Pupils at this stage are now well acquainted with the routines of school and have usually lost any initial apprehension or uncertainty. They are more confident in moving around the school. They can work at their mathematics and workbook assignments with increasing concentration and are more independent. However, they are still quite immature, often needing short periods of activity at certain times of the day to learn more informally. The interest of an adult is extremely
important for them too, and they benefit greatly from individual attention either at home or in school.
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To encourage the children to participate and co-operate in class and group activities - to listen attentively to a story, to sing, to take part in action rhymes, to share and look after classroom materials, to concentrate and take part in group discussion |
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To encourage the child to lengthen their concentration span in working at mathematics, phonics and writing assignments, to develop interest in books and to achieve better detail in their drawing, painting, model making etc. |
At this stage, parents and teachers continue to play a strong supportive role for children as individuals, helping them to do things for themselves, giving them a sense of responsibility and a feeling of accomplishment.
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Please label all clothing and possessions |
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Provide gym shoes or trainers for use in hall and class |
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Check school bag each day |
The school uses the term ‘Language Development’ to describe the complex processes whereby children learn to understand the spoken word, to express themselves orally and to read and write effectively.
At this stage the child is building up a range of words and expressions he/she hears from everyday contexts and conversations. These provide the essential foundation for later reading and writing development. The school seeks to offer a range of ‘language experiences’ - stories, poems, songs, centres of interest, classroom discussion to introduce to pupils a rich diet of vocabulary. Many of the words and expressions are put up on classroom displays so that children’s reading vocabulary is enhanced.
Parents have a natural role in complementing this process by talking and listening to their children, by reading stories to them and by explaining things of interest to them .
According to their age and maturity, children will have taken the first steps in reading. At the Primary 2 stage, we wish to consolidate and develop this progress though the reading scheme and widen out the place of reading in the curriculum to include workcards and sheets and a more extensive use of other reading schemes, supplementary storybooks, music and poetry.
The reading scheme is the anchor of the strategy providing a steady ascending structure of reading progress. The reading time at school includes word recognition activities, phonic work, discussion of the stories, where possible, as well as children reading individually.
At this age, reading should be fun, and approached through stories, with the aim of helping a child read a storybook by himself or herself.
Parents are encouraged to participate in helping with reading. They can read the book to the child, discuss the pictures and story and then encourage the child to read, prompting if required, and giving lots of praise. The word lists are useful for introducing and reinforcing word recognition.
Children will still enjoy listening to stories read by parents and this is a valuable experience for them in building up their understanding of vocabulary and taking an interest in books. It may be possible for children to try reading, with parent support, some easy library books if these are at a suitable level.
A comprehensive phonics course is used to revise the sounds of letters and to look at the sounds of combinations of letters e.g. "ch" , "oo", etc. Children are now beginning to use the letters of a word to ‘sound it out’..
The correct formation of letters is stressed and the class will receive practice in joining letters later in the session. The teacher will focus on words with similar letter patterns for this handwriting and spelling practice.. The letters g, j and y will be taught with loops below the line to join on to following letters. This work will improve the flow and rhythm of the child’s writing and pupils will begin to develop a joined writing style. The letters now are:
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Pupils are also encouraged to keep their own word book in which they collect the spellings of words which they wish to use in their own writing.
The class receive introductory lessons and exercises on the alphabet, writing in sentences, capital letters and full stops.
Parents should help their child by encouraging the correct formation of the letters at home when the child is writing. The sounds of the letters can be consolidated by sound games like "I spy".
The Look Cover Write Check method is introduced for learning spellings. The parent shows the correct spelling to the child, the child LOOKS at this. The spelling is COVERed and the child then tries to WRITE it . The child CHECKS the spelling.
At this stage, children still find it easier to express themselves through a drawing or painting. The pupils will now begin to write their own stories with varying degrees of support from the teacher. In many cases the teacher will continue to ‘scribe’ the child’s comments below the picture as an intermediate aid to writing. As children become comfortable with letter formation and aware of the spelling of words, writing takes off in a substantial way. The children’s personal word books become their aids for writing.
Parents can help children in their writing by discussing their child’s drawings and and simple sentences. It may still be useful for parents to scribe sentences for the child to look at, and copy. New words can be written into wordbooks for use in sentences.
The school uses the Scottish Primary Mathematics Group material published by Heinemann - Stage 2. This material is supplemented by material from other
mathematics schemes and computer software.
The accent is on strong conceptual development of mathematical ideas through the use by the children of practical materials - counters, cubes, toy money, shapes etc.
The course is covered by the use of the teacher’s guide which provides introductory activities for new concepts and ideas. The children go on to use worksheets, cards and a set of pupil workbooks. The course covers :
Graph work - collecting, organising, displaying and interpreting information by pictures and simple diagrams.
Work with numbers up to 20; add and subtract to 20; using 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p coins
Measurement
Length, weight, area and volume activities
Time
Days of the week, seasons, telling the time in hours
Patterns and Sequences
Simple patterns and sequences of numbers and shapes
Recognition of shapes, making pictures with shapes
Where possible the teacher tries to extend the pupil beyond the work given in this course.
A little mathematics homework will be given at this stage. Parents can help children with counting - using blocks, counters etc. and supervise the correct formation of numbers. Simple additions can be carried out using everyday objects. How many spoons do we need ? etc. Construction toys, lego, etc are good for developing spacial awareness.
A wide range of learning activities are available in the classroom for the children to choose from e.g. jigsaws, construction toys, sand, plasticene, listening centre, computer, library corner etc. These offer informal play activities, reinforce hand-eye co-ordination, visual, auditory and tactile perception, language and mathematical development, and also encourage children to work co-operatively and independently.
It is important that all children experience the full range of play activities within the classroom e.g computer, play house, construction toys etc.
Almost every day the children will get some kind of learning experience through a centre of interest. This may be introduced by a story, a television or radio programme, a visit or visitor, a picture etc. The aim is to provide an interesting context for children’s language experience to be broadened.
Topic studies in Environmental Studies usually last several weeks and provide the vehicle for concepts in Health, Science, Nature Study, History and Geography to be introduced - at an appropriate level for these children.
Some examples of topics are : "People who Help us", "Winter"
Religious and Moral Education is approached in a similar way, often by the sharing of a story or discussion of a poster. The weekly infant assemblies
complement the classroom work when the infants come together to sing, and listen to and reflect upon a story or topic with a Christian or moral theme.
The natural discussion of a child’s interests at home with parents will contribute to their understanding of their place in the world and the concepts and beliefs which are important to their family.
The children are regularly encouraged to sing and play percussion in the classroom using recorded radio programmes and cassettes. Singing is an important feature of the school assemblies. The visiting music specialist and the class teachers also provide opportunities for singing.
A time is given each week for P.E. during which the pupils learn game and gymnastic skills. The radio programme "Let’s Move" is used for expressive movement to music.
Children receive opportunities in their classroom for a wide variety of art & craft activities e.g. drawing, painting, plasticene, collage, printing ....
Home reading should be ideally supported by parents each weekday night. A little written homework on phonics, letter formation and/or mathematics will be given weekly. A simple homework routine is useful to establish to achieve concentration and neat, well presented work in pencil. Parents are encouraged to support their child within the guidance offered in this pamphlet.