Category: Calderwood Curriculum

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.

FAO Parent of Primary 5 pupils – Bramble & Thistle Clans

Your child has been recently involved with a music initiative called ‘Artistic Rhythms’ with Limelight Music. They have been learning and creating music inspired by world artworks from 3 countries in 3 continents – Tanzania, Brazil and Scotland. These countries have been chosen for their rich cultural heritage, which often brings the art forms of dance, music, poetry, rhythm and visual art together.

The block of learning is due to come to an end and the last session will be held on Tuesday 7th February. While I appreciate the short notice and other opportunities to visit school that week are already in place, Limelight would like to invite you in to share what your children have been learning. We will record the final sessions for any parents unable to attend and this will be shared at our ‘Caledonian Clan Celebration’ event.

There are two sessions, your child will know whether they participate in the first group before break or the second group after break.

Session 1 – 10.00 – 10.25
Session 2 – 11.15 – 11.45

We look forward to sharing this amazing learning and welcome you to join in if you wish.

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!

Caledonia Clan Celebration

This event is for all the Primary 1 – 7 Clans.

Leven, Linlithgow, Rannoch, Tay and Tummel Clans have their Clan Calderwood Connects this term, that families are invited to. These have a Scottish theme. Due to this, families might want to choose to attend one or the other of these events, or attend both.

Calderwood Book Hunt

Due to the fantastic reward of £961.22 from our Book Fair in September, Calderwood Primary has been busy shopping for new books! Our Calderwood pupils have been searching for texts they would like to see in their clan libraries and as part of their guided reading groups. We are very excited that we have the opportunity to add to our selection of books at Calderwood!

We would love for our families to get involved in this too! For Primary 1-3, we are expanding our clan libraries and for P4-P7 we are building our reading group texts. Please use the website links below and type a comment with which texts you would like to see your pupil engaging with at school.

Clan Libraries: https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/childrens-books

Reading Group Books: https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/class-sets

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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 🙂

Leg it to Lapland Challenge

Calderwood Primary School took part in the Sustrans Christmas Challenge, ‘Leg it to Lapland’. This challenge encouraged all pupils to take their journeys to and from school by foot, scooter or bicycle. The charity launched this challenge to help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution around the school. Each day pupils travelled to school during the challenge week they earned ‘one virtual mile’ towards Lapland. Completing 30 mins of other exercise i.e. dancing, scoring goals at football practice or learning some new moves at Taekwondo practice also earned them a virtual mile! Completing other active journeys e.g. walking to football practice also earned them a virtual mile! The school who get the highest number of average miles per pupil will be the winner!

We were very lucky to have Santa and his elves deliver a special prize to a pupil in each clan who had gone over and above during the Leg it to Lapland Challenge week! Well done to all of our pupils!

 

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!

 

 

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