Sumdog Contest: Maths Week Scotland
Category: Calderwood Counts
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!
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!
Thistle Maths Week Scotland 30.9.22
This week we have been enjoying Maths Week Scotland. We have been hearing number through stories and then using the number concepts to help us better understand challenges in our own learning. For example, we read “A Million Dots” by Andrew Clements and then challenged ourselves by trying to do our own million dot wall, number ordering to a million and finding the craziest facts around one million. Some pupils enjoyed finding the roman numerals and others tried to work out what could be bought for £1,000,000.
We loved celebrating Calderwood Primary’s first birthday on Tuesday with a conga and a silent disco.
We have been working really hard on a research project on 3D shapes. Pupils have been using the assignment on teams to work to a criteria and then find a new and creative to share their learning. We are really excited to see what they come up with!
In STEM we have been exploring the respiratory system and investigating how our organs all work together.
We have been continuing to work on our Calderwood Cranium Consultants project, this week we have been using oil pastels to create artwork of neurons.
In PE we have enjoyed testing our stamina and balance and have been comparing our skills now to what we could do at the beginning of term.
SUMDOG – Calderwood Counts
Maths Week Scotland is just around the corner which means – Sumdog Competition time!
The contest will begin at 8 am on Friday 23rd September and end on Thursday 29th September. Your child can access the competition by clicking here or logging in via the following link and using their unique username, password, and school code Calderwood2:
https://www.sumdog.com/user/sign_in
This competition is a fantastic way to compete against lots of other Primary students, have fun and develop numeracy/maths skills at the very same time. Your child has received a card which includes their unique username and password to keep safe at home. If you have any issues with accessing Sumdog or using the details on the card please do get in touch with the school office as we’d be more than happy to assist.
Your child may be set some questions which they whizz through at the start. Completing these will support them to answer appropriate questions during the Competition so please do hang in there and complete them!
Play in Primary 1 our Rationale
Please see below our rationale for Play-Based learning and teaching in Primary 1.
Rannoch Clan – Multiplication and Division
Rannoch clan have been learning about the different strategies we can use when multiplying and dividing such as making arrays, repeated addition/subtraction, skip counting and making equal groups.
This week, we explored the relationship between multiplication and division. We created arrays, using different items, to show multiplication calculations and learnt that if we swap the numbers round, we get the same answer. We explored even further and found that we could use the same array to find division facts. This led us to exploring fact families. We built arrays and found all the multiplication and division facts related to them and put these into our fact family houses.
We realised that a fact family is made up of 3 numbers and that we can solve division calculations if we know the related multiplication facts. This might help us to solve division calculations more quickly.
Array Cities in Ness Clan
L.I. I am learning to create arrays and use them to find multiplication facts.
Ness Clan have been getting crafty this week, creating their own Array Cities! They enjoyed using different colours and shapes to create their buildings. They had to create equal rows of windows on each building, experimenting with different shapes and sizes. They counted the rows and columns to find multiplication facts. Some of Ness clan challenged themselves to find matching division facts to create fact families. They discussed their cities with one another.
Next steps: Building up their knowledge of different multiplication facts and beginning to use quick recall to mentally make these calculations.
Sumdog Competition – Calderwood Counts!
Good luck to all our amazing Calderwood Primary School Children, they have now been entered into the West Lothian Sumdog Maths Contest!
The contest will begin at 8 am on Friday 13th and end on Thursday 19th May. Your child can access the competition by clicking here or logging in via the following link and using their unique username and password along with the school code Calderwood2:
https://www.sumdog.com/user/sign_in
This competition is a fantastic way to compete against lots of other Primary students, have fun and develop numeracy/maths skills at the very same time. If your child has forgotten their details, please do get in touch with the school office as we’d be more than happy to assist.
Calderwood Connects: 25/03/22
This morning we gathered together in clan clusters to begin preparations for our first in person Calderwood Connects next Friday. Our children recognised how lucky we are to have a spacious and comfortable Arena to gather in.
Our clans all demonstrated good listening skills and were very respectful of everyone in the Arena. Congratulations to Shetland, Bluebell and Rannoch received clan certificates for being ready, respectful and safe at Calderwood Connects.
