Primary 1 Yester Primary School 2014/2015 

The office staff have asked me to remind everyone to return  emergency contact forms to school by Monday. They were sent home with the children earlier in the week.

Thanks.

I was at a teacher training course last Friday and came across this amazing website. I used it with the children today and it was fantastic!

It is a teaching tool to help children with handwriting. The teacher/parent/child can use the mouse (or in class, the interactive whiteboard) to write a letter/numeral, save it, then replay. This lets the children watch the correct formation, follow with their finger in the air then write.

It’s really simple to use – the children were “playing at teachers” today during learning areas. It was great to hear them verbalising the correct way to make letters and numerals.

Worth having a wee look – just follow th link.

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/writingRepeater_v6_withloop.html

Spooky goings on in Primary 1 today!

In writing, we made a shopping list for a witch to make spells. The children should be able to tell you about bullet points!

In number work, we rolled some dice and counted spots to write numbers on our ghost worksheets.

We had fun doing “The Skeleton Dance.” We are going to teach it to our Nursery Buddies tomorrow! Maybe the family could learn it at home too?

We also worked very hard to draw these amazing Haunted Houses – very impressive!
Haunted House on PhotoPeach

After all that hard work, we watched a story about Funnybones. The children were very keen to have the story on the website to watch at home….so here it is. 🙂

Today, we found out facts about Hallowe’en in Scotland.

• Long, long ago, people believed that witches, ghosts and skeletons came out on Auld Hallow’s Eve. That is where the word Hallowe’en comes from.
• People used to disguise themselves by wearing masks or dressing up. That is where the word “guising” comes from.
• In America, people go trick or treating, but in Scotland the tradition is to go guising.
• Children go to friends and neighbours houses and say, “Please help the guisers!” In return for telling a joke or singing a little song, the children may be given some apples, nuts or sweeties.
• In America, people carve pumpkins to make lanterns, but in Scotland, the tradition is to use a turnip. A lantern made from a turnip is called a “Tumshie.”

We made little joke books this afternoon to use if we want to go guising at Hallowe’en.

For homework, the children have been asked to practise telling their jokes to grown-ups or use the jokes if they are out guising. Don’t forget to say, “Please help the guisers!”

We are also having a competition to design the best tumshie……..design sheet in schoolbags.

Can’t wait to see the finished designs! Please return to school when complete. 🙂

Our Whole Class Reading text today was from the story by Julia Donaldson, “Room on the Broom.” Lots of children already knew this story, but it was fun watching the animation and then looking for lots of sounds, words and question marks in the text. The children were also great at predicting rhyming words. I promised the class that I would put the animation on the website for you all to share at home. Enjoy!

Over the next few weeks, we are going to be learning more about numbers to 20. We will be learning how to recognise them, write them and order them. Today, we watched and sang along to this counting song. We had to listen well to help us sing along in time to the music. Why not try at home too?

Here is the menu for our Hallowe’en Lunch on Thursday.

• Sticky Fingers with Cat’s Faces (pizza fingers and smiley potato faces)
• Yummy Mummies (sausages wrapped in puff pastry, mashed potato and veg)
• Baked potato

For pudding there will be a selection of spooky cakes and biscuits!

PS. A reminder that the children are invited to dress up on Thursday!

Some spooky activities in Learning Areas this week….

On Thursday morning, we are planning some spooky Hallowe’en transition activities with our Nursery Buddies. Debbie is also making a Hallowe’en Lunch.

If your child would like to come to school dressed as something spooky -please do!

We are planning to hold a coffee morning for Nursery and Primary 1 Parents on Thursday, 31st October 10:00 – 11:30. Hopefully you will have received your wonderful invitation today. The P1 children helped their nursery Buddies to make one too.

The coffee morning is an opportunity for the staff to share transition activities for Nursery to Primary 1 for this session. It’s also a great chance for P1 parents to share their experiences and thoughts with the Nursery parents – let them know what to expect!

Hope to see you there!

PS The children from Nursery and Primary 1 will not be at the coffee morning – just the teachers!