Miss Watt

The Bens IDL Showcase

It was that time of the term again for P7!

When they came together to show off all the work and learning they have been doing during their IDL projects!

This term, we used Mural to collaborate and find out our areas of interest. We then tried to group them together to come up with an over arching topic. This term it was: Global Conflict.

See our work and planning here.

We spent 6 weeks learning about the following sub-topics:

World Leaders

Global Politics and Governments

Human Rights

Wars Throughout History

How the Media talks about conflict

To Assess, we created a Rubric together, so we knew what we had to do to be successful:

Last Thursday, the big event happened and we invited Primary 4-6 clans to the Discovery Den to see what we had achieved. Here is some of our feedback:

“For each and everyone I really liked how much time you put into this and how much you knew and I can’t believe how much is happening in our lives and I can’t believe it is true. I can’t wait until the next showcase.” – Harlen

“It was amazingly awesome” – Rory

“I really liked the science parts that you put in and you knew so much and I can’t wait to ask my brother more at home!” – Amel

“I loved the torture game, I tortured Yuvi!” – Lewis

“I really liked it because there was so many details – like Arabic. In the torture game I liked how there was pictures” – Sara

“I loved the food!” – Kira W

“I loved the food and how much effort you put into making it” – Poppy

“I loved the Kahoot because we bet Mrs McGarvey” – Beni

“I loved the food and I liked the science experiment” – Rachel

“I loved the Kahoot!!!” – Yuvi

“I loved the wordsearch, it was easy” – Jed

“I loved how much effort you put in and the food. I loved that you had all the world leaders!” – James

“I loved it all and the food was so tasty” – Anav

See for yourself just how fab it was!:

Ben Lomond Camp!

Ben Lomond have created their own sway which reflects their own experiences of the camp.

They hope you enjoy looking through their work 🙂

Go to this Sway

Easter Holiday Social Story

Happy Easter everyone! Please find a social story regarding holidays 🙂

See you soon!

Easter Holidays Social Story

Oceans IDL

At Calderwood, our pupils get autonomy over what they want to learn. We try to ensure we listen and follow along with what they find interesting.

Through This Mural (click to see what we said at our last pupil planning meeting)

We decided we would learn about Oceans. Through our planning meeting, we looked at different sub-topics and thought about what we already knew and what we wanted to find out more about:

This week, we looked at where the worlds ocean were and used Google Earth to locate, name and label different Ocean Areas and seas. Mural allows us to work collaboratively on the same document. We used technology, map skills and research skills to complete our geography challenge.

We also found out that the river closest to Calderwood is the River Almond and it runs into the North Atlantic Ocean.

We think we did a great job at our first attempt – what do you think? Spot any mistakes?

We are looking forward to exploring more about ore world’s ocean as we move forward through the term.

The Ben’s IDL Showcase

Last week, the Ben’s took over the Discovery Den area.

They has been working on their IDL topic ‘Ancient Civilisations’ and had so much amazing work, they wanted to show it off and plan a school event. Here is what they had to say:

In 4 main groups, we chose our Civilisation of interest: Ancient Romans, Ancient Egyptians, the Aztecs and the Vikings.

We organised ourselves into sub-topics and worked for 5 weeks researching, learning, discussing, planning and creating beautiful, amazing pieces of work that demonstrated what we learned from our research.

We set wrote poems and stories, collected data, made PPT’s, cooked food, conducted science experiments, created art pieces, performed drama pieces and made videos.

We used our teamwork skills to work together to build a picture of what we discovered.

They invited members of staff and other clans around and presented beautifully and confidently, the learning and knowledge they had on their chosen topic. Well done Bens!

Ben Lomond Residential – Lockerbie Kitlist

Ben Lomond are preparing for our first ever residential trip!

As you know, we are going to Lockerbie Manor on 1st-3rd March.

Please click the link below to view the suggested kitlist of essential items your child will need to pack, as well as some useful notes about optional items and which items will not be allowed.

Lockerbie Kitlist – Ben Lomond 2023

A paper copy has already went home with your child after having a thorough discussion about everything in class. If you still have any questions or queries please let us know.

Please note – we understand there could be costs incurred from potentially buying new items. If you have any concerns about this please reach out for support, we are happy to help.

We would also like to invite you along to an online information session about the residential, the information is below. If you are unable to attend, we will share the presentation on the blog.

01/02/23 – 6pm

P7 Residential Information Session: Teams

Microsoft Teams meeting Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting Meeting ID: 340 806 909 89 Passcode: NvXp3r

*changed date

Thank you!

Ben Lomond’s Christmas Festivities

The Bens have been incredibly busy with our festive celebrations!

We spent the afternoon making Christmas crafts for our friends and family: we made woolly hats, cards, jewellery, coasters and tiles.

We made our own ‘Aztec’ hot chocolate as part of our IDL topic on Ancient Civilisations. It was pure 100% dark chocolate powder with no sugar or milk. Most of us thought it was ‘bitter’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘terrible’, however a few people thought it was ‘amazing!’

We also celebrated our Christmas lunch together – the food was yummy and we were also amazing helpers – helping to serve the younger pupils!

We also enjoyed our Christmas party for which we planned the games, activities and playlist! We had a best dancer competition, best singer competition, hula hoop pass-the-parcel, corners, musical chairs and of course… party food!!

Our Christmas Around the World play was also one on Ben Lomond’s highlights! We chose the topic, wrote the script, designed the set, costumes and chose our song. It was directed and lead by the pupils and was a huge success – check out our vid here! https://sway.office.com/gm4BEjrfvmuvnQBw?ref=Link

It’s been an incredible year and we thank you for all your continued support.

Next term will be VERY exciting as we begin to think about leaving our Calderwood P7 Legacy behind.

For now, relax & enjoy the break!

Ben Lomond & Mrs McGarvey 🙂

Rich Thinking in Ben Lomond

In Ben Lomond, we have been taking part in ‘rich thinking tasks’.

Researched & developed by Peter Liljedahl, in his book ‘Building Thinking Classrooms, ‘Rich Tasks’ are what help us develop thinking, focus, collaboration and problem solving skills.

We have been asking our own questions and working together to answer them. Click on our working Mural to see what we have been investigating: https://app.mural.co/t/p5674878/m/p5674878/1668019801710/a4710e942591b6376ed5ad757ed9507c33a79ff9?sender=u02dad2b8e3b96ab9b15d6187

We have been exploring measure, shape, perimeter and area to answer questions about our own school and playground. We self-direct ourselves by choosing which part of the task to work on, whilst communicating our finding with the rest of the class and contributing to the overall research.

We’re also enjoying using vertical wall spaces for workings!

Ben Lomond’s Fundraising Day

Ben Lomond have been working incredibly hard over the last few weeks to plan their fundraising event to raise money for their P7 jumpers.

They have taken full responsibility to plan, decision make, calculate costs

and delegate tasks to ensure everything has been covered.

In their own words, here is what they have been up to:

Jude, Aiden & Matthew have been in charge or the games section out in the field. We created a timetable for each class, decided what games the children most wanted to play and picked spaces for them all. We also helped make signs and poster advertisements for the day.

Rosie and Amy have been in charge of Soake the p7 it when you throw a sponge at a P7 it can be any of the P7s or some teachers. It’s £1 per throw. We had to do market research and source buckets and sponges from the parent council.

Tyler and Zack have been in charge of the Brick-a-Brack stall for the fundraiser. Some of the things that people have brought in are teddy bears, action figures and books. we are very happy with the amount of stuff that has been donated, thank you for bringing things in

Saskia and Jack are in charge of the baking and selling. We have been going around classes to ask what allergies students have. As well as finding the students favourite desserts. We will be following popular demand by selling chocolate cake, cookies, etc. We have booked the stem room for 2 days prior to the date September 30th to bake. Our favourite part was the market research, where we asked students about their allergies. However, we still need to bake the food, I think we’ll have a good time doing so.

Georgie & Elle: We are in charge of the staff car wash. We needed to write loads of emails, checked where we could do it, decide on price, get some of the teachers registration plate, make a register and make signs. We both really enjoyed organising and planning the car wash.

Lacey, Sanaya & Lexi: We are doing an arts and craft stall and it will have, Bookmarks, twinkle pictures and a white board task. this stall all for free so everyone can join in. so far we have done some market research, we made a sign and got a list of materials. Thank you for reading this.

I’m sure the day will go down brilliantly, it has been amazing to watch them take ownership of the project.

7 days to go!

STEM in The Bens

STEM is a huge part of who we are at Calderwood.

Recently, the Bens have been exploring the area of chemistry and chemical reactions.

We started by giving the pupils the chance to experience first hand a basic chemical reaction – water, oil and an effervescent tablet! – They were given the instructions but no adult support to carry it out.

This encouraged independent and collaborative learning & problem solving skills.

Next, we watched and observed the magic that took place! The comments, questions and curiosity from them was fantastic.

-“why is mine fizzing so much?”

-“why does the oil sit on top of the water?”

-What makes it do that?”

With our curiosity activated, we learned all about the chemical reaction & creation of carbon dioxide.

The following week, we conducted a fair test and began to explore how scientists set up testing by ensuring variables & conditions were all the same, only making one change at a time.

Children worked amazingly together to investigate their own scientific enquiry questions such as:

“what happens to the amount of fizz if I change the amount of tablets?”

“what happens to the oil bubbles if I use milk instead of water?”- (warning, it smelled awful!)

“what happens to the amount of fizzing time if I use less water?”

Well done, Bens – it was fantastic to watch you experience the wonders of STEM on your own.