Please provide your child with a small snack and water bottle every day including Fridays as we do not have spare snacks.
Please note that fruit juice cartons and flavoured milk are not recommended. If you would like your child to have a carton of milk, please sign up through parent pay.
Take a moment
Our next Building Resilience topic is Take a Moment. Please see the information below.
The outcome that we will be aiming for is to… Be aware of how routines and events in the world link with times and seasons, and to explore ways to record and display these using clocks, calendars and other methods.
We start with asking what phrases, objects or words we know…
“Enough time”, Mustapha
“One at a time”, Zoe
“Time for School”, Mohamed
“Cleaning your mess takes a long time”, Aiden
“10 o’clock”, Mohamed
“Watch” Sidrah
“Birthday, when I’m 5, then I’m 6…” Aiden
“In daytime I play with friends” Mustapha
What happens at night-time? “Hedgehogs, foxes, owls, Harry Potter fighting Voldemort” Aiden and Mustapha
“It is 9:59. One minute until 10 o’clock” Daniel
We covered what creates daytime and nighttime
…and brought in a dark tent and torch to move Pudsey into daytime and nighttime on the Earth.
Clock Work
To help space out the numbers when writing a clock, we write the 12, 6, 3 and 9 first, then fill in the missing numbers. We are writing and reading o’clock times on digital and analogue clocks.
Here is the finished display showing our work surrounding the artist Yayoi Kusama.
Properties of 3D shapes
We’ve mastered the names and the 2D shapes we can see in the faces – now we are finding our the properties of each shape. Can it stack? Can it slide? Can it roll?
Below: sorting shapes into ones that can stack, and ones that cannot. Having fun creating towers like Inch and Grub!
Katie has also collaborated with designer Maeve Redmond to produce a tactile resource which asks: how many textures can you create using paper?
Below are our investigations. This was an excellent activity to promote and develop adjective vocabulary.
Parent open morning
A big thank you to the parents who were able to visit on Friday morning. We loved sharing our space with you!
Bonfire Play
In honour of bonfire night, Primary 1 were challenged to collaboratively build a bonfire then make a ‘seat’ to sit around it. Staff rewarded the class with a mug of hot chocolate and a biscuit for all their hard work so far this year!
Book Box
Our Book Box library is starting to look a bit sparse… Please remember to return your books, thank you!
New Staff
We are happy to welcome a 2nd year, Queen Margaret University student who will be observing and supporting our class for 4 weeks this term and 6 weeks after Christmas.
On Wednesday 2nd November, Primary 1 will be leaving school promptly to walk up Calton Hill to visit the art centre Collective, where we will be looking at at exhibition called The Seeing Hands by Katie Schwab.
We will be encouraged to play freely with all of the materials in the space safely. This is not a ‘do not touch’ art gallery!
As always for class trips, please wear school clothes with sturdy shoes and pack a waterproof coat. We will be having snack at Calton Hill then returning to school for lunch as normal. Snack should be 1 item which can be carried easily. No food items which need a spoon or fork, please.
Pumpkin Art – Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama is a 93 year old Japanese artist who loves dots and pumpkins. Listen to the story, Yayoi Kusama covered everything in dots and wasn’t sorry by Fausto Gilberti to learn more about her.
Here is some of her art
We used our fine motor skills and team work to cover the pumpkins in spot stickers.
We practised our scissors skills cutting different sized circles for the wall display.
We used Lego, plastic cups, and fingers to print patterns for the background of our paintings. We then used 3 different implements to create large, medium and small spots for our pumpkins. Finally we cut out the pumpkins and stuck them on the backgrounds. We asked the class if they liked her art work and if they liked their own work.
Check back next week to see the finished display…
Potion fun!
Inspired by Halloween, primary 1 enjoyed developing their fine and gross motor skills, creativity and language with this tuff tray of goodies. A pipette squeeze of food colouring and vinegar with a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of pepper and glitter made for exciting eruptions. “This is so much fun!” “it is erupting!” “smell this!” I was very impressed with the support pupils gave each other, politely sharing resources and taking sensible amounts so there was some left for others. Well done!
Maths Week
We loved taking part in the activities which Ms Brunner and the pupil group Internet Empire created.
Primary 2 pupils Helena and Adela created colour by number worksheets and Eddy completed both!
We enjoyed playing hop scotch with our P6 buddies, writing, reading and counting numbers.
We learnt how to scan QR codes and had lots of fun playing the maths games below. Can you have a go at home?
A request stemming from learning about the letter K, Primary 6 helped us make kites!
Red Spelling Books
This week your child will bring home a little red jotter inside their reading folder. Inside it will have a list of letters, ‘green’ words and ‘red’ words we would like you to practise.
Letters
When asking your child to write a letter, remember it is important to say the sound and for them to form this correctly. See above for formation.
Green words
These are words they can sound out.
In school we use ‘Fred-fingers’ to help to spell green words (word containing sounds we already know). This is the process children are taught to use to help them write words.
Hold up the correct number of fingers for the sounds (ie. 3 for t/o/p, 4 for sh/o/p)
Say the word e.g. top.
Say the sounds as you pinch each sound onto 3 fingers: t-o-p, look at your own fingers as you do it.
Ask your child to repeat it.
Say the letters again then swipe your finger across to say the whole word
Ask your child to repeat then write down each sound
Ask your child to point to each letter written and read the sounds and whole word.
Red words
Red words are also known as tricky or sight words. You just have to learn them so you can write and read them at sight. Below is a catchy song which can help!
For more help, see the help video below
Mental Agility Update
We are moving around the rainbow on to the orange section – Numbers before and after.
Check out the grid below and see how many you can complete
Amina in Primary 2 knows a lot about Australian animals. When learning about the letter k, she popped in and read us a story about a Jeremy, a baby Kookaburra. Thank you, Amina!
Flick through the slide show below to see our other literacy activities
Construction
This week we found an increased confidence in using height. Some were inspired by Inch and Grub, a book where two cavemen build very tall, but wobbly, towers!
P.E – Racket skills – Tennis
Balancing and bouncing bean bags, balls and shuttlecocks. We have been strengthening our arms and core in order to hold and use rackets. We have been practising coordinating dropping the ball to serve and moving our bodies to be able to return. Lots of concentrating going on below… and lots of fun!
Shades of colour
We have dark green and light green hooks for our coats but how do you make light and dark green? This question from a group of curious girls lead us to investigate using black and white to mix different shades.
Patterns
Repeating patterns in shape, colour and line. Spotting patterns in the environment inspired us to look at animals. We recognised lots of animal names such as zebras, tigers and giraffes when looking at their patterns.
Maths – Shape
We have been talking about shapes. With 2D shapes we need to know the…
Name of the shape
How many corners it has
Sides – Are they curved? Straight? How many are there?
With 3D shapes we identify
How many faces
What shapes are the faces
If the faces are flat or curved
Instrument investigation
What is sound? How do we hear it? Can we see it? How do we change sound?
Sound travels in waves, just like dropping a penny into water
These waves travel into our ears and our ears send a message to our brains
Sound can vary by pitch and volume
We learnt about different types of instruments and how they are played
We used our problem solving skills to create shakers with recycling and lentils
What happens to the sound of a bottle if we add more water?
Can sound travel through our cup and string telephones?
Below is a ThingLink with maths challenges created in collaboration with the pupil group Internet Empire. I wonder how many activities your class will complete this week?
Comment below with ideas you have enjoyed or would like to include next year.
Royal Mile Primary School 