P5/6 Term 1 Newsletter

I hope you all had a lovely Summer break. Welcome to the new academic year - I am so excited to get started. Mrs Sinclair will cover the class on Thursdays and Fridays whilst I'm supporting Mrs O'Neil working on developments for the school. I will still be in school on these days and can still be contacted if needed. Should there be anything that I can help you with, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks in advance for your support. Kind Regards, Mrs Findlay 

MATHS:

As this class is a composite and all children have different requirements, some of the specifics below may not apply to your child. However, although children will be taught at an age and stage that is appropriate for them, I like to use a whole class approach when I can and so generally speaking, this is what we will be covering in maths this term.

We will start the term by exploring numbers ranging from 100 to 1,000,000. This will include looking at place value, comparing and ordering numbers and creating number patterns. We will also spend some time working on estimation and rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000. We will then move on to looking at addition and subtraction problems including carrying over, solving worded problems and applying mental strategies. During our exploration of number, we will begin to learn the meanings of multiples, factors, prime numbers, composites and squared numbers.

Mrs Sinclair will be covering time. This will involve practising telling the time, calculating durations of time, planning journeys and using 24 hour clock.

LITERACY:

Our topic will provide a basis for our literacy activities. We will be reading about and researching two historical figures: William Wallace & Mary Queen of Scots. Part of our research will include watching, listening and note-taking and this will form a basis for our listening and talking assessment this term. We will be focusing on selecting relevant information to help generate and develop our own ideas and texts. We will use these notes for writing factual reports and fact files on important events and people, creating informative posters / leaflets and more descriptive pieces too. We will also focus on audience impact and consider layout and the relevancy of our information whilst writing. Furthermore, we will learn to consider the effectiveness of our introductions and conclusions.

In addition to this we will also be focusing on grammar and punctuation, looking specifically at: using paragraphs correctly, using commas effectively within sentences and dictionary work, taking into consideration third letter order.

The children will receive new spelling words every week. Everyday they will be given a different spelling activity to help them learn their words i.e. sentence work, diacritical marking and spelling games. Spelling words will also be sent home on a Friday as part of homework.

For reading, the class will be taking on an active literacy approach. Different groups will be working on different activities in rotation i.e. reading with the teacher, reading independently, working on a comprehension task and spelling. We will do reading activities twice a week, with further opportunities for independent reading time.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING:

This term for HWB, we will be focusing on developing a growth mindset, managing emotions and maintaining positive friendships. I'm hoping that this will help with the children's continuing transition into the new academic year. PE is timetabled for a Thursday and a Friday this term. Children should come to school with a PE kit on these days, as well as appropriate footwear for being active.

TOPIC:

Topics no longer are 'set' but instead built around the children's ideas and questions. Our topic this term has a history theme and we are going to begin by focusing on William Wallace & Mary Queen of Scots. We will look specifically at building a timeline of events to understand the periods of time. From there we will spend time focusing on researching key events and people that interest us. We will compare how drastically life has changed and how key roles have had an impact on society today.  We will explore some of the key Scottish locations and castles which will lead us to consider where we would build a castle and what it would look like and include. Topic is a great way to make links to a variety of different areas of the curriculum including Expressive Arts, Social Studies, Science and ICT. Our research based tasks will have a high technology focus, as will some of our writing lessons.