News Flash!

Posted on June 15, 2011 by sthomas

Just to let you know as of the week beginning 13th June there will be no more reading, spelling or maths homework. We would be grateful if you could return all reading books and diaries to school next week. It’s always good to keep those brains ticking over so lots of maths practice at the shops or reading a book together at home is always a great way to keep the learning going over the holidays. Many thanks.

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May and June Newsletter

Posted on June 12, 2011 by sthomas

Hello,

Time to update you once again on all our exiting Primary 2/3 activities. We’ve been very busy learning lots of interesting things about Buddhism and Mini-beasts this term. We also had a very successful assembly where we were able to share some of our mini-beast learning. Well done everyone you worked really hard on your facts and sang beautifully. A special well done to Jasmine and Nicole who were particularly brave singing about bees by themselves, well done girls!

We have been really lucky this term and had several trips out and about. The first was to Sheriffside Farm where we were able to take part in an Archaeological dig to find the remains of an Iron age Fort. As you can see from the pictures we had a wonderful time.

The second part of our archeological dig involved some classroom experience of different ancient technologies. What fun!

We also visited the Hirsel in Coldstream to take part in the Co-op’s Farm to Fork project where we spend a fantastic day. We spent the morning exploring the Hirsels grounds looking at different mini-beast habitats and making mini-beasts from natural materials we found in the woods.  In the afternoon we learnt about bees and the important role they play in our food production. We also made mini-beasts using fruit that the bees help to pollinate which we then got to eat, yum!

A big thank you to everyone who helped with our trips and a special thank you to Gifford Co-op for providing the fruit for our fruit mini-beasts.

A few quick reminders:

  • The JSRO competition closes on Monday 13th June so all entries must be in by then. Check out the JSRO page for the competition details.
  • The Gifford Gala competition is also running with their G is for Gifford theme. Competition details were sent home 2 weeks ago so please let us know if you haven’t received them. 
  • It will be Eco-fortnight during the last two weeks of term so please have a look at the Green Teams post to find out all about it and again a letter was sent home on Friday 10th of June with some important details so please take time to look.

Lastly, as we near the end of the school year we would like to wish you all a happy and healthy summer holiday and of course good luck in your new class P2/3!

Mrs Thomas and Mrs Kemp

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Welcome Back!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by sthomas

 

We hope that you had a lovely Easter break and that you are all feeling refreshed and ready for the new term. Apologies for the lack of website over the last month but Mrs Thomas has been waiting to regain access! Hopefully this will work today:)

Firstly a big thank you to Ewan and his family for giving Goldie and Sunshine their Easter break, much appreciated. Also a big thank you to Mrs Lodge and Mrs McClung for helping out with our trip to Knox Academy for the culmination of our Carnival of the Animals project. Lastly and by no means least a big thank you to Craig and his dad for building the fantastic bird table for our grounds. If you haven’t seen it yet we hope to get it up in the grounds as soon as the wood has been treated.
As you will see from the photo’s below we have been very busy over the last few months. We had great fun with Miss Ewing raising money for comic relief, we raised £50! We also enjoyed an Indian feast with Mrs Kemp as part of our learning about Sikhism. With Mrs Thomas we found out about the dinosaurs and how fossils are made and of course the Primary 2’s took part in the Carnival of the Animals project with Ms Trail.

At Knox Academy for the Carnival of the Animals Project
 
Hannah was lucky enough to have a go at conducting the orchestra and she was brilliant!
 
Sharing the Carnival of the Animals Project at our Easter Assembly, after Primary 2 taught some songs to Primary 3.
Tasting some Indian food
Can you tie a Turban?

Term 4 – What we will be doing?
Topic: We will be looking at Mini-beasts and all things creepy crawly with Mrs Thomas. With Mrs Kemp we will be completing a Green Project, more details to follow.
Numeracy and Maths: We will be learning about numbers to 1000 in numeracy and we will be doing a lot of information handling with Mrs Thomas, which links perfectly with our topic. 
Literacy: We will endeavour to make as many links as possible with our topic work to ensure that learning is purposful, but we will be looking inparticualr at genre, report and personal account writing.You should receive a quick note home with regard to the reading groups, we have had a reshuffle during the holidays and renamed all our groups, but if you have any queries or concerns please get in touch.
RME: We will be finding out about Buddhism.
Health and Wellbeing: We will be looking at our changing bodies, life cycles and the needs of a new baby. We will also be playing some team building games.
ICT: This will link to both our whole class reading and to mini-beasts looking at a range of data handling and display techniques as well as graphics.
Art: This will be linked to our mini-beasts project and we will look at Landscape Art and the famous artist Monet.
Housekeeping:
PE: This will be on a Monday(Mrs Kemp) and Thursday (Ms Jones). Please ensure that PE kits are in on these days to avoid missing out.
Gym Shoes: We had a number of incidents last term of unsafe gym shoes, please take time to check that shoes fit properly and that the soles and fastenings are intact. We don’t want any accidents spoiling our fun this term.
Outside Classroom: We hope to spend lots of time in the wildlife garden this term so please make sure you bring a jumper (with your name on it) so you don’t get chilly sitting in the garden, which can happen even on the warmest of days.
Class Rep: As you will be aware by now Mrs Vernon is our class rep this year. If you have any suggestions, particular talents you can share or are available to get involved in our classroom  learning and mini-beast hunting please let either, myself, Mrs Kemp or Mrs Vernon know.
Well that’s it folks! Keep check the site for updates which I hope will be more regular now that I have access.
Mrs Thomas

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Primary 2/3

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Alison Gordon

This week we have been enjoying Money Week.

We have created our own coin operated robots. We had great fun making and playing with them. Daisy’s robot even dispensed maltesers. Yum Yum!

In PE we have been hitting coin targets and adding up how much we have won.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Updated 17.01.11
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
It seems a very long time since we’ve had ‘normal service’ in school after all the chaos caused by the snow!  We hope you had a restful break and are eager to get back to work.
 
What we are doing this term

Topic – the first part of this term is ‘My Country’ where we will be looking at all things Scottish (in the second half of the term our topic will be Dinosaurs).  The children are very much involved in deciding what we are going to learn and are very keen to find out tabout the following:  Scottish songs, the Loch Ness Monster, Mary Queen of Scots, William Wallace, famous battles, St Andrew, tartan and kilts, Highland dancing, bagpipes, the Scottish flag and last, but not least, castles!

Numeracy/Maths –  we will be looking at Multiplication and Weight, Measurement and Capacity.

Health and Wellbeing – Coping with Change and Loss plus finishing off Keeping Safe from last term (see more below).

Literacy – will be tied in, as much as possible, to our topic. 

RME – we are excited to be learning all about Sikhism. 

We got the term off to a flying start with a visit from Deborah Gray from Lothian and Borders Police.  She came in to talk to us about keeping safe and we were able to tell her all the different ways we do this at school, home and when we area out and about.  We also asked Deborah about her job and got to try on her handcuffs and uniform which, as you can see from the photos, was great fun!

Some of you may have noticed a different face in our classroom!   We would like to give a very big welcome to Sarah Ewing, a final year teaching student at the University of Edinburgh, who will be with us for the next twelve weeks, taking full responsibility for the class from 14th January for three weeks. 

 

As always, if you have any concerns about your child or any questions, please don’t hesitate to call the school or write us a note.

 

Maria Kemp/Alison Gordon/Sarah Ewing

 

 
 
 
 

The policeman or policewoman asks you to put your thumbs up before putting the handcuffs on!

 

 

Someone doesn't look very happy!

A police uniform is VERY heavy - phew!!

Thank you to everybody who came to see our Nativity last week.  It was a great success and the children were all stars!  We are very proud of them especially as we had such little time to practise this year due to the bad weather closures.

We hope you enjoy looking at the following photos of the Nativity and the Craft Fair which was held after it.  We raised approximately £30 through the sale of the children’s snowmen, Christmas trees and calendars which is a fantastic amount!  With the money, the children decided to buy a Bucket of Love, a month’s supply of breakfast for a child and a mosquito net.  We had a long chat about the difference these items would make to someone’s life in a developing country and realised how lucky we are.

Wishing everybody a very safe and Happy Christmas.

Best wishes,

Maria Kemp and Alison Gordon

PS   A big hello to Robert Watterson who has been snowed in for over four weeks!  Hope you are keeping warm, Robert, and are able to come back to school in the new year.

The Infant Nativity will take place on Wednesday 15th December at 1.45pm followed by a craft fair in the P2/3 classroom (apologies from Mrs Kemp for putting the wrong time of 1.15 on a note home – oops!!).Last updated 09.12.2010 (only 16 days till Christmas!!)

Just a reminder that we are going to see the Gruffalo this Tuesday 14th and that all children should bring a packed lunch to school.


A plea from  Goldie and Sunshine, our class goldfish, for a home during the Christmas break.  They  survived not being fed for a week in frozen waters when the school was closed so really are no bother!   If you can look after them for us, email or phone the school.

Many thanks for all your snow pyramid photos, am having a bit of trouble uploading them to the website at the moment but watch this space…

One of our parents was asking about the Italian phrases the children have been learning at school. Well they can say the following (ask them the meaning!):

Buongiorno
Arrivederci
Presente/assente
Buon appetito
Come stai?  Sto bene, grazie.
Come ti chiami?  Mi chiamo …
Quanti anni hai?  Ho sei/sette anni.
Uno, due, tre quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci.
Nevica (it is snowing)

Arrivederci a presto!

Maria Kemp/Alison Gordon

Last updated 03.12.10

Well done Anna, Lulu and Daisy for rising to the challenge of building a snow pyramid.  I wonder what you call a pyramid with a hole through the middle?!  What a fantastic job you’ve done!  I love the photo of your daddy (or should that be mummy?!!) he looks VERY COLD! Everyone else out there, if your hands aren’t too frozen with building snowmen and throwing snowballs, get building!  See you all on Monday 6th, hopefully, although I hear that chicken pox is doing the rounds…

Mrs Kemp/Mrs Gordon

Hello Primary 2/3

Well, who would have believed all this snow!!  Hope you’re  having fun making snowmen and sledging.  My car is stuck in our driveway so I am not going anywhere!  I have been going on lots of long walks with Paddy, our dog.  He is a whippet (very skinny!) so he needs to move around a lot when we’re outside otherwise he gets very cold!  Maybe I should knit him a jumper, what do you think?!
It looks like we’re not going to be at school for the rest of the week so I thought I’d set you a little challenge.  A variation on building a snowman or igloo, there will be a prize for the child who can build the best snow pyramid. Send me a photo of your pyramid as an attachment to mkemp@yester.elcschool.org.uk and I will publish them on the website.  Get busy and get building!!

Straight after our nativity on Wednesday 15th December (which we are going to be very busy practising when we eventually get back to school!) we are going to have a craft fair in our classroom  to which all mums, dads, grannies and grandpas are invited.  Put this date in your diary!


Can’t believe we’re midway through November already!  Preparations for our Nativity will be starting very shortly and we are VERY excited about that!  We have been practising singing rhymes in class (Ickle Ockle Blue Bottle, Fishy Fishy and  A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea being our favourites) to brush up our vocal chords for the Nativity which is on Wednesday 15th December in the afternoon..  These ryhmes are teaching us how to keep the beat and coordinate our bodies but, most importantly, they are great fun!
Please could you make some  pom-poms for us? Some of the children will be dressed up as fairy lights on a Christmas Tree….all will be revealed during the performance! We need some brightly coloured pom-poms for the beautiful fairy lights and some grey/dull coloured pom-poms for the broken fairy lights. Thank you.
A reminder that our visit to the theatre to see ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ is on Tuesday 14th December in the morning.

We are continuing to work on our subtraction skills in Numeracy.  Any help you can give your child with the ‘language of subtraction’ at home would be great ie if I give you ten sweets then I take away four how many will you have left? or what is the difference between 15 and 12?  Using this language in an everyday context and in practical situations really helps to embed the knowledge.  In Maths, we are working on position and movement (North, East, South, West = Never Eat Shredded Wheat – can you help your child come up with another rhyme to help them remember the compass positions?) or give them directions to reach a particular spot in the room – four steps forward, quarter turn right, three steps forward etc.

In Health and Wellbeing we have been discussing Keeping Ourselves Safe.  We know all about keeping safe at home and in the classroom including which packaging is safe to open and which should only be opened by an adult and next week we are going to look at safety and the environment.   We  are also really looking forward to a safety talk  from Lothian and Borders Police on Monday 29th November.  Rumour has it that we might be able to have a peek inside the police van…!

We are really enjoying our Ancient Egypt topic and had great fun learning all about mummification. Poor Charlotte made a great mummy, all wrapped up in bandages!  We particularly liked this amazing, yeuchy  fact – the brains were pulled out via the nose using a special tool!  We have been making Egyptian jewellery, death masks, pyramids and learning all about gods and the importance of the River Nile.  Thank you so much to everyone who has brought in amazing Egyptian souvenirs and artifacts.

This week is Anti-Bullying week so we learned to tell the important difference between bullying amd one-off arguments or accidentally hurting someone.  We know that bullying is repeated hurtful behaviour which is repeated over time and we know what action to take if we feel someone is bullying us.

This week has been a busy week as it is also Book Fair week and we’ve had a great time looking at all the books which are available.  Please remember to send in money and form if you wish to order a book for your child.

And lastly, don’t forget to give your hair an extra special brushing this Friday 19th  as the photographer is in school!

As always, if you have concerns at any time regarding your child please don’t hesitate to contact either of us.

Maria Kemp/Alison Gordon

 

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