Are you looking for some quick winter writing ideas?
If so, take a look at these links. There may be something that you could use with your class.
We’re Going on a Bear Baby Hunt Early to First Level
A Christmas Adventure First Level
Do you Want to Build a Snowman? First Level to Second Level
Journey for Survival First to Second Level
Are you working with children and young people who have English as an additional language and would like to know more about how you can support them?
Why not come along to this session which will be run by the EAL support team on the 21st November in Inverness High School. We will cover how to use key translation tools which are accessible to pupils on their Chromebooks. To join this session, please register to secure a place through the CPD calendar.
Target Group – Upper Primary & Secondary PSAs, ASNTs and Class Teachers
Maximum Participants – 30
Sectors – Upper Primary & Secondary
Cutoff date for signing up – 21/11/23
Subject – Literacy
Date: Tuesday 28th November, 4-5.30pm
Venue: Inverness High School (You must sign up through CPD calendar before attending)
HGIOS – 2.3 – Learning, teaching and assessment
HGIOS – 3.2 – Raising attainment and achievement
Aim – To upskill staff in digital translation tools to then support EAL pupils.
Content – During this training we will cover how to use key translation tools which are accessible to pupils on their Chromebooks such as Google Translate, Read & Write and OrbitNote. There will be opportunities to practise using these tools during the session.
Notes: If possible, could attendees bring a Highland Council laptop or Chromebook to the training. Tea and coffee will be available.
Literacy for All Day Two – Full day training
On Monday 30th October and Tuesday 31st October, there will be a whole day of training in Literacy for All for those working in primary schools. This session is designed for people who have attended Day One or Twilight Sessions One and Two.
On Wednesday 1st November, there will be a whole day training in Literacy for All for those working in secondary schools.
During this session, we will do a brief recap of the assessment process for identifying dyslexia, but will focus on assessments and interventions to aid targeted learning and teaching. There will be time to discuss individual children and to try to tease out what might be holding them back and how to help move them forward in their learning.
If you are able to join us, please let jenny Wilson know at Jenny.wilson@highland.gov.uk.
The code for the training is: https://meet.google.com/czr-xqsg-xip
Training Sessions available
Wednesday 6th December 2023 15:45 to 17:00
Wednesday 7th February 2024 15:45 to 17:00
Encouraging reading for pleasure in your school is an important way to drive improvement. There is strong evidence linking reading and educational outcomes, as well as other benefits such as positive impacts on well-being. Reading can be a great strategy for recovery and is a proven way of reducing stress, as well as encouraging creativity across the curriculum. Creating a reading culture is a key way of reaping these benefits for you and your pupils.
Join Scottish Book Trust at a session on how to take the first steps towards building a reading culture in your setting and the importance of reading for pleasure. Find out about the theory behind reading for pleasure, how to start your reading journey and hear about the resources and programmes at Scottish Book Trust which will support you, including an introduction to our ‘Reading Schools’ accreditation programme. We will be joined by a guest presenter from Lybster Primary School who are a Silver Level Reading School, to share with you their enthusiasm for and experience of their reading journey with Scottish Book Trust.
Training will be offered twice.
The first will be on Wednesday 6th December 2023 16:00 t0 17:00
The second will be on Wednesday 7th February 2024 16:00 to 17:00
Please sign up through the CPD calendar.
The code to join the session is: https://meet.google.com/czr-xqsg-xip
If you are looking for a Halloween story to write, look at these two story-journey ideas.
The first story is for children in Primary Two to Four, although Primary Ones could take part in the oral telling and retelling of the rhymes and stories. This one starts with the nursery rhyme, Two Little Blue Birds and innovates it into Halloween characters as well as moving from poetry to prose and then into non-fiction.
The second one is aimed at children in Primary Four to Primary Seven. The pack contains two pictures, a model story, and a story journey, but many stories could be written through these pictures.
https://highlandliteracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/halloween-two-pictures-many-stories.docx
Spark ideas and watch creativity bloom with our free poetry resources.
Featuring great poems around this year’s theme, Refuge, our free resources are full of ways to get students reading, discussing, performing, and writing – no matter their confidence level.
They’re ready to go as worksheets, or you can use them as prompts and thought starters for your class activities.
They’re designed by cross-curriculum experts to be used in all sorts of subject lessons, with materials available all the way from KS1 to KS5.
By engaging your classes with poetry, you’ll give them their own refuge to express themselves and think about the world around them differently.
Here’s where you can find:
Happy National Poetry Day everybody!
Cryptic words!
Down in the dark crypt, there was an encrypted, cryptic message . This sentence shows an example of polyptoton. Polyptoton, is a rhetorical repetition within the same sentence of a word in a different case, inflection, or voice or of etymologically related words in different parts of speech. It can be fun to think of sentences that use polyptoton, and a great way of understanding how words change as we use them in different ways.
The words crypt, cryptic and encrypt, all contain the morpheme crypt which means hidden or secret.
We are going to look at two commonly confused spellings – crypt and script.
As children develop an awareness of words and the units of meaning within words, it is good to give them then chance to explore related words and their literal or metaphorical meanings.
If you wish to try this out with your class, you can use this information sheet.
You can use this in conjunction with the independent group work programme, Pick and Mix, or you may wish to work through the accompanying sheet with your whole class.
Working this way, not only links meaning to spelling patterns, but it also helps readers to understand words that are new to them.
The online resources for this year’s P1 Family Bags are now available on our webpage: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading-and-stories/the-bookbug-primary-1-family-bag.
There’s a preview of what is inside the bags, a gifting guide, learning resources and more to come. Please share this webpage with teachers and families so that they can begin preparing additional activities and gifting sessions.
Read, Write, Count Bags
Primary Two
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/read-write-count-for-p2
Primary Three
https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/read-write-count-for-p3
Phonological Awareness Assessment
Many schools will now have used the Phonological Awareness Assessment to Screen their Primary One classes. Others may have delayed screening for a number of reasons and might have questions around using it.
Our first Emerging Literacy Network of this session will take place on Thursday 28th Of September from 15:45 to 17:00. The code to access it is:
https://meet.google.com/czr-xqsg-xip
You are welcome to come along to share your reflections on how the assessments went with other teachers in Highland Council. We will also share and explore ways in which we can help to support and provide opportunities to develop and strengthen areas of Phonological Awareness. Networks are a great way to share good practice, so come along with your questions and ideas.
You can post your reflections and pose questions using this Jamboard.
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1xm_-GugF82ri665d5mtuSbmQCqU-TZon2ppLYjKr-0Y/edit?usp=sharing
Geography
Geography is a subject that we use almost every day of our lives. Whenever we plan a holiday or even think about how to get to a new place in our town, we are using geography. Whenever we look for a weather report, we are using geography. Whenever we look at the landscape around us: trees, rivers, mountains, cities, we are using geography. We often use words without knowing what they really mean. This week we are looking at the word Geography and the meaning of the different morphemes in it.
As children develop an awareness of words and the units of meaning within words, it is good to give them then chance to explore related words and their literal or metaphorical meanings.
If you wish to try this out with your class, you can use this information sheet.
You can use this in conjunction with the independent group work programme, Pick and Mix, or you may wish to work through the accompanying sheet with your whole class.
Working this way, not only links meaning to spelling patterns, but it also helps readers to understand words that are new to them.
HIGHLAND LITERACY 