Another busy week in front of us!

In Literacy, we will be working on Visualisation in our reading. We are working on looking for the clues in the text to draw a picture in our mind. In Spelling, we are looking at the new sounds in our words and thinking of other words which use these sounds. We will also have our second visit to the Inverness Library to return the books we have, and borrow some more exciting books. Please ensure, your child has suitable clothes and shoes for our walk there on Tuesday morning.

In Numeracy, we will continue to work on our addition and subtraction within 5, 10, or 20. We will be learning some new strategies to help us make quicker calculations. Learning our doubles for quick recall helps us calculate other additions quickly.

e.g. 4 + 4 = 8 so 4 + 5 (1 more) = 9 (1 more), and 4 + 3 (1 less) = 7 (1 less)

Our topic, on Castles will continue with the setting up of our castle in the class. This will give the children opportunities of role play situations of being kings, queens knights etc. We will finish our ‘Castles in the sunset’ art work. We will also look at Paul Klee’s Castle and Sun to inspire us to create our own images.

In PE, we will continue on our movement skills through gymnastics, by looking at different ways we can balance, and also the various ways we can roll, looking at pencil rolls and teddy bear rolls.

Today, the children have received their new spelling words as follows:-

Group 1 – tap, tip, top, tub, ten, test

Group 2 – moon, boot, foot, pool, look, spoon

Group 3 – owl, growl, now, brown, crown, allow

Group 4 – cake, shake, spade, brake, nightmare, celebrate

The children could choose a spelling game e.g. Spelling Tennis if playing with one person, or Spelling Basketball if the whole family want to get involved.

Some great sentences using the words this week and some children were able to add a connective (and, but, because or so) to their sentence too. Well done.

Some children might want to try to write a Silly Story, and use all their spelling words within their story.

e.g. The moon put his foot into a big boot. He went to look in the pool for his other boot. He saw it under the water and used his spoon to get it back.

The children might want to draw a Silly Picture to go with their story.

Keep practising these number bonds through number games like Ping Pong or using the Hit the Button or Helicopter Rescue games for the computer. Some children enjoyed showing their skills in recalling different ways to make various numbers.

Thank you for encouraging the children to bring an item into school which they were happy to talk about for our Show and Tell week. All the children participated enthusiastically in talking about their item, and we were also thinking about – What is a question? encouraging the children to use words like What, Where, When, Why, Who and How to ask rather than try and share their own experience of a similar item.

On Monday, our Listening and Talking activity will take the form of Treasure Box. Each child will have a turn to take a box home. They can then choose something to put in the box. The other children will then try and guess what is in the box by asking questions about the item. The child with the box can only answer Yes or No.

On Friday, the children received their new spelling words.

Group 1 – dad, did, dog, dig, drop, drip

Group 2 – sing, ring, king, thing, sting, bring

Group 3 – new, drew, flew, chew, grew, blew

Group 4 – home, rope, stole, awoke, hope, smoke

Some children tried really hard to learn all their words last week and some also took the opportunity to write some amazing sentences. I enjoyed reading those.

The children will also receive their new reading books on Tuesday or Wednesday.

This week we will be starting our Talking and Listening Activity with a Show and Tell item. The colour refers to the table your child sits at in the class.

Blue group – Monday, Red group – Tuesday, Yellow group – Wednesday, Green group – Thursday, Purple group – Friday

Could any item they bring into school be clearly named and I will encourage the children to keep this safely in their school bag or tray until we need it.

I would still discourage the children to bring in any other toys etc to play with at school, so we can avoid the tears and upsets of last week with some lost items.

In Numeracy, we are working on quick recall of number bonds in addition and subtraction to help the children when we are focusing on the different strategies to help us make calculations. A pack of cards with the appropriate cards selected can make a quick game to reinforce number bonds within 10 –

e.g. – to practise number bonds for 7 –

Memory game – remove all the cards A to 7 from the pack, with the joker or a face card acting as zero. These cards can be spread out face down. Players take it in turns to pick two cards – if cards add to 7, they keep the pair and have another turn. If they do not add to 7 then cards are returned face down and it is the other player’s turn. Winner has the most pairs.

Snap game – cards are dealt out equally between the players. Players turn over one card each and add the two cards together. If they add to 7, the children cover the cards and say 7 (or number you are practising). If they are first to cover the cards, they win the pair. The winner has the most cards at the end.

These games can be played with any number up to 11.

Primary 2 and P2’s from P1/2 had some football fun on Wednesday with ICT. A big thank you to Scott and Chris for helping us learn some new football skills.

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Miss Rae will be taking girls from Primary 2 for an extra running practice on Tuesday, 21st January at 9.15am. She is hoping to enter a team in the MacRoberts Cup next month. The girls who want to do this will need to bring their trainers.

Wow!  This term has started with a bang!  I have just realised I had not added the Home Learning to the blog last week.  My apologies.

The children have received their Spelling words and should learn how to spell them thinking about the common sound they are learning.

Group 1 – red, run, rat, rip, rest, kerb

Group 2 – moan, groan, road, load, moat, float

Group 3 – oil, boil, spoil, coin, join, moist

Group 4 – side, white, smile, hide, shine, pipe

Some parents have mentioned how their children like to look at the other groups words too.  You can use the other lists of words to give your child extra practise in learning the strategies/rules used to spell words.

In Numeracy, we are looking at addition and subtraction within 5, 10, 20 or beyond.  Some groups are working on finding, and making number patterns within addition.  The children know the concept for addition and need to work on faster recall of number facts.  Dice games are a great way for children to practise addition.  There is a computer game called Hit the Button – https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button which has a section on Number Bonds, which gives the children a great way to gain quicker recall of number facts.

This term, our topic is Castles and the children are welcome to bring in books, posters, pictures etc  relevant to this.  Could you name any item they are bringing to school so it can be safely returned to them when we are finished our topic.

For the first few weeks this term, we are going to have a Show and Tell day.  The children can bring in something to share with the class and the other children will be encouraged to ask questions about the object.   Each child will have a particular day during the week and should have their item clearly labelled.  This item could be a toy, souvenir, photo etc or it could be a picture or model they have made.  It should be kept in their school bag or tray until it is Show and Tell time.  My rule will be that  this item is not to be taken outside during break and lunchtimes.  Discuss with your child what they would like to bring in and what they are going to say about it.

Blue group – Monday

Red group – Tuesday

Yellow group – Wednesday

Green group – Thursday

Purple group – Friday

I’m looking forward to hearing the children talk about their item.  The other children will be thinking of questions to ask using What, Where, When, Why and How.

It’s party time! Primary 2 will be having their party tomorrow (Wed) afternoon. They can wear their party clothes to school, if they make sure they have a suitable jacket, jumper and footwear for the winter weather. If they do bring their party clothes with them, then they will have time to change into them before the party.

We will be supplying the food and some juice but could your child bring a cup with them to have this during the party.

A very festive week ahead. We will be busy with some Christmas activities. In Literacy we will be writing an imaginative story, and learning some Christmas poems. In Numeracy, we will be doing some information handling, in which we will gather information and display it appropriately.

At PE we will be practising our Crown Jig and The Flying Scotsman. They can practise the Crown Jig with someone at home using some jig music and also moving in time to the music -skipping, sidestepping etc.

Our P2 party is on the afternoon of Wednesday, 18th December. The children can wear their party clothes to school, or bring them in a labelled bag to change into at lunch time. Please ensure your child still has a suitable jacket and shoes to wear outside at break and lunchtimes.

On Friday, 20th December, you are all invited to join us at the end of term service at Crown Church being led by Primary 1, starting at 9.30am. The school will close at the regular time of 3.00pm

We are having our final practise on Friday and planning to have the children dressing as their parts. If your child has not already brought their bag of clothes in, could they have it with them tomorrow so they can get used to wearing them for our show.

On Monday, 9th December we will be performing our show to the rest of the school during the morning, so this will mean there will be no snacks available for the children to buy. Please ensure your child brings their snack from home on Monday.