I hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed some sunshine!

I was very impressed at the level of engagement by the children last week. I hope the comments and dojos are helping them to realise just how delighted I am with all their effort. Many thanks to all supporters at home, as I fully appreciate that this is not happening on its own!

I’d be grateful if the children could continue to come on and say ‘Good morning’ on the live stream once they have completed the register each day, if they can. It just gives me the opportunity to check in with them and help with any queries.

I’ve attached this week’s learning timetable outlining the activities which will be released on each day.

T4 W3

Please remember, this is only for guidance; there is absolutely no pressure to complete all of the activities. It is entirely up to you to what extent your child engages with the materials provided. It is really encouraging to hear the children talking about all of their ‘life skills’ learning: food preparation, cooking, baking, planting, gardening, painting fences etc.

The Health and Wellbeing Challenge will initially require some adult supervision, as I have asked the children to look at some online dance routines and workouts aimed at children. As a google search will likely guide you towards youtube, I would recommend that the search is conducted with adult support/guidance.

Here’s hoping the sun finds some time to shine again this week!

I’m sure most of you will have picked up this link from the Google Classroom, but if you have missed it Ms MacDonald is looking for some feedback here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeug93Rt3q7eeNpvIRxQX0VC8vPoZ7BMaSDgvRVjUYqMgN3eQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thank you!

The activities for both Thursday and Friday will be released tomorrow. I have responded to the feedback I received last week and added in some extra work for the children most confident in numeracy.

At this point in time we have been advised that there should be no ‘new’ learning as such, and so I am providing materials which I think your child should be able to work on reasonably independently. If they are finding their work too difficult/easy please get them to email me using the Private Comment box and I can allow them to access different materials.

In the class the pace of work varies from child to child. Please do not worry if your child does not complete all of the work I have set, I am just trying to cover the speedy workers! As a rule of thumb, if your child is focused, a 30 minute session on Numeracy at home per day is suffice (including online games for numeracy practice) – unless of course they are keen to do more!

I have also attached our pared back Learning Overview here, which covers the first 4 weeks of this term.

P3 Learning Overview Term 4 Weeks 1-4

Just to reassure you, the children are doing an amazing job engaging with their online learning and I am very proud of them! Keep accessing and doing what you can, whilst making sure there is plenty time for rest, relaxation and play (especially while the sun is shining). Thank you for all your continued support from home.

Many thanks to all the families who filled in the Friday Feedback form; it was great to see that, for the most part, the activities are hitting the spot and that the children are enjoying having new activities to try each day.

If your child is finding their spelling words too easy feel free to try them on a few of the more challenging words from the next group. I know I have some very confident spellers in the class; if your child can spell the Group 3 words at the start of the week they should try ‘stretching’ the words by adding prefixes/suffixes/changing tense to see how many additional words they can build.

Measure should prove a little trickier this week as it involves reading a variety of scales. The level of difficulty can be increased on the online game to provide more challenge.

I’ll attach the weekly timetable again for you here. It’s really just to give you an indication of what is being released on each day.

T4 W2 Blog

The ‘Talk for Writing’ materials are an excellent resource and are not designed to be devoured at one sitting. I have given you access to the original document, but will be breaking the activities down over the next couple of weeks and releasing ‘The Magical Teaching Box’ Google docs for the children to work on each day. ‘Sidney Spider’ requires more talking than writing this week – I have suggested which pages to work on each day in the timetable attached above.

From the feedback, the majority of families were happy with the quantity of work provided. As with last week, please just do what you can. Remember that the P2-4 classroom has a host of resources and links for any families looking for additional materials.

I fully appreciate that every family will be sharing information about the current situation with their child as they see fit, but if your child is asking tricky questions I can highly recommend ‘A Book about Coronavirus’ produced by Axel Scheffler, as it is pitched at just the right level.

The Gruffalo illustrator worked with consultant Professor Graham Medley, two head teachers and a psychologist to make sure the book got the messages right, answering questions about quarantine, how you can catch the virus and what happens if you get ill.

It is available as a free download, but publishers Nosy Crow have asked for donations in lieu of payment, to go to our fantastic health workers.

If you want to check it out Google ‘Axel Scheffler Coronavirus’ and follow the links to the free download.

I’m sorry it’s such a long post!

Hope you all have a good week.

Well, we’re nearly at the weekend and I hope everyone got through their first week of home schooling without too much strife.

I’m asking the children to fill in a very simple feedback form online today, so that I can gauge how the week went. I just want to check in that the children are okay, and that I am not putting unrealistic pressure on families at this time.

It has been suggested that it might be easier if activities were released on a Monday, giving families greater freedom to decide when they have time to work together over the course of the week. I will trial this with a couple of activities next week, but will also provide a daily timetable to follow for those who prefer more structure.

Thank you! I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Just a quick note on the Numeracy tasks for Thursday and Friday. The work that is released tomorrow is to cover both days; there are some interactive online games, mental Maths Minute strips and some textbook examples. Additional online numeracy activities can be found in the P2-4 Google classroom.

I also found these posters and prompts which I have used previously. They might prove useful over the coming weeks as we are reviewing addition strategies.

oscars-doubling-numbers

oscars-partitioning

oscars-rounding-numbers

oscars-tidy-numbers

A big welcome back to all our Primary 3 families! I know it was a very different holiday experience for everyone this year, but I sincerely hope you all enjoyed good times together at home over the Easter break.

There will be a bit of structure to our Google Classroom this term. I have uploaded Literacy, Maths/Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing tasks for this coming week. Activities will be released on a daily basis and I have attached a weekly timetable here, so that you know what you are looking for each day.

T4 W1 Blog

Several of the activities are differentiated, just as they would be in class; your child will only be able to access work which is relevant for them. Although some of the activities are in a worksheet format, there is no need to print anything out. I know how creative the children can be, so just use the jotters provided by the school to record any written work. This week’s reading activities are all about discussion and can be completed orally.

In terms of daily physical exercise I would like the children to choose whatever is manageable for you, and makes them happy.  So, Joe Wicks/Cosmic Kids yoga/trampoline bouncing/bike riding/skipping/games in the garden – anything goes! All reading is good, whether together or independently. Life skills experience and learning is invaluable – e.g. helping around the house/garden or helping to prepare food together.

It’s difficult to gauge how much work to provide at this point; I know from the classroom that some children need more support and time to process/work through things, while others fly through the learning at a rate of knots! I am also very mindful of the fact that many of you will still be working, or working from home – I definitely do not want to create more pressure or stress for families at this challenging time.

Do what you can this week, but please don’t let it become all consuming or a battleground – we all need to relax, have fun, make, create and look after our emotional wellbeing too.

There is some excellent advice posted on the main school blog – ‘Wellbeing for Everyone while we’re Learning at Home’

I’ll be engaging with the children over the course of the week, and inviting them to give me some  feedback on Friday, in order to best support our P3 families and build a workable school week for everyone.

A huge thanks to all my Primary 3 families for bearing with me as we navigated through our first week of online learning.

Your children have been just amazing, as I knew they would be! I hope they enjoy their Together Time chat.

I will be accessing the Google Classroom over the holidays to upload resources for the new term, but these will not be accessible to the children until Tuesday 14th April. The children should be enjoying their holiday; there is no need for them to access the Google Classroom during this time. There will definitely be more content after the holidays with daily targeted Literacy, Numeracy/Maths and Health and Wellbeing tasks for the children to work on.

Looking forward to catching up with you all in a couple of weeks or so.

Take care,

Miss Gray

A quick thank you to all parents for keeping the children’s chat reined in on the Google Classroom, I really appreciate it.

I am, however, really missing all their banter, and I’m sure they will be missing each other. As tomorrow would have been our official last day of term before the holidays, and we would have enjoyed a lovely Together Time in the afternoon, I am going to allow the children to chat freely with each other between 2.15 and 3.00pm tomorrow on the most recent visible stream. I’ll delete the comments at the end of the day. It might just be worth reminding them that this is a one off (we will be back to no chat in class after the holidays), and I will be able to see everything they type!

I will share this with the children in my ‘Good morning!’ post on Friday.

Just a quick post to let you know how happy I am that so many of you are joining me in our Google classroom. Let’s see if everyone can get registered on their own at 11.00am tomorrow, with a ‘y’ in the correct column. I’ve deleted the practice page, so it should be easier for you to get to the correct week – look at the bottom of the screen for w.b. 23rd March.