Big Learning this week

A busy and fun-filled week for us!

Phonics

We are learning to identify and write new words with the sound ‘sh’.

Over the next few weeks we will be learning to say and use digraphs. This is when we have a combination of two letters representing one sound. At all times we are encouraging and supporting children to say only one sound when they see this letter combination. In school our magnetic letters have the two letters stuck together to reinforce the need to read the sound as one and write both letters when building words with the sound e.g. ship is sh-i-p not s-h-i-p and brush is b-r-u-sh not b-r-u-s-h.

Have a look at Topmarks, Letters and Sounds, Games for 5-7years. There is a game called Letter Planet which practises – ch, sh and th. We will be covering all of these sounds in the coming weeks.

Writing

I am learning to use action cards and a story map to retell a story.

We introduced a new story telling adventure this week – We’re Going On a Castle Hunt! Everyone was trying really hard to join in and remember the sequence of the story. We talked about what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story.

Have some fun with the story map at home.

Handwriting

I am learning to write the one-armed robot letters.

We have started to look at the letter formation for this group of letters. To ensure that all of our practise in forming the letters correctly is top notch we have been saying the directions out loud – down up and round, sometimes all the way up and sometimes just a little way up!

Numeracy

We have continued to work on counting back and the number before and after.

We are learning to display and interpret information in a bar graph.

We have collected weather information over the past 6 week so with Mrs Gillespie the children have created a Weather Bar Graph to show how many days of each type of weather we have had. It seems many rainy days!!

Maths and Art

I am learning to look for shapes in pictures.

I am learning to draw and cut rectangles, squares and triangles.

The children had great ideas for being successful in this task. They said that we had to cut straight lines, we need to have pointy corners and for triangle they had to be super pointy! We have to cut up and across and we have to turn the paper.

We used a wonderful ‘Inverness City Scape’ by Michael Carver to inspire a large art piece for just outside our classroom. We used our cut shapes to create the sky line for our very own City Scape. We tried out splatter painting for the sky and chalk reflections.

Photo to follow… 🙂

IDL

I am learning to name features of a castle.

We have been asking the children how they want to learn – Sarah had a great idea to watch a castle clip to learn some new castle vocabulary. Everyone enjoyed the slides and we did a cut and stick activity to match up our new words with the picture to create a labelled diagram.

Parts of a castle clipart

AJ and Hibbah had great fun with their idea of using lego to build a castle 🙂 Be on the look out for lots of great creative ideas for learning inspired by your amazing children.

Winter Art

The fun continues… Mrs Gillespie was a bit worried that the amount of fun showed as paint on the children’s clothes toady! But just look at those masterpieces and the smiling faces.

Big Learning 06.01.20

Related image

Welcome back to one and all. It has been a wonderful week and a super start to the New Year. The children are raring to go and their smiles and enthusiasm are infectious. We have worked hard and are hoping that everyone is not too tired as Friday is on it’s way.

Phonics

We have consolidated all of the initial sounds this week, practising our word building and breaking!

Everyone is trying really hard to use these skills not only during phonics but transferring these to our writing and reading also.

Try the Lily Pad Pond Game (cvc words)

Writing – Why do we have daytime and night-time?

We can choose the correct word to complete the sentence.

We completed information sentences to explain why we have day and night. Great phonics skills were evident as children used the initial sounds to choose the correct word and of course some great pictures of the Sun and Earth.

Numeracy

We are learning to count backwards. We are learning to give the number after and the number before a given number.

Keep practising this at home as it can be tricky! 🙂

Mapping

We are learning to use materials to create a 3D map of our school.

We had great fun this week choosing materials to have an ‘Mapping Art Attack’. We picked the main features of the school and tried to put them in the correct place on the map!

New IDL

Image result for castlesfree clipart

We are sharing what we already know and what we would like to learn.

Great enthusiasm for our new IDL – Castles! The children shared lots of ideas about what they wanted to learn.

-How do castles get built?

-What is inside them?

-Where are the castles?

-Why do Kings and Queens live in castles?

-When can castles be built?

-Why are castles important?

Merry Christmas from P1

We are all feeling Christmassy! Many thanks to all the children in Primary 1 for an outstanding performance. You dit it! You represented our class beautifully.

A very big ‘thank you’ for all of the kind and thoughtful gifts. They are much appreciated as is the help and support offered by you throughout the year. I hope Santa is good to you all. Wishing you all a safe and wonderful holiday. See you in the New Year. 🙂

Big Learning 16.12.19

Phonics

We have been learning to identify ‘z’, ‘qu’ and ‘x’.

We have been learning to form letters correctly.

We are still working hard at forming the caterpillar letters correctly. It would be great if you could have a go at home. Work on the big actions that are needed to embed the movements which will aid letter formation. Practise with paint on big pieces of paper, use your playdough to roll out the dough and make letters, write in the air with your finger or have a go with a stick if you visit the beach. 🙂 The children will bring home a copy of the caterpillar letters so that you can see the correct formation.

To be successful we:

~start at the top

-come round and down and back up

~say the action out loud as lots of children can form the letters correctly if they say it aloud but do not use correct formation at other times.

~correct or assist your child to make the correct movements. If they keep doing it the wrong way this will become learned and ‘practise makes permanent’ so children must be supported to make the correct movements at this early stage.

Numeracy

We are learning to count backwards.

Dress Rehearsal

Just a wee reminder that we are heading to the Church for a dress rehearsal at 9.30am tomorrow so it would be great if all t-shirts for our P1 Christmas Message performance could be taken in then.

Big thanks for the extra white t-shirts that have been handed in for use at the Church 🙂 Much appreciated.

Elves – Cody, Gregor, Antos, Leo, Conor, Lucas, Finlay, Alex, Krishang, Jack, Finn, Elsie, Rory, AJ – Red or green t-shirt

Stars – Martha, Isla, Zoe, Cara, Stanley, Callum, Tom, Elspeth, Abby, Sarah, Jake, Jude, Jules, Lucy, Reka – White t-shirt

Donkeys – Cory, Nadia, Hasanain, Jonah, Daniel, Lena, Katie, Ishbel, Rishik, Arrianna, Sophie, Hibbah – brown, grey, black or dark t-shirt

Big apologies for the lack of information about the Donkeys. This section was deleted accidentally!

Hope to see you all on Friday as the children are really excited to perform.

Big Learning 9.12.19

This week we have introduced the initial sound: ‘v’ and ‘y’.  Keep practising identifying sounds and spotting them in the books you share at home.  Have a game of I spy.  This is a great way to practise sounds.

Numeracy

We are learning to count back from 10 and 20.  We are trying hard to say the teen words clearly sometimes we get muddled and say twenty, ninety, eighty, seventy, sixty so please help us make sure that we say the ‘teen’ words rather than the ‘ty’ words.

Try this game

Counting Backwards Game

Place numbers on a numberline

Handwriting

We have been learning to form the ladder letters correctly. 

To be successful in writing these sounds we:

-practise with our fingers in the air

-start at the top and move our finger or pencil down

hold our pencil correctly