wlc.meikle@glow – East Calder Primary School Blog

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1 have been working hard this week.

We have taken a small break from our Romans topic and introduced a mini-topic about Pandas in response to questions the children had about the Red Pandas coming to the Five Sisters Zoo. The children were very interested to learn that Red Pandas and Giant Pandas are not related and this made them more curious. We made a list of what questions the children had about Pandas and then decided to watch factual videos to find our answers then make a Fact File about them. The children also enjoyed following an artist to learn how to draw Giant Pandas. So far we have been learning lots about Giant Pandas.

In numeracy Primary 2s are learning about money and Primary 1s are having more practise with addition.

In literacy Primary 1s are making great progress in their reading and our Primary 2s are learning about reading with fluency and expression as well as comprehension techniques.

At the start of the day before Register, the children have also enjoyed finishing off our Roman Colosseum display picture by adding Romans, gladiators and wild animals in the arena.

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend,

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1, it was a short week of learning but we still managed to learn lots of new things.

Primary 1s, we worked on our numbers 11-20 and we used our cubes and paired up with a partner to use lots of fingers to show different ways of making the numbers 12 and 13. We enjoy our learning from the board that gives us lots of active learning tasks to practise our understanding and we enjoy our Numberblock videos and our discussions about where we see Numbers outside of the school (shops, buses, doors and registration plates). In Literacy we moved onto a new reading book and practised that alongside our longer sentences from the board. Primary 1s also carried out Class Talks this week on ‘My Favourite Animal’. The whole class had to remember our rules about a quality audience and when presenting you had to remember to talk in a loud, clear voice whilst making good eye contact with your audience. I was so impressed with the amount of facts you could remember and how well you answered the three questions at the end. Well done, Primary 1s.

Primary 2s, we progressed in our learning of the time; quarter to/past the hour and you applied this new learning to your airport/train station theme (where you are applying learning ownership). In writing you practised more of the new phonics from last week (st, ft and mp) and you made some beautiful pyramid writing to learn your spelling words. Primary 2s also carried out some beautiful handwriting whilst learning the spelling of words commonly used.

In our Romans topic we learned about the Roman Army and Forts. We learned all about what they would need to survive in the fort long-term and then we created our own versions of these using card and coloured pens. We had a lot of good discussion on why the Romans used metal in their armour and what the Roman Empire entailed (invasion of countries). We also enjoyed a new Roman mythical story about the Goddess Juno and the Golden Chair. Primary 2/1 are thoroughly enjoying these mythical stories and we will soon transform one of our corridor walls into a storyboard of these myths.

In French we practised our weather question ‘Quel temps fait-il?’ What’s the weather like? We practised our answers Il fait beau, Il fait froid, Il fait gris, Il pleut and Il neige. (It’s nice, it’s cold, it’s cloudy, it’s raining and it’s snowing). We also reminded ourselves of our commands. It was fun doing the actions fast for these!

Have a great weekend,

Best wishes

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning This Week

Primary 2/1 – you have worked hard this week!

In Language, Primary 1 are practising their reading, writing and handwriting each week now. The children are learning to read longer sentences using their phonics to sound out cvc and ccvc words. Some children are also blending and reading much longer words using their phonics knowledge. In writing we are working hard on thinking about all of the sounds in a word as we write it down.

In Language, Primary 2 practised Instructional Writing for the second time – this time we ‘walked through’ ‘How To Make A Jam Sandwich’. The Primary 2s were very wise this week and remembered the rules from last week’s handwashing instructional writing. Primary 2s were also practising spelling with their new phonic sounds – st, ft and mp (e.g. first, lift and bump). They enjoyed learning to use a dictionary to look up some words as part of their Clarifying lesson in Comprehension.

In Numeracy, Primary 1 did more work on learning numbers 11-20 and Primary 2s learned their half-past times on digital. The Primary 2s were also given some learner agency in this area and they enhanced a Time Traveller mini-whiteboard game that was introduced in the class earlier in the week. The children went on to developing it further into an airport and train station context and one pupil created a detailed map of a train station and airport including clocks placed within it. Some rich dialogue around time could be heard during this game.

In our Romans topic the whole class loved the Romulus and Remus mythical story about the alleged Founders of Rome who were raised by a she-wolf when they were babies. The children made their own stick puppets and re-enacted the story through puppet drama.

In French we learned the weather and used weather sticks to interact with one another whilst asking ‘What’s the weather like?’ and to answer these : It’s a lovely day; It’s raining; It’s cloudy; It’s snowing; It’s cold. The children also very much love when Tidot, our French mascot, visits the lesson.

In Word Boost, where we introduce four WOW words in a weekly story, the children very much loved dramatising this at the end of the week. They were excellent at remembering their speaking parts and also used great listening skills whilst others were talking.

I hope you have a lovely holiday weekend, Primary 2/1.

Primary 1s, I look forward to hearing your class talks on your favourite animals next Tuesday.

Best wishes,

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1 have had a great week of learning.

In Maths, Primary 1s were learning about doing a survey of information then presenting the results in a block graph. Our survey was about our eye colours. We learned that presenting it in a block graph made it much easier to see the results quickly and clearly. Primary 1s also practised counting forwards to 20 this week. The Primary 2 children are learning Time and focused on half-past on analogue clocks. They made their own clocks and then showed the Primary 1s how to place the hands to make ‘half-past’ times.

In Literacy, Primary 1s spent the week reading and writing. We read our reading books before sending these home and in writing we wrote sentences dictated by the teacher. We had a few things to remember to be successful in our writing: capital letters, full stops, finger spaces between words and sounding out all of the words and making sure to write each sound down in the right order. They then listened to my individual feedback afterwards to know how to improve the next time. Primary 2s were learning the sounds ng and nk and in writing they learned how to write an Instruction. The instruction was ‘How To Wash Your Hands’ and firstly the children had to tell the teacher each step in washing hands – at the sink the teacher followed each step literally and the children understood how important it was to make the instruction very clear. The children also learned about how to write an instruction correctly and they thought imperative verbs (bossy verbs) were funny, for example. Wash/ Rinse/ Dry/. These are verbs that tell us what to do. They also learned about using Sequencers, for example, First, Next, Last etc.

In Science we are learning all about our Senses with Mrs Beattie.

Our topic is The Romans and the children discussed what they knew already and what they’d like to learn which includes learning about transport, food, houses and wars. They also looked for Italy and Rome on a real map and made their own flag of Italy. They learned the Latin words for boy and girl – puer et puella.

Thank you for returning all the Primary 1 reading books in the book bags (which protects our books). I hope you enjoyed listening to the children sound, blend and read. Primary 2s, your reading homework starts next week in line with the other Primary 2 classes.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I look forward to hearing all your news tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning this week

Primary 2/1 you have worked hard this week!

In Literacy, Primary 1s were learning the sounds ‘oi’ as in coin and ‘ng’ as in sing and practised lots of lovely handwriting for these. They also practised reading simple sentences from the board and even writing one sentence on their own in their new writing jotters – “See a cat.” They are also enjoying their new reading groups and read their second reading book this week.

Primary 2s are also reading well and enjoying their reading group time together. They have been practising reading with more fluency (faster). In writing they were practising their writing skills by creating a word bank of Easter words before writing three of their own Easter sentences. Primary 2s were learning new sounds of ng and nk and practising their spelling words for these. Our Friday handwriting lesson is much enjoyed by Primary 2 and they listen to gentle Minecraft relaxing piano music to help slow down the pace of writing to help improve it.

In Numeracy Primary 1s and Primary 2 have been learning Time and completed lots of great work on that on both analogue and digitial clocks. Primary 2s also spent time practising some of their division again whilst Primary 1s practised more addition.

In Science the whole class worked with Mrs Beattie to create great diagrams of the class plant growing experiments.

In Topic the children continue to enjoy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story book by Roald Dahl and any associated activities with that. They recently enjoyed making the chocolate waterfall and lollies and sweetie decorations for the role play corner.

In RME the children learned about the bible story of Easter with Mrs. Turner.

Thank you for all of your hard work and enjoy the weekend, boys and girls.

Best wishes,

Mrs Meikle

Primary 2/1 – This week’s learning from 1st March

Dear Primary 2/1,

Thank you for a great week of listening and hard work. You are all very much enjoying being back and enjoying your familiar space in the classroom and seeing all of your friends.

In Literacy this week, the Primary 1s have been working hard on learning their digraphs sounds – oo, ee, ie .

Primary 2s have been learning more about what makes a sentence a question and in writing they used their success critieria list to help them write the perfect questions for Willie Wonka.

In Numeracy, Primary 1s completed more work on subtraction and were also introduced to Fractions; learning about a ‘whole’ and a ‘half’ and what makes a ‘half’ (it has to be exactly the same size as the other half’).

Primary 2s did more learning on missing subtrahends, addends and number sequencing.

On Thursday we had World Book Day activities and the children very much enjoyed listening to stories being read to them by P7 pupils via Teams. P2/1 also watched a video about a Book Cover Designer and they learned lots about what he does. P2/1 enjoyed completing his task of designing their own Book Cover and the book was to be about them. They also enjoyed making their own mini-book from paper and completing a front cover, mini-story and illustrations.

Primary 2/1 are very much enjoying their Topic – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are also enjoying learning about Plants in Science and learning some Bible Stories in RME with links into Technology.

Thank you for sending in photos of your favourite book.

Have a great weekend, Primary 2/1.

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Learning this week beginning 22nd February 2021

Welcome back class Primary 2/1. You have settled in well to your routines this week and it’s been lovely to see everyone again. This week we focused on overlearn of some of the numeracy and language learning we did during Remote Learning period and we also learned some new things.

Primary 1, in Language we learned our sounds sh, ch and th and practised writing these in our handwriting books. In Numeracy we did more work on subtraction and made a giant flower with bugs for it and red crosses to mark out our takeaway numbers. We used this method for our new subtraction books and we practised takeaways on our mini whiteboards too.

Primary 2, in Language we learned about when and how to use Question Marks and in Numeracy we did more work on Place Value and 2D shapes. In Place Value we had a great conversation about representing the number 23 in cubes. We discussed whether two cubes beside three cubes was 23. We then explored how to represent 23 properly with cubes and began to understand the true value of 2 = 20.

Also, in Language, we started to learn our Days of the Week in French as well as overlearning these in English and our Months of the Year in English too.

We learned lots more about Chinese New Year and the ancient blue monster Nian who was scared of the colour red, fire, noise and bright lights – and that this is the reason why the Chinese use all of these at Chinese New Year e.g. firecrackers and loud drums. We also talked about Fortune Cookies and tried out chopsticks.

We have started to learn about Fair Trade and how chocolate is made and we’ve also started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl for our 5 week topic.

Thank you for your hard work, Primary 2/1. Have a great weekend.

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Remote Learning

Primary 2/1,

You’ve had a great short week with some fun learning taking place.

Primary 1s you learned about Subtraction of Numbers and in Phonics you learned the ‘ie’ sound that is in tie, pie and flies. You also learned counting to ten in French.

Primary 2s you learned about separating larger numbers into Tens and Ones and in Phonics you did more great work on your magic e words. Some of you have also been doing great work on your Fry’s words and your reading. Well done!

Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday back at school.

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Remote Learning week 8th-12th February

Well done on a fantastic week of learning!

Primary 1s, in Literacy/Phonics we learned a new sound ‘ee’ and practised sounding out cvc words with the sound ‘n’ such as nap, neck, nut and net. In Maths we learned more about telling the ‘half-past’ time and we also learned about using Tally Marks correctly in Data Handling. In Numeracy we had fun learning about working out the missing Addend which is a number that is added to another number. In Health and Wellbeing we completed some activities learning more about the meaning of Respect and what makes a Kind Friend and in Science we learned about Forces and Push and Pull.

Primary 2s, in Literacy – Phonics and Spelling – we learned about words with magic e and an ‘o’ and also soft ‘c’ words. In Reading Comprehension we worked hard on our Inference skills and in Writing we completed the ending to our imaginative story. In Numeracy we learned about missing Subtrahends (a number to be subtracted from another number) and we also learned about halves and quarters in Fractions. We also learned more about division and how to make equal groups of 4. In Health and Wellbeing we learned about what makes a Good Friend.

I’m really proud of all of your hard work. Well done.

Mrs Meikle

P2/1 Remote Learning

Dear Primary 2/1,

You’ve had a fantastic week of learning! Well done on all of your incredible hard work.

Primary 1s, in Literacy we have been learning to build cvc words using our sounds and also learning a new sound ‘oo’. We also did some work on learning our tricky/sight words. In Numeracy we have been learning more about o’clock times and also more on adding within ten. We have also enjoyed the stories The Very Busy Spider and Chrysanthemum to help with our Listening skills. In Health and Wellbeing we learned about brushing our teeth and also about calm and relaxing breathing.

Primary 2s, in Literacy we have been learning to read and write magic e words with an ‘i’. We also completed our exciting middle part to our imaginative story. In Numeracy we started to learning about fractions and where these are in the real world. We also did more work on missing addends and number sequences. In Health and Wellbeing we were learning about how what a good friend is. In STEM we enjoyed learning about different types of bridges and how to make one out of recycled materials.

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