We have had another week of wonderful learning and lots of fun our P1 classes. Well done everybody for trying your hardest.

Literacy

This week we have focused on recognising, reading and writing the sounds /c/ and /k/ in class. We made some lovely crowns and some flying kites, which helped us think about words which start with our sounds of the week and also helped us improve our fine motor skills.

We continue to work on recognising the ORT Stage 1 key words and have been starting to write them as well this week.

We have been exploring Harvest time this week and developing our Listening and Talking skills when discussing as a class what we already know about Harvest time. We will continue to learn about crops and how food is grown and collected next week.

Numeracy

As we come to the end of the term, we are consolidating numbers to 10 (recognition, correct formation, number bonds to 10) and have started to explore numbers to 20. We have been focusing on counting forwards and backwards number sequences, and identifying numbers before and after.

If you have any wee chunks of time at home, it would be super if you could practise counting backwards from 20 (or a higher number if they feel confident counting from 20) with your child, as this will help with subtraction in the near future!

HWB

We have enjoyed some long distance running this week outdoors and have continued our focus on basic movement and gross motor skills. It is lovely also to see a sense of community developing in each class as we learn to play team games together.

We hope that you have a really lovely and well deserved nice time at the weekend and please do remember that if you have any questions, concerns or achievements that you would like to share with your child’s class teacher, we are just at the end of a phone call or email to the school office.

Please do feel free to get in touch with us via the office; it is a different time and we know that not being able to have a quick chat at the start/end of the day can be hard and we are keen to have good communication between school and home as we understand how important this is!

Have a lovely weekend,

The P1 Teachers 🙂

Hello to all P1 parents and carers,

We have had a super week at school. Here is a little taste of what we have been learning. We hope it will make it easier for you to chat to your child at home about their week and perhaps reinforce some of these concepts.

Our literacy focus this week was on hearing, recognising and writing the sounds /t/ and /p/ – here are the links to the Jolly Phonics songs that go with these sounds:

Jolly Phonics /t/

Jolly Phonics /p/

We have continued to practise reading our ORT Stage 1 key words as well, and have been enjoying lots of opportunities to write and mark make through ‘Free Writing’, free play writing areas, letter formation activities at our teaching table and taking part in writing experiences related to stories we are reading together.

This week, we have been exploring numbers 5 and 6 in detail. We have thought about ways to add to make these numbers and have practised forming these numbers in many ways. We have been doing lots of other counting activities in our classes.

We have also been exploring patterns over the past few weeks. We are learning to recognise, describe, continue and create patterns of varying difficulty!

We have been working on our French language skills and are learning how to greet others, the colours and numbers to 12 this term. Perhaps you could eat some ‘typically French’ food together (a nice croissant…?!) at home and look on a map for different countries which speak French.

In Health and Well-being, we have been thinking about positive relationships and building friendships. The children have been very good at thinking of ways we can show other people that we respect them and care for them and how we can have fun together safely.

Well done P1 for another fabulous week – you are all superstars and we are really enjoying being your teachers! Have a lovely weekend everyone.

From all your P1 teachers!

Dear P1 parents and carers,

We have had another wonderful week of learning and fun here in Primary One and continue to be very impressed with how well the children have settled in. It is lovely to see the enthusiasm our pupils are bringing to new learning experiences!

Reading:

This week we have started to introduce the Stage One Key Words for the Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme (ORT for short) and it would be super if you were able to look over these words at home to consolidate in school learning.

Here is a PowerPoint with the Stage One words – ORT Stage One Key Words

Phonics:

Each week we will be focusing on two letters. For now, we are focusing on the sound of each letter. This will help us start to blend sounds together to sound out and read simple words.

This week, we have been learning all about /s/ and /a/ so if you have some free moments at home, it would be wonderful if you could have a look for these sounds in written texts around the house (story books, instruction leaflets, food packaging, etc.) and have a go at forming these letters (writing with pen/crayon/pencil, painting them, making the shape out of pasta/stones, writing them with your finger in some flour/salt/sand, etc.) You could also play games like ‘I Spy’ or ‘I went to the supermarket a bought… (things starting with a certain sound)’ to help your child to think of words which start with /s/ or /a/.

Here is an information sheet to show you how we form each letter at LPS – Letter Formation Guide

We use the Jolly Phonics songs and actions to help us remember each sound. You can find these songs and actions on YouTube. Here are the links to our sounds for this week:

Jolly Phonics /s/

Jolly Phonics /a/

Numeracy:

Currently, we are introducing two numbers each week, with a focus on 1-to-1 counting, correct formation, finding the number before/after/in-between and different ways to add to make each number.

So far, we have explored numbers 0,1,2,3 and 4.

There are great counting games on websites such as topmarks.co.uk and lots of catchy counting songs on YouTube (we love Jack Hartmann, The Learning Station and Kids TV 123) that you can check out at home if you have time.

Here is an information sheet to show you how we form each letter at LPS: Number Formation 0 to 9

Handy hint! If you are counting with your child, e.g. from 0 to 10, try to also count back down again, from 10 to 0, as this will help with subtraction in the future. Try also to start from numbers other than 0 or 1, to support the skill of ‘counting on’ to solve addition questions.

Apologies for a long blog post today! Each week we will aim to share some of what we have been working on in school so that you can talk to your child about their week and support them with their learning. Please don’t feel like you need to spend lots of time at home doing ‘homework’ though as the school day can already be tiring for young children as we’re sure you are aware!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend with time to relax and enjoy some quality time together.

Take care,

LPS P1 Teachers

Primary 1B,

I can’t quite believe the end of term is here already and the next time I see you all you will be big P2s! It has been such a strange end to our year together but I hope that you know how much I have enjoyed being your teacher and getting to know you.

I have met your new teachers and told them all about what a fantastic group of children you are, they are really looking forward to meeting you after summer and doing lots of lovely things together.

I will be looking forward to seeing your smiling faces around our school after the summer too – I can’t wait for an air hug and to hear about your summer holidays.

You are all kind, wonderful, imaginative, unique and brilliant. The P1 teachers have got you a little gift (see post below) to say thank you for being such wonderful people.

Lots of love and best wishes for a fun filled, sun filled holiday,

Mrs Jamieson (and Bennie says wuff!)

Good morning everybody,

This morning I would like to share a story with you that we sometimes read in Primary One.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do. It has a super message about liking who you are and realising that everybody is different and everybody is special.

My favourite line is “I like me on the inside too, for all I think and say and do!” because we all know how important it is to be a nice person on the inside.

Here is another of my favourite quotes from a great (and very funny) book; The Twits.

As we come to the end of Primary One, all of your teachers would like to say thank you to you all.

Thank you for being kind.

Thank you for trying your best, even when things are tricky.

Thank you for making us smile.

Thank you for helping others when they feel sad or alone or are hurt.

Thank you for being so creative and imaginative.

Thank you for bringing joy into our classrooms every single day.

Thank you for being such stars and staying safe and learning at home.

Thank you for being yourself and letting us get to know you.

Thank you for being you.

Please also remember:

Mistakes are important – they help us learn. If someone else makes a mistake, encourage them! If you make a mistake, it’s totally normal and okay. Also remember to ask for help when you need it, other people will be pleased to help you.

It is okay to feel worried, anxious, upset or angry sometimes. Everybody feels these things. If you feel these feelings, why not try talking to a grown up you trust or doing some deep breathing to calm down.

You are wonderful just the way you are. Be yourself and be proud of that! Choose to be kind every day. Being kind makes other people feel great, and it also makes YOU feel great!

Thank you for reading quite a long post today and know that your teachers are really missing you and wish that we could be together because you are all so amazing.

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers

Bonjour!

Good morning – today we are going to learn some French together. We have been having beautiful sunny days and hot weather lately, so I thought maybe we could practise asking somebody what the weather is like and giving different answers. Don’t worry if you can’t remember these off by heart though, we are just working on our awareness and pronunciation at the moment.

So… here is a little PowerPoint that you can open and have a look at. It introduces different weather words and then has a little quiz: French Weather PowerPoint

The PowerPoint unfortunately doesn’t let you hear the pronunciation so I have recorded a very basic video (that I cannot seem to make any less enormous – sorry!) to help with that as best I can.

Activity 1: Connect Four

Why not try a game of Connect Four to practise saying what the weather is like?

Activity 2: Draw the Weather

Ask an adult to read the French weather sentences and draw the correct weather in the picture.

Activity 3:

Have a listen to some French weather videos and songs on YouTube. Here is a good one to help you with your pronunciation: http://Link to French weather video!

Here is another French song about the weather which I like watching because it is quite funny, don’t worry if you don’t know all the words though, it is just nice sometimes to listen to something in another language to get a feel for it!

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more French today. I cannot believe this is the last week of term. It is very sad that we cannot be together in our classrooms, but I want you all to feel very proud of yourselves for being such superstars. You are all amazing and your teachers are all really looking forward to seeing you around school after the summer to say a huge hello and give air hugs!

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers 😀

Good morning everybody,

I hope you have been having a lovely week.

Have you ever noticed how nice it makes us feel when you think about all the things in your life that you love or that you are thankful for?

It is a great idea to get into the habit of making some time every now and again to stop and think about all the people and things in our lives that are good.

Here is a short video about being grateful – why don’t you sit down somewhere nice and calm to listen to it and follow the instructions. See how it makes you feel. Click here to go to the video!

I hope watching that video made you feel good and made you think about people who love you, about things you like doing, about things that make you smile, and about how unique and special you all are.

Here is a little Scavenger Hunt that you could try today or over the weekend:

I hope that you find lots of nice things that make you focus on all the great things in your life!

Take care and have a lovely weekend when it comes.

From Mrs Jamieson (and Bennie says hello!)

Good morning P1,

WELCOME TO HEALTH AND WELL-BEING FORTNIGHT!

For the next two weeks, we will be focusing a lot of Health and Well-being. That means on keeping our bodies healthy and active, on eating a balanced diet, on talking about how to keep safe, and on talking about different feelings and how we cope with them.

Here is our learning grid for this week: Home Learning Grid Week 11

Each day we will be posting a Health and Well-being activity for your to challenge yourself with at home, and remember to send us a quick email to let us know what you love to do to stay healthy or just to say hi.

Here are some other resources to help with your learning grid:

Numeracy:

Colour the 3D Shapes Activity

Suggested Practical Activities to Explore 3D Shapes

3D Shape Animal Paper Net Templates

3D Shape Paper Net Templates

You could also use this as a template to do a 3D Shape Hunt around the house/garden:

Literacy:

Planning and Writing Sheet

Listening to and Following Instructions Activities

HWB:

NSPCC PANTS Rules Poster

I hope you all have a superb week!

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers 😀

Good morning everybody,

I hope your week has been really lovely and that you are looking forward to the weekend. As always, I have been incredibly impressed with all your hard work this week and with the creative, fun and active things you have been sending me photos of. You are all very special and should be so proud of what you are doing.

Well done for working on telling the time this week, here is a short video programme about telling the time to o’clock that you could watch today if you have time: Click here to watch NumberTime on YouTube!

Have a fabulous weekend when it comes,

Take care,

From Mrs Jamieson 😀

Good morning everybody,

Today, or whenever you have time, perhaps you could play some games to improve your listening skills.

Games where you have to listen, wait and then react, or listen and make a decision are good at improving not only listening, but processing skills too.

Here are just a few games you could play at home:

Hurrah-Boo!

Ask your child to listen carefully to statements you are about to make. If it is a nice statement, e.g. “Everyone gets an ice-cream!”, they shout HURRAH! If it is not so nice, e.g. “Dinnertime is cancelled.”, they say BOO!

I Say – Go!

This game is similar to Simon Says. Ask your child to follow explicit instructions. The catch is, they have to wait until you say “Go!” before they can carry out the instruction. To increase the difficulty, leave a longer gap between the instruction and saying go!

Thumbs Up Thumbs Down

Read out a list of statements. Your child has to listen carefully and decide if the statement is true or false, showing you what they think by putting their thumbs up or down.

I Went to the Shops and I Bought…

I’m sure you know this game – the first person says “I went to the shops and I bought an apple.” then the next person has to say, “I went to the shops and I bought an apple and a boat.” The aim is to listen carefully to the people before you so you can remember what they have said. To make it trickier, you could try to do this choosing items in alphabetical order. If it is too tricky to remember, you could encourage your child to draw a quick pic of each item as you go.

We hope you enjoy practising your listening skills!

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers

Good afternoon everyone,

How is your week going? Have you done anything you are especially proud of? Well done if so! You are doing very well learning at home and sending all your teachers wonderful updates on fun activities you have taken part in. We really love hearing from you!

Bennie is feeling a little tired today I think – he has been sleeping on the windowsill (it is quite wide!) all morning…

I know that lots of you enjoy listening to stories, just like I do, and so I have attached a link to a BBC radio website where you can listen to short stories – Click here to listen to The Hare and The Tortoise!

If you have time, listen to ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ with an adult and then together you could see if you can figure out what the moral of the story was?

This story is a famous fable. A fable is a short story, usually with animals as the characters, that shares something called a moral. Morals are a bit like messages or reminders to behave in the ‘right’ way – to be kind, to share, to tell the truth, to help others, and other things that I know you are all very good at already.

There are more fables to listen to on the BBC School Radio website, although some of them can be a touch scary (in my opinion!) so if you want to check a story’s content before playing it for your child, there is an option underneath each story to read the full transcript!

Have a lovely afternoon P1, we miss you.

Your P1 Teachers

Good morning everybody,

I hope your week has been nice so far. I made some flapjacks last night and they were tasty – I put cherries in them! What do you like to cook or bake? Here is the recipe that I used. It says to use dairy-free spread but of course you can use regular butter or margarine if you have that in your fridge.

They are nice and sticky and you get to lick the syrupy spoon after measuring it in… YUM! I hope you enjoy them!

Game time!

You have all been doing such a fabulous job practising reading at home – here is a silly game you can play at home to practise reading some sentences with an adult or older sibling.

Print or write the following sentences on separate pieces of paper (feel free to add your own ones in as well if you want more) and turn them face down but not on top of each other. Take turns to choose one to read. Read the sentence and see if the answer is YES or NO. If it is YES, you get a point, if the answer is NO, the other player gets a point. Read all the sentences and count up your points!

If you don’t want to print or write these out – you could play the same game, but just take it in turns to read a sentence from the screen!

Have a fabulous day everyone and remember just do what you can and let your teacher know if you need any help or support with anything – we will be delighted to hear from you and will always try and help with anything we can!

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers

Good afternoon everyone,

Today is World Oceans Day so I wanted to share a PowerPoint with you that talks about Plastic Pollution in the Deepest Ocean.

Plastic Pollution in the Deepest Ocean

This power point explores a science news story showing that plastic has reached the lowest point in our planet 11,000 metres below sea level. The language in the PowerPoint is quite tricky, but it is a great starting point for a conversation about how plastic pollution is hurting our planet. 

I would also like to share a link with you that might help with your learning about time and clocks this week – https://www.topmarks.co.uk/time/teaching-clock. It is a great way to explore analogue and digital clocks. Perhaps take it in turns to be the teacher and ask the other person to make a certain time on the clock.

Have a lovely week P1, we miss you!

Your P1 Teachers 😀

Good morning everyone,

I hope you have had a nice week and are looking forward to the weekend. Are you going to do anything nice?

I was talking to my godson the other day (he is nine years old and goes to school in Edinburgh) and he told me about a few science experiments he has done at home lately, so I asked him how to do his favourite one and here it is, for you to do at home if you want to, just for fun!

 Make your own lava lamp

You will need:

a glass

water

veg oil (or similar!)

salt

optional: food dye

Method

1. Half fill your glass with water.
2. Add a few drops of food dye if you like and swirl it in.
3. Now add oil to the glass until it is about 3/4 full (ask an adult to show you what that looks like.)
4. Take a tablespoon of salt and drop it in all at once. Can you see anything happening?

What happens is that the salt is heavier than the water, so when you pour salt on the oil, it sinks to the bottom of the mixture, carrying a blob of oil with it. In the water, the salt starts to dissolve. As it dissolves, the salt releases the oil, which floats back up to the top of the water. This creates an effect a bit like a lava lamp!

I hope you enjoy exploring this science activity if you choose to try it.

Have a great weekend when it comes,

Take care,

Mrs Jamieson

Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you are enjoying your week. What have been the highlights for you?

As you all know, things are a bit different just now and you have all been doing such a great job of managing to stay safe and positive.

You might still find that there are times when you feel anxious or sad though, and this is totally normal. Everybody feels these feelings sometimes, and it is a good idea to explore ways to help you to feel a bit better when you feel like this.

My mum and dad used to say that a problem shared is a problem halved, which means that it is a good idea to share your worries with a grown up you trust because they might be able to help you feel better.

Some people like a cuddle when they feel sad. Other people like to get outdoors and go for a walk. Maybe you could talk to an adult about what kind of things they do to make themselves feel better when they are worried or upset?

When I feel worried or upset or cross, I find it very helpful to take a little bit of time to practise something called mindfulness. Mindfulness is about paying full attention to something and slowing down to really notice what you’re doing. Being mindful is the opposite of rushing. When you’re mindful, you’re taking your time to focus in a relaxed way.

Sometimes in class, we follow the instructions in this Melting video and we focus on our bodies and going from being tense to being relaxed. Perhaps you could try it at home:

I hope you have a wee conversation at home about different things you can do to help if you ever feel worried or upset. Remember that it is okay and normal to feel these things sometimes, and nothing to be embarrassed about. Tell someone you trust how you are feeling and let them help you.

We miss you all so much and can’t wait to see you again!

Take care,

Your P1 Teachers