September in Primary Two ‘Dear Zoo’ Our first topic this year is based on the book ‘Dear Zoo’. The zoo keeps sending us unsuitable pets and they have to be returned until eventually they send a lovely puppy. We will be finding out about different kinds of animals and sorting them into pets and zoo animals. We will learn how to look after a selection of pets and even open our own pet shop in class! ‘Pets At Home’ are visiting P2 on Tuesday 15th September. The children will be able to hold some animals and find out what they like to eat, when they sleep and where they live. We will also find out what it is like to be a vet and create a vet surgery in our classroom. Many of our Literacy and Numeracy and play activities will be based around our topic. Look out on our P2 section of the school website for photographs of all the fun we have. If you have any photos of your child with a pet, we can add them to our display. Literacy Many of our literacy activities in September will be revising concepts taught in P1 so that the children feel confident when starting new skills and concepts. We will be learning to: -use the correct formation of all letters consistently -use a consistent size of writing -clap the number of syllables in words -find pairs of rhyming words -identify the first, middle and final sounds in three and then four letter words -spell three letter words independently such as cat, pin -read key words taught in P1 and begin to learn others -blend sounds together to identify an unknown word -distinguish between confusing pairs of letters such as b,d and p,q -writing a poem of their own creation called ‘Dear Zoo’ -writing instructions on how to look after a pet -sharing their experiences of pets and zoo animals -acting out the roles of a vet and pet shop owner and customer. Learning At Home We will begin sending home your child’s homework pack next week. Similar to P1, new activities will be sent home on Fridays. Please return the pack completed on Thursdays. It takes a lot of time and work to create these and we need the folders back on Thursday mornings to include everything you will need. Always write in the comment box, letting us know how you and your child found the activities and let us know about any difficulties so we can help. Things to remember P.E is on Mondays and Thursdays New Homework pack goes home on each Friday. Return on each Thursday with comments please! Library books are collected on Thursdays Numeracy We will begin by revisiting numeracy skills taught in P1 and working with Numicon. Numicon has been shown to greatly improve children’s understanding and confidence using numbers. We will be sending you some information about Numicon in our homework pack and you will have the opportunity to use it with your child at home. The main skills taught this month: -counting accurately and estimating amounts to 20 -counting out pennies and pound coins in our pet shop -writing numbers correctly to 10 and then 20 -sequencing numbers to 10 and then 20 Adding amounts within ten using Numicon and then mentally and knowing how to record this using + and = -measuring capacity in cups/scoopfuls to ‘feed’ pets