 50. We discovered that it was easier to make groups of ten so that we did not lose count. We took a walk around the school grounds to look for 3D shapes. We found lots of cuboids and cylinders but not many cubes.

Topic – Broxburn

Did you know that Broxburn was named in 1600 by Sir Richard Cockburn?  He used two Scottish words to make the town’s name. Brock which was the old Scot’s word for badger and burn which is the Scottish word for a stream or water.  P2 created drawings of badgers and thought about the other local wildlife we have seen near our school and houses. We discussed some of the facts we know about local landmarks such as The Bings, Union Canal, our church and our school.

Religious Education – Autumn

We spoke about the seasonal changes happening as we step into autumn. We created fantastic drawings of a Dingle, Dangle Scarecrow too.

Literacy

This week our focus has been on the sounds ‘th’ and ‘ng’. We have used these sounds to make words on the magnetic boards and to write dictation words in our jotters. We are continuing to recognise more of our Fry’s words to help us to read and we are remembering to complete our reading homework task and bring our reading folders to school everyday.  Our writing theme this week was ‘Helping at Home’ and goodness me we have so many busy P2’s that there must be sparkling homes all over Broxburn.

Numeracy

We have been counting backwards and forwards in 2’s to 20 and finding the missing numbers in non-consecutive number sequences. We used all the lovely new shape resources in school to discover the properties of the shapes. We know that they have faces, edges and corners.

Our Community

Our new theme is all about our community in Broxburn. This week we were learning about the location of Broxburn and looking at maps. We also thought about the different jobs people  would have in Broxburn and the uniforms that they would wear.

RERC

We completed lots of religious learning this week. We found out about the story of Moses, we celebrated Our Lady’s birthday on the 8th September and produced some lovely pictures for the church. Father Jeremy paid us a surprise visit to collect our art work. We ended the week learning about the story of Noah’s Ark and worked as a team to create a beautiful frieze for the school corridor.

Health and Well-being

As usual we enjoyed participating in our daily mindfulness and 5 a day fitness sessions. Our focus was on safety in the home and the dangers of matches and lighters. We also spoke about our ‘Get Active’ theme and thought about things we can do at home to help us to relax and things we can do to become more active. Primary 2 had lots of fabulous ideas for both lists.

Literacy:

In music we have been exploring rhythm using a wooden percussion block, and we have been singing beautifully. In art we made portraits of Katie Morag.

Miss Cortellessa

Literacy :

This week we have been building CVC words and reviewing our common words, these skills will help us to become excellent readers. We also took home our new group reading books to read with our families.  We wrote a letter to Katie Morag telling her all about Broxburn as she has never visited the mainland. We also took a virtual trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival where Debi Gliori read us her latest book called ‘A cat called Waverley.’ Debi showed us how she created the illustrations using charcoal so we decided to give it a go too!

Numeracy:

We have been counting to twenty, ordering numbers to twenty, developing our number formation, comparing quantities using the terms ‘greater than’ and ‘smaller than’.

Health & Well-being:

We have been learning about the importance of keeping our hands clean and learned a fabulous wee song to sing as we wash our hands. Every day we have been using mindfulness sessions to help us to be calm and relaxed. We had such a fun time at ‘Build Up’ time sharing chalk and bubbles as our reward for having a great week at school.

Katie Morag:

This week we were identifying Scottish wildlife that Katie Morag  would see on the Island of Struay. We also found out some interesting facts about these creatures.  We looked at photos of the Island of Coll and compared island life to life in Broxburn. We used directions on a grid to find places on the island using forwards, backwards and left and right. We managed to find all the character’s homes. We had fun using phrases from the book such as Bobby Dazzler and Gee Wilikers! We have been learning some Scottish songs too!

Class Charter & Rights Respecting School:

We discussed the importance of knowing our rights and what that would look like in school. We created our class charter using a favourite character… Paddington Bear. We have all signed our promise agreeing to follow the class decisions on the charter.