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Pulteneytown
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Pulteneytown Academy Class Newsletter 20 April 2005 Primary 1 - What a busy term of work and fun lies ahead! Number - The children will continue to do lots of practical activities on subtraction from 10 and learn subtraction rhymes and songs. Please ask your child subtraction sums at home to give them extra practice and encourage them to complete written ones as well using the �chimney� layout shown at the side. The important thing is that they understand that they are �taking away� and so will be left with a smaller number as the answer. The children will then learn about counting and ordering numbers to 20 and telling the time using o�clock. Please ask them to tell you what �o�clock� it is whenever you can to give them extra practice. The children will have lots of fun carrying out practical volume tasks using sand, water and a variety of containers. Vocabulary such as full, empty, measure, order, space, amount and volume will be focused on. Language � The children will continue to read stories about Kipper and his family. Please hear your child read, discuss the various storylines with them and practise their words and rhymes daily. Your child will be given three opportunities to write each week. Once a week will be following our North Lanark writing approach. This term, the emphasis is on their feelings in different situations and on joining together phrases and sentences using �and� or �but�. The other two writing experiences each week will focus on their hobbies, favourite things, family, project and science work and class novel. This will be done in a jotter and I will be asking the children to write letters correctly, leave spaces between words and use capital letters and full stops. When writing at home, please encourage your child to do the things described previously. Our class novel this term is �The hen who wouldn�t give up� by Jill Tomlinson. Please ask your child regularly to tell you what�s happening to Hilda the hen from our class novel. The children will continue to have lots of fun with rhyme and will use magnetic boards and letters to make up new rhymes. We are also introducing a new weekly �Book Buddy� time. Each P1 child will have their own P6 buddy who will read them a book of their choice and discuss it with them. Mrs Harper and I hope that this will promote �reading for enjoyment� and be a time that all of the children will benefit from, look forward to and enjoy. Environmental Studies � This term our Social Studies topic is �Families and Grandparents�. The children will have lots of fun learning about what makes a family and what life was like when some of their grandparents were young. Can you please give your child some family photos for us to share and display. Each child will invite one extra special family member to come along to our Family Afternoon in June. Further details of date, time, etc will be sent, on an invite, nearer the time. This term�s science unit is all about materials, focusing on living and non-living sources, differences in the properties of common materials and ways in which we use them. Expressive Arts � I am delighted that the children will have swimming lessons this term. Hopefully, your child will enjoy these. Gym with Mrs Mennie is every Monday first thing so can you please ensure that you child brings their gym kit with them for then. Practice for our Sports Day will begin in May/June and the date, time, etc for this will follow nearer the time. The children are entered for the Music Festival to perform a �dramatised song�. Even already, the children have been busy making and designing props for this with Mrs Ross and are full of enthusiasm when singing and doing some actions! Please encourage your child to practise our song, namely �Yellow Submarine� and the actual date and time will be given to you once we know, so that you can come along and enjoy their performance and give them some support. (The Festival is from 6 � 10 June) The children are very lucky this term to have the visiting Art teacher three times. Can you please send in any spare buttons you have for pictures we are going to make, thanks. Personal and Social Development � Golden Time will continue to be on a Friday afternoon from 2.30. Please remind your child to bring something in for this, if they�d like. I am hoping to use the �parachute� for some of these times, which the children just love. Can you please allow your child to bring in one extra special thing of theirs to talk about and share during Circle Times. The children will be enjoying a trip and details of this will follow in June. As you know, last term all of the
classes worked hard resulting in the Spring Fayre. Our class, through
their delicious baking, made a profit of �48 and would like to spend it
on new things for the �drawing area� e.g. � new fancy pens, stampers,
stickers, fancy scissors, envelopes, postcards, different colours and
types of paper to work and play with, etc. Maths - This term we will work on time � half past, both analogue and digital and durations of time. We will begin multiplication by looking at sets of objects and introducing the term �times� when multiplying by 0, 1, and 2. We will also begin division by sharing objects equally and grouping. In money we will revise coins to 20p and varying amounts of coins needed to make amounts up to 49p before introducing the 50p coin. Language - Reading will continue as indicated in your child�s reading record. Please sign and feel free to comment once you have prepared homework. If either Monday or Tuesday is not your child�s reading day could they please bring their book to school anyway as those are the days we work on follow up activities and workbooks. This work increasingly asks the children to look up their reading book to find page numbers and answers to questions which is difficult if they do not have the book in front of them. Bookbags will continue to go home every second Tuesday for reading to your child and discussing so they are able to follow it up in school with Mrs Malcolm. Some children will complete a short book review about their own choice of bookbag story. In writing we will continue with imaginative/personal pieces and also look at leaflets, posters and newspaper reports in functional writing. Any experience of these at home would be most welcome. As always, much emphasis will be placed on the presentation of all written work. Environmental Studies - Finding out about People Who Help Us In School by discussion and questioning of various members of staff. In science we will look at plants and flowers to identify roots, stem and leaves and also Minibeasts and how to care for them and the environment. Technology will be work on Fastenings. Expressive Arts - Mrs Mennie will continue to take the children for P.E. each Monday so could you please ensure your child has their kit with them on that day. Our first session of swimming went well on Wednesday and will continue as indicated on your timetable. Unfortunately there is no time for the children to wash their hair so they do not need to bring shampoo to school with them. We will be rehearsing a dramatised song for the Caithness Music Festival in June so any help in learning words at home would be welcomed. Some children have also been selected for the Infant Choir so will also have a song to learn for that. Our small profit from the Spring Fayre Enterprise will be spent on a treat for the class. Primary 3 Maths - All of the children will be revising all of the number skills they have learned about this year, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and place value. It would be of great help if you could do this at home also just to ensure that they are remembering how to lay out chimney sums and do the sum correctly. As well as this most children will progress on from the excellent knowledge they have of their 2,3,4,5 and 10 times tables and use them for dividing. We will also be looking at dividing with remainders. Other children will be introduced to the concept of multiplication and will be learning the 2x table and then learning about grouping and sharing for division. Language - As usual your child will get reading to do as indicated in their reading record, please feel free to make any comments in this as they are very helpful to know how you are finding things at home and continue to question them to ensure they understand fully what they are reading. Also your child will receive a book bag, these are to be kept for two weeks. This is to allow the children the time to read and enjoy the whole book as they are becoming a little longer and more challenging. I will be reading the children �James and the giant peach� by Roald Dahl and am sure the children will love the book. In writing we will be looking at leaflets and making sure our stories have a beginning, middle and end and adding more detail to make them longer and more interesting to read. The spelling is really important, independent spelling of commonly used words and checking how to spell other lesser used words. Children will continue to write in sentences using full stops and capital letters correctly. The children will begin to learn how to join groups of letters and can start to practise this in all of their writing. Expressive Arts - Like last term we will have gym every Tuesday with Mrs Mennie apart from on 3 Tuesdays as we will have the Art Specialist and gym will be on a Monday. It is essential your child has their gym kit in school as without them they will not be allowed to take part. Our class will also be taking part in the Music Festival in the action song category. Each child will receive the words they have to learn for this. It would be of great help if you could help them with learning them. Environmental Studies - Our science project for this term is looking at living things � plants, animals and humans. We will study aspects such as growing up, the 5 senses, life cycles and parts of the human body. Our social subjects will look at our town of Wick. We will focus a little on the history of Wick, then look at the important buildings Wick has, its different uses of land and looking at maps. Last terms enterprise was very successful and a total of �64 was raised by the children. The children have decided they would like to put some of the money towards a trip, some of the money to have a class party and the remainder to a charity. Primary 4 Mathematics - Most of the class will continue to work on the 6 and 7 times tables but also learn the 8 and 9 times tables. They will work mentally on finding thirds, fifths and two thirds/three fifths etc. Number work in maths will include subtraction to 1000 using mental strategies and written methods. Other topics that will be worked on are 2D/3D shape, symmetry, angles, weight using grams and kilograms. The strategies that the children will use for problem solving will be try a simpler case, act out the situation and reason logically. Parents can help at home by asking questions relating to maths homework, encouraging their child to learn their times tables and continually revise addition and subtraction. Language - The focus for reading will be headlines, paragraphs, verses and plot. They will continue to develop reading comprehension using big books, fiction and non fiction books. Most of the class will be sitting a National Assessment for the level at which they have been working towards. When writing personal or imaginative stories they will be concentrating on giving a personal response and making sure that they have enough detail to make the circumstances and response clear. Functional writing will include posters, leaflets and letters which will relate to the environmental studies topics of Scotland and Living Things. They will continue to work on full stops, capital letters, spelling, neat handwriting and making sure a sentence makes sense when writing. Grammar this term will involve the children learning about pronouns and conjunctions while revising verbs, nouns and adjectives. The children will be developing their talking and listening skills by using stories, poems, dramatic texts and information texts. Environmental Studies - For the
start of this term P4 will be continuing with the Scotland topic, which
concentrates on people and place. They will be comparing Scotland to
other countries in the world. The other topic that they will be doing
this term is Identifying Living Things, which will involve the children
studying mini beasts. Primary 5 Maths- Last term most children finished SHM4 and will now move onto SHM5. In Number they will cover Addition to 1000, Subtraction to 1000 and Money. Other topics will include Data Handling and Reading/ Writing Times. A smaller group will continue to work on SHM3. They will revise Addition to 100, then work on Subtraction to 100 and Time. As always, written work will be consolidated in our warm-up Mental Numeracy sessions, with particular emphasis on tables. It would be helpful if you could continue to support your child with their written homework and with revising their tables. Language- In reading, we will continue to work from Comprehension Success in order to develop pupils� reading skills in a variety of genres of text. Some time will also be spent discussing ideas in their reading books. I would be grateful if you would continue to listen to your child read from these at home whilst encourage them to read more non-fiction texts. Writing this term will cover Functional, Imaginative and Writer�s Craft pieces. In the latter, pupils are given an extract of text and then after discussion, are required to continue the story using the author�s ideas and writing style. As before, all writing will be reinforced with exercises in Spelling and Grammar. Please ensure that Keywords and spelling mistakes from our weekly tests are learnt. Environmental Studies- During the first half of this term we will finish work on our Social Studies topic, France. In the second half we will look at our next Science topic, Living on Earth. Finally, may I take this opportunity to thank all of you who attended our French Caf�: Cr�ptacular Cr�pes, as part of the Spring Fayre. I think it was a very worthwhile project where pupils learnt a lot about Enterprise and had fun. We even made a profit of �74! The class have decided to spend some of the money on a trip to the park with a picnic; the remainder will be donated to a Breast Cancer charity. Primary 6 It is hard to believe it is Term 4 already. A term full of hard work and netball and football matches! Maths - The majority of the children will be continuing to work on Level D maths from SHM 6. This will include addition and subtraction, with the children being taught mental strategies, but will also ensure that the children can carry out written sums accurately. Graph work, length, weight and 3D shape will also be completed. Level C work will involve lots of practice test papers as they build up for their actual test. Mental arithmetic will be carried out daily, and the children must ensure that all their table facts and number bonds are known extremely well. Level B tests are also approaching and as above, lots of practice papers will be carried out with the children. They must ensure they know the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables well. Language - Reading work has been going extremely well in the class and this will continue into Term 4. The children will continue to participate in Big Book Sessions and will work on lots of reading skills from schemes such as Reading and Thinking. These aim to really make the children think about what they are reading. Writing - We will continue to write in lots of different genres as we build up to some of the children being tested at a variety of levels. The papers are slightly different to before, so class work will focus on preparing the children for the new style of test. Science - Lots of science work will be taking place in the classroom this term, from making parachutes to looking at the Solar System. There will be lots of hands on experiments for the children to enjoy. From the profit made at the spring fayre, �30 will be donated to the Balmore centre, �30 to the Red Nose Day appeal and the remaining �12.50 will be retained for a class party. Primary 7 upstairs The first half of this term will be focused on National Assessments. The children have been working towards these all year and will be approaching the tests with the required knowledge to hand. Maths - In preparation for the assessment paper I would encourage you to work on your child�s tables at home. Tables are the basis of many of the concepts we have covered this year so 5 or 10 minutes spent each day will help to ensure the answer is available quickly in a test situation. In addition more revision will be given as homework in order to recap and revise the year�s work. The children have been using a little study book, which they have compiled and a lot of the homework will be based on this. Please feel free to use it to ask your child questions. After the assessment is completed we will be focusing on Level E work in preparation for Wick High School. Writing - The class have been working towards this all year. There are now 3 pieces of writing involved in the assessment where previously there were two but the children have adapted well. Again, these will take part in the first half of the term and then the children will be focusing on the targets for Level E. One group in the class have been working on Level E targets in functional writing since the middle of last term and they are progressing well. After the assessments are completed, the whole class will be focusing, at each of their levels, on personal and imaginative writing for the remainder of the term. Reading - There have been some major developments in reading over the past year with a more focused approach to skills being taught e.g. the introduction of non-fiction �big books� to teach �reading for information� has meant that the children have been able to work together, as a class, to develop their research skills. The weekly reading homework has formed the basis of developing skills in fictional reading and has looked at strategies used to read between the lines and work out inferential information from the text. This is very important when children work at Level D/E and is something that you can work on at home. It can seem, as children get older, that they have no problems with the text they are reading but closer questioning can reveal that they have missed some of the subtle messages and ideas. Please do not underestimate the value you can add to your child�s reading by taking a few minutes every now and then to listen to their reading and ask them questions about the characters, the hidden meanings in the story and discuss difficult vocabulary. Environmental studies - The enterprise last term was a great success and thank you to everyone who bought our cards and magnets. I was very pleased with the professionalism which the children displayed in running �The Crazy Chicken Company� and witnessed some shrewd business people of the future. The amount raised will be used for the Lance Armstrong Fund Due to the time and effort of the enterprise our Victorians project was put on hold for a few weeks. We will resume this and finish it off this term. The areas we will be focusing on are, the reign of Queen Victoria and politics during this time Primary 7 downstairs Language - This term, we will continue our work on cloze procedures as they now feature more regularly in the national assessments. We will be report writing, looking at different styles of reports e.g. in newspaper, in literature, teletext or on the internet etc. I plan to assess most of the Level D and E children, then we will be working at their new level on creating atmosphere, emotion and feelings more frequently in their written work. In reading, again, I am hoping to test some Level D and E children, then continue at their new level on the new knowledge about language skills such as genre, synopsis etc. The children should continue to edit and check their work independently both at school and at home. Environmental Studies - This term�s science projects are Reproduction and Our Environment. We will also be covering some work on OS maps, the relationship between the location of a country and its climate, world climatic change and extreme weather phenomenon e.g. tsunami. Any posters, CD-ROMs, Books etc in relation to these topics will be gratefully received. Health - The class will continue
working with Mrs Moncrieff for health, however the Reproduction,
Relationships and sex education will be taught in class. Towards E: The children will be
working on place value; numbers to 100 million, addition and subtraction
of larger numbers, rotational symmetry, multiplication and 2D shape.
Towards D: This group have a small amount to cover on decimals,
percentages and shape, before a block on revision of all level D work,
towards being assessed towards the end of term. Please note I will be
sending home a lot of revision homework in preparation for this. Thank
you for your support with this. The children made a huge profit with the recipe book produced for the Spring Fayre Enterprise and this will be spent on a school trip, a donation to the school fund and flowers for Carole and Valerie for all their help with the venture. |