Primary 4 Curriculum Newsletter 2018/19

Welcome back after the September weekend, I hope you have had an enjoyable holiday!

In language, the Unit Study for Primary 4 for the last term has been ‘Hodgeheg’ by Dick King-Smith. The children are developing and consolidating their understanding of the roles of the predictor and clarifier within Reciprocal Reading. Going forward the children will begin to develop their skills in summarising and will identify the characteristics of the main characters by observing and discussing the language used by the authors. Our grammar focus this term has been identifying pronouns, adjectives and similes through our novel studies and a range of texts. In writing, we have had a major focus on the use of connectives to join short sentences together. The children are enjoying the challenge of using more sophisticated connective others than ‘and’ in their written work. Please continue to encourage your child to use connectives to write extended sentences in their homework tasks. Next term, our focus will move to verbs and adverbs. As always neat presentation of written work is encouraged for all tasks. Soon the children will begin to learn the joins to begin joined script.

In maths, we continue to learn the 2,3,4, 5 and 10 times tables. Please continue to encourage your child to practise not only the multiplication fact but the number bond facts to 20. This will aid quick random, mental recall. The children have explored angles and can successful identify right angles. They have also been successful in using grid reference to plot and read maps.  The children have been introduced to developing mental strategies for adding and written column addition. They are encouraged to remember to carry the carrying figure on the line. Soon the children will explore 2D and 3D shapes and will learn a variety of new shapes (e.g. hemisphere, prism) and their properties such as vertices, edges and faces.

Our Interdisciplinary focus this term has been our novel study, ‘Hodgeheg’. The children enjoyed reading this novel and learning about the importance of road safety. Their learning on being safe on the roads tied in nicely with the September Health and Well-being focus ‘Safe’ from the SHANARI wheel.

                                                                       

                                     

In partnership with our Parish, we have begun preparing for First Holy Communion. Thank you for joining us on the Feast of Our Lady's birthday. Thank you also for supporting the Rosary homework task. I look forward to meeting you at our Mary's Meals Mass in St. Patrick's Church.

Please ensure your child has a full PE kit and all jewellery removed before coming to school.

PE days are as follows:

P4 - Tuesday and Friday

Thank you for support with your child's homework. Please continue to ensure homework is returned to school on Thursdays.

Primary 4/3 Curriculum Newsletter 2018-2019

Welcome back to the children in Primary 4/3. Everyone is working very hard and have settled in well during the first term. We have had lots of fun getting to know each other and working with our classmates again!

Religious Education 

This is an important year for both Primary 3 and Primary 4 this year as they will both be preparing for their Sacraments. Primary 3 have recently started preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To prepare the children, we will be completing lessons alongside the other Primary 3 classes and would ask for your support with this by completing any follow up homework issued. Our first Theme was Creation and how we all have a duty of care for the environment; thank you for your support with the homework tasks and attendance at mass.

This is an equally important year for Primary 4 as they have begun preparing for their First Holy Communion. In order to prepare for this Sacrament, the children will be taking part in lessons in class and would ask for your continued support with this by completing any follow up homework issued. During the first term the children have been learning about The Rosary and will continue this in term 2.

Literacy

In Phonics Primary 3 have been completing a revision block of sounds previously learned. The children will learn new sounds weekly and we would appreciate if you could reinforce these sounds at home. Primary 4 have been learning new sounds weekly and again we would appreciate if you could reinforce these sounds at home.

Primary 4/3 have been working on creating different styles of text and recently wrote their own recipe for ‘How to make an empire biscuit’. The children thoroughly enjoyed the practical lesson for this piece of writing when they were given the opportunity to make their own empire biscuit.

We will all continue to work on reciprocal reading strategies; predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarising. We use these strategies daily in class and your child should try to use them at home to support their reading. I would ask to encourage all children to read for enjoyment at home as it has many benefits including their self-confidence as a reader.

Numeracy

In Primary 3 children will continue to work on developing their understanding of numbers to 30. You can support your child with this at home by modelling and encouraging mathematical language such as before, after, higher, lower, more than and less than. In term 2 Primary 3 will continue to work on addition with an introduction to place value.

Primary 4 will continue to work on addition in term 2 using mental strategies and written methods. Primary 4 will also start working on place value during this term learning about thousands, hundreds, tens and units and the value of these. Practise of multiplication tables will also be ongoing throughout the new term.

All children will continue to work hard on their quick recall of mental maths questions.

Interdisciplinary Learning 

In term 1 Primary 4/3 were learning all about The BFG as part of our Novel Study. They completed fabulous art work as well as using their technology skills to research Roald Dahl and find out interesting facts about his life.

Next term the Primary 4 children will be leading the Mary’s Meals campaign alongside the other Primary 4 class. Primary 3 will also be learning about children living in Poverty and the different effects it has on their lives.

Reminders

Just a little reminder that we have PE on a Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child comes to school wearing a polo shirt and brings shorts ) if your child is in primary 3), or a full P.E kit if your child is in Primary 4, to allow them to participate in our lessons, jewellery should also be removed.

Please remember to provide your child with a water bottle to ensure that they have access to a drink throughout the day.

Please note homework will be issued on a Monday and should be returned on a Thursday each week. 
                                        
                                        

Primary 3 Curriculum Newsletter Term 3

Welcome back to our final term of Primary 3.

Term 2 was a very busy term as we prepared for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The children were a credit to the Parish, school and yourselves as they received this Sacrament. Thank you for your support and attendance at all masses and at the Retreat evening.  

This term our Interdisciplinary learning theme was ‘The Romans’. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning about different aspects of Roman life and relating their learning about the past to their own lives. We were able to attend a Romans Workshop delivered by West Dunbartonshire Creative Learning Team, the children participated well in all activities and were very motivated and engaged. We even got to dress as a Roman Soldier and discovered how uncomfortable the armour was! The children were delighted to be able to share their learning with you and complete a technology challenge at the Open Afternoon and we thank you again for coming along.

During British Science Week we enjoyed a number of Science activities. We particularly enjoyed our visit from Mrs Keenan who taught us all about the body. It was very interesting and we learned lots of facts!

As we move into the summer term we will be embarking on our new interdisciplinary learning theme with a focus on Science. We have been looking at ways to improve our school grounds and have been learning about planting.

In numeracy we will be focusing on using money. Please support your child’s learning by encouraging them to use coins at home and in the shops. We will also be learning how to weigh items and would encourage your child to be looking at food packaging at home.

This term we will have sports day and we hope you can come along!

Please ensure your child has PE kit with them every day to allow us to take advantage of the sunny days by having PE outside; you may wish to send suitable outdoor shoes for this. We would also ask you to provide your child with a water bottle every day.

Primary 3 has been a great year so far and we are very much looking forward to this term. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your help and support in making this a successful year for your children.

Primary 3 Curriculum Newsletter Term 2

Welcome back to a new school term after a very fun and busy Christmas period. The children successfully participated in the Nativity as the choir and were outstanding. They also created items to sell at the Christmas Fayre as part of our mini enterprise project. The children thoroughly enjoyed both the pantomime and the discos on our return.

At the start of this term we had two French focus days. The children had the opportunity to move around each class in the infant department to learn about a different aspect of France and French culture. We also worked hard to produce French art and we had the opportunity show off our fabulous work during a walking gallery on Friday afternoon. Primary 7 also came to visit to teach us a French song and we got to share our learning at a whole school French concert.

Primary 3 will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday 15th March at 7pm. The children have been working hard to prepare for this Sacrament and they are looking forward to this special time in their lives. There is a retreat for parents and children in our school on Thursday 8th March, further information on this will follow. We continue to be appreciative of your attendance and support at the Theme masses.

Last term we also learned about Scotland and were very lucky to have a visit from a piper. We learned about Saint Andrew and we also took part in some Scottish country dancing with Primary 6.

This term we look forward to our new interdisciplinary theme, The Romans. The children have already expressed keen interest in this topic and we look forward to working on the children’s ideas to lead their learning.

We have started to use Google Classroom to provide homework for Primary 3. Your child has been provided with a username and password to allow them to access the classroom at home, please contact us if you are having any difficulties with this. Using our Google Classroom allows us to provide interactive games for your child to use to support learning. This has been very successful in class and we hope that you are finding it beneficial at home. Reading books should still be returned on a Thursday to allow us to complete reading tasks in class.

For maths work, please continue to encourage your child to learn number bonds and multiplication facts. We are specifically focusing on the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.

During term 1 ten children in Primary 3 represented our school at the West Dunbartonshire Rugby Festival. They worked very hard and were excellent representatives for our school. They had the opportunity to  learn lots of new skills and everyone involved had lots of fun!

This term in Physical Education we will be focusing on gymnastics. Please ensure your child has their P.E. kit to allow them to participate using the apparatus.

P3/2 Curriculum Newsletter - Term 2 January 2018

Welcome back to a new school term after a very fun and busy Christmas period. The children successfully participated in the Nativity as the choir and were outstanding. They also created items to sell at the Christmas Fayre as part of our mini enterprise project. On our return the children really enjoyed both the pantomime and the disco.


On our return to school we had two French focus days. The children had the opportunity to move around each class in the infant department to learn about a different aspect of French culture. We also worked hard to produce French art and we had the opportunity show off our fabulous work during a walking gallery on Friday afternoon.




Primary 7 also came to visit to teach us a French song and we got to share our learning at a whole school French concert.










This term Primary 3 will receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday 15th March at 7pm. The children have been working hard to prepare for this Sacrament and they are looking forward to this special time in their lives. There is a retreat for parents and children in our school on Thursday 8th March, further information on this will follow. We continue to be appreciative of your attendance and support at the Theme masses.

Last term we considered ways to help take care of our environment. We took part in collecting litter

in our playground and we tried to remind each other to use the bins provided.

We also learned about Scotland and were very lucky to have a visit from a piper. We learned about Saint Andrew and we also took part in Scottish country dancing with Primary 6.

This term we look forward to our new interdisciplinary theme; The Romans. The children have already
expressed keen interest in this topic and we look forward to working on the children’s ideas to lead
their learning.

We have started to use Google Classroom to provide homework for Primary 3. Your child has been
provided with a username and password to allow them to access the classroom at home; please
contact us if you are having any difficulties with this. Using our Google Classroom allows us to provide
interactive games for your child to use to support learning. In class this has been very successful and
we hope that you are finding it beneficial at home. Any written tasks/ reading books should still be
returned on a Thursday to allow us to complete reading tasks in class.

For maths work, please continue to encourage your child to learn numbers bonds and multiplication
facts. We are specifically focussing on the 2,3,4,5 and 10 times tables.

During term 1 we had ten children in Primary 3 who represented our school at the West
Dunbartonshire Rugby Festival. They worked very hard and were excellent representatives for
our school. They had the opportunity to learn lots of new skills and everyone involved had lots of fun!

This term in Physical Education we will be focussing on ball skills. Please ensure your child has full
kit to allow them to participate.