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St. Colmcille's Primary School
and Learning Support Centres

Literacy

πŸ“š National Storytelling Week πŸ“š

During National Storytelling week we focused on a book that would also link with the theme of mental health week ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself.’ The children enjoyed participating in a guided reading session of Perfectly Norman. The book tells the story of Norman, a boy who was perfectly ‘normal’ until one day he grew a pair of wings. Norman feels the safest plan is to cover his wings with a big coat. But hiding the thing that makes you different proves tricky and upsetting. The children explored how Normans feelings changed when he tried to conceal his wings and then how he felt when he revealed them. They then created their own unique set of wings. 

Literacy Writing - Explanation Writing - Familiarisation

In our recent lessons on explanation writing, pupils delved into a variety of texts to uncover the elements of an explanation text. The lesson began with a shared reading session where everyone engaged with the explanations, sparking lively discussions on their common features. The pupils pointed out key elements like the title, illustrations, and factual information, all written in the present tense. To conclude the lesson, we held an interactive walking vote where each pupil circulated the room to chose their favourite explanation. It was a brilliant way for the pupils to express their preferences while reinforcing their understanding of the genre!

Independent Writing - My Happiest Memory

In our recent writing session, pupils had the chance to engage in independent writing by first drawing a picture of their happiest memory. This illustration served as a fantastic stimulus for their creativity. As they drafted their work, they referred to a recount writing checklist to ensure they included all the necessary elements. Using the past tense, the pupils effectively employed time connectives and enriched their writing with relevant details, making their recounts come alive. It was heartening to see their individual voices shining through as they wrote with such enthusiasm and reflection.

Using Speech Marks! “πŸ—£οΈ”

The children had spent time exploring the idea of dialogue when they watched the video ‘The Bridge’ from The Literacy shed. This video told the story of four animals who quickly found themselves embroiled in an argument about who should cross the bridge. The story did not contain any words and the children first thought about what the characters might be saying. They then went on to develop their awareness and use of speech marks through a variety of practical activities.

 

- Correct the missing punctuation on the IWB.

- Use macaroni pasta as speech marks and insert into sentences.

- Sort sentences containing speech marks into correct and incorrect.

- Create their own dialogues for characters and animals.

πŸ“ ✨ Comma’s in a List! βœ¨πŸ“

The children have been learning about the use of comma’s in a sentence. They searched for them in their reading books and recognise that they are there to provide a short pause. The children worked on how to use comma’s when writing a list. Some of the activities the children carried out included,

 

- writing words on whiteboards to create a sentence and then inserting the comma’s.

- Using macaroni pasta and adding it to a sentence strip.

- Working with a partner to choose the correctly punctuated sentences on cards.

- Creating a shopping list and writing it as a sentence with comma’s.

- Writing a thank you letter to Santa and listing our favourite gifts.

Recount Writing: Problem Solving

 

In our latest writing activity, pupils had the chance to enhance their recount skills by engaging with a variety of cards that were linked to the key elements of ‘who, what, where, when’. They embraced the task of sorting the cards into the correct categories. Once they had organised the cards, each group was encouraged to create a title for each category. The pupils then used the cards to construct a recount sentence. For example, one pupil crafted, "The boy jogged in the forest on Saturday." After writing their sentences, they took the time to read aloud and check for accuracy, making sure to use capital letters, full stops, and correct spelling. This process solidified their understanding of sentence structure and detail in recount writing.

Christmas Themed Literacy

✨Past Tense Verbs✨

 

The children have been preparing for their end of term recount writing task by practising how to change verbs in a sentence.
 

To begin with they searched for verbs in their vipers text ‘How to Hide a Lion’. They decided whether these were written in the past or present tense.
 

Then the children worked on adding -ed to a variety of regular past tense verbs and also thought about how some irregular verbs would change. They played lots of interactive matching verb games on the interactive whiteboard, searched for verbs in their reading books to change to past tense, matched verb cards, sorted verbs into past and present and completed sentence strips with the correct verbs. 

✨ Phonics ✨

 

Each week P3A are engaging in lots of wonderful practise of their new sound, their spellings lists and are continually revising their knowledge of previous sounds. Some of the fun activities they have been participating in include:

  • Race to the sound.
  • Race to build a target word.
  • Splat the correct sound.
  • Number the letters to build a word.
  • Woolly Words.
  • Build words using magazine cut outs. 

A favourite activity this week involved the children competing against each other in pairs. One pair tried to throw a Pom Pom into a cup. The other pair had to decode and read the word aloud. If the throwers could correctly spell the word they took the point. πŸ˜ƒ

πŸ“š High Frequency Words πŸ“š

 

The children practised their knowledge of high frequency words while engaged in fun activities. They played the game ‘Sighties’ on the iPad which allowed them to hear a target word said aloud. They then had to match it to the correct word on a T-shirt. As it was Halloween they wrote their HFW’s as ghost words using white crayons and revealing them with highlighters. We also wrote the words on the LCD pads and with play dough stampers. 

🍁 Nouns Hunt 🍁

 

We have been learning about sentence structure and the types of words that make up a sentence. The children went on a common nouns hunt around the school looking for nouns in the categories of person, place or thing. They then added some of their own ideas. As places like the ‘Rainbow Garden’ were visited we discussed how nouns with specific names were called proper nouns. We will be working on expanding our noun phrases in the coming weeks to improve our sentence writing. 

Guided Writing - Instructions 

P3A enjoyed participating in a guided writing lesson focused on making a Halloween themed treat. First Mrs Flanagan shared an image of a Halloween treat (mummy themed biscuit) on the Interactive Whiteboard. The class then worked in pairs to predict how to make the Halloween treat. Each pair recorded their ideas into the following sections: title, ingredients, equipment and steps. The girls and boys then worked in small groups to make the Halloween treat. The next day the pupils wrote their version of the instructions for making the treat.

🎩 The Black Hat 🎩

 

In Literacy we explored a new short film called ‘The Black Hat’ which tells the story of an orphaned boy who finds a mysterious black hat in the forest. Beautiful birds and creatures that emerge from the hat are kept by the boy before he comes to realise that he must set the creatures free. The children were so engaged in this film and it generated lots of discussion and debate. To develop literacy skills we used words found in the film and grouped these into nouns, verbs and adjectives. The children also generated their own words to add to our working wall. We will begin to explore each of these types of words further in the coming weeks. 

πŸ”‘ Letter Recognition and Alphabetical ordering πŸ” 

 

The children spent lots of time securing their knowledge of which lowercase letter corresponds with the uppercase letter through a variety of practical activities. They then spent time ordering these letters alphabetically. Once they had a clear knowledge of their letters we began to put word cards in alphabetical order, order a random set of plastic letters and play games on the interactive whiteboard to really challenge ourselves. 

Practise of target sounds!

 

The children enjoyed using digital tools to carry out practise of their skills in segmenting and blending words containing their target sounds this week. Some of the children worked in pairs and used the Pic Edu App to create posters of words containing the digraph ‘ar’. While another group of children enjoyed using the Blu Bots; programming it to move to the correct squares needed to build target words. πŸ–²οΈπŸ“±

Shared Writing - Instructions 

P3A enjoyed participating in a shared writing lesson focused on making Top Hat buns. Mrs Flanagan shared a range of ingredients and equipment with the class. The children worked in small groups to create written lists of the items. Next, the children worked alongside Mrs Flanagan to make Top Hats buns. First we melted the chocolate, next we added melted chocolate to a bun case and placed a marshmallow on top. After that we added a smartie to the top of the marshmallow. Once we had finished making the buns we left them to set for 1 hour. We had a great time making the Top Hat buns and an even better time eating them! They were delicious! P3A are fantastic chefs! The next day Mrs Flanagan led the children through a shared writing process to create a set of written instructions for the recipe of Top Hats.