Tag Archives: Reading

Calderwood Book Fair

March 30, 2016 Gayle Santi

Last week, Primary 7 helped to host Calderwood’s annual Book Fair.

Every day, some Primary 7 pupils would help to sell books to each of the younger stages.

On the first day, the book fair was packed! We were very happy to see lots of children thrilled about getting and reading new books.

Personally, I found it quite enjoyable to sell the books while my other friends were helping out as well.

On Parent’s Evening, a few primary 7’s volunteered to help out at the book fair so that any pupils that were there with their parents, still had the chance to buy some books.

As time went by, we realised that we had sold lots of books and plenty of stationary. Mr Robson was extremely happy that the younger pupils were enthusiastic about the Fair again.

Mr Robson and all of Primary 7 were incredibly amazed that we were able to raise over £500! We were delighted.

Vaneeza Ali

Literacy and English, Technologies

Class Kindles

January 22, 2016 Gayle Santi

In Primary 7, we have been introduced to kindles, that we are reading our class novel on. We have all been taught how to use them properly and get the most out of them.

Our class think that the kindles are a new great way to read because some people prefer reading on a kindle because it is easier to find out what a word means when you aren’t familiar with it. All you need to do is select it, and it tells you what that means. We can also change the font size and the way the writing sits. This allows us to enjoy the reading a bit more.

Some of my classmates have told me a few of their opinions on the kindles,

“I think the kindles are a more fun way of reading.”
Lilah Cowan

“The kindles are much lighter than a book to carry around”.
Amy Quigley

I also think that the kindles are great because when we use them, we have the responsibility of looking after them and this responsibility helps prepare us for our future.

By Susie Tenby

Class Trip, Health and Wellbeing, Latest News, Literacy and English, Religious and Moral Education

Mitzvah Day

November 26, 2015 Gayle Santi

On Thursday 26^th November, the Primary 7 class visited the People’s Palace, as part of our World War Two topic. Once we had finished with our workshops and had lunch, we drove over to Westacres Care Home as part of our Mitzvah Day activity.

The Primary 1 class had all made lovely Chanukah cards as part of their Mitzvah Day activities. Since they are all a little young to visit Westacres, we took the cards and delivered them all for them. When we arrived, we sang a number of Chanukah songs for the residents and Lilah and Maddie played a Chanukah song on their violins. We also brought our writing jotters along with us to read them stories that we had written at school. By the looks of it, some of the men and women fantastically enjoyed them!

At the end, we sang once again because they had enjoyed it so much first time round. We sang a few Chanukah songs such as Ner Li, Maoz Tzur, and Sevivon. They all gave us a massive clap at the end. Some also said that we were amazing!

To end off our visit we decided to sing Bim Bom because everyone loves that song! We said goodbye to the elderly people and they us to come visit us again soon! I think we did a great mitzvah by visiting the elderly people and hopefully we can do it more often through the year and not wait a whole year for Mitzvah Day again.

Vaneeza Ali

Class Trip, Literacy and English

Edinburgh Book Festival

September 11, 2015 Gayle Santi

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2015

In August, Primary Three, Five and Seven were lucky enough to visit the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The book festival is now a key event in the Edinburgh festival season, celebrated annually in Scotland’s capital city.

Each year writers and illustrators from all over the world come to the book festival and incorporate amazing workshops for schools and visitors.

This year Primary Seven met Nick Sharratt and Vivian French. We were even lucky enough to be able to work with the two of them in an extremely detailed and enjoyable workshop. They helped us to learn new skills that would help us all to improve our illustrating and writing. We learned about the start of Nick Sharratt’s career and the fact that he drew a market square at the age of nine and took it into school to show to his teacher and she thought it was good enough to be put up in the school hall! That was the day he became determined to, one day, become a professional artist.

After we had completed our workshop we continued to explore the book festival and discovered the bookshop. Most of the class had brought money to buy a book. We were fortunate enough to be given a discount voucher for three pounds off the price of any book of our choice.

At the festival there were ‘book doctors’. These were people that gave advice on books and helped you make the right choice before buying one or even a series of books. Not everyone used the book doctors which is understandable because some people prefer to choose books themselves. I used the book doctor and found them really helpful.

Before we headed home, the last thing we did was spend time walking around taking pictures and meeting actors and actresses who were playing a variety of characters from all sorts of books. They were extremely good at playing their chosen roles.

Overall, everyone enjoyed the day and I hope that we can go back again, if not as a class, I will definitely go back with friends some day.

By Madeline Friel

Primary Seven