Category: Calderwood Curriculum

Term 1 Writing in Bluebell

Over this term, Bluebell will be developing their skills in descriptive writing. We have started to look at, discuss and apply the structures of description using our PM example texts. This will gradually build up into pupils creating their very own descriptive texts, applying their learning independently.

To support the development of our writing skills, pupils have and will continue to throughout the year, to work on the principles of VCOP.
V – quality vocabulary
C- Sentence connectors to construct more detailed sentences
O- Sentence openers
P – Punctuation

We became ‘Sentence Doctors’ to cure some sick sentences by applying VCOP. We were excited to share some of our cured sentences with Miss Burton. Pupils in Bluebell worked extremely hard to make considered choices for their vocabulary.

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.

 

Remembering Queen Elizabeth II

Today, across our clans we took some time to reflect on this moment in history and celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth. Some clans made pictures of her, discussed what she did for the United Kingdom and beyond, wrote poems and reflected on her achievements.

Some of the older clans also watched a Newsround clip.

P2 and P3 Clans Interdisciplinary Learning: Calderwood Careers

We are so excited to launch the P2 and P3 interdisciplinary learning context called Calderwood Careers. In this context, we will be learning about the world of work and the different jobs in our society. We will be exploring 3 different types of jobs:

  1. Calderwood Constructors: builders and architects
  2. Calderwood Cooks: chefs and bakers
  3. Calderwood Consultants: doctors, nurses, pharmacy and other health care professions.
  • We are looking for some support and help with our learning from our Calderwood community. We are hoping to build our play areas across our clans to reflect these different jobs, and therefore if anyone has any toys, dressing up, equipment or learning materials can you please drop these in to our school office. We would really appreciate it!
  • We are also looking for any volunteers who specialise in the jobs above to come in to our school and speak about your job role. Please fill out the form if you can help us!

We have asked all pupils in the P2 and P3 clans to bring in a 500ml plastic bottle for Monday 12th September to use in their Calderwood Consultants theme.

Thank you for supporting our school again!

The P2 and P3 clans!

Term 1 Learning Letters

We are so excited for the learning journey all pupils will be embarking on during Term 1 at Calderwood Primary School. Our whole school theme for our interdisciplinary learning this term is on the concept Maths. You will see that our champions and pupils have planned creative and innovative Maths learning contexts. Please find the learning overview for each stage for this term below:

Term 1 – P1 Learning Letter

Term 1- P2 Learning Letter

Term 1- P3 Learning Letter

Term 1-P4 Learning Letter

Term 1 – P5 Learning Letter

Term 1 – P6 Learning Letter

Term 1 – P7 Learning Letter

 

 

Languagenut

We would like to say a massive thank you to our Parent Council at Calderwood Primary School for providing the funding to have the programme Languagenut in our school. This learning and teaching resource was at the heart of our 1+2 modern languages curriculum last year, and we are so excited for this to continue for the next 3 years. Thank you very much to everyone in the Parent Council for making this happen. Calderwood does languages! Please find further information about Languagenut below:

 

What is Languagenut?

 

Languagenut is a learning and teaching resource used in Calderwood for delivering our 1+2 modern languages curriculum. This is a digital resource that pupils can access at school and at home with their own username and password. Calderwood trialled this resource last year and found many benefits to our pupils learning, for example:  

 

  • It allows pupils to practise the 4 main skills needed for learning a modern language: listening, talking, reading and writing. 
  • It gives access to 6 different languages; French is available for our whole school and Spanish can be accessed for our 2nd language for P5-P7 clans. 
  • There are a variety of fun and interactive games that the pupils can select from. 
  • It allows the pupils to decide what they need to work on, for example: sentence building, grammar, vocabulary, phonics and verbs. 
  • Champions can set assignments, review pupils’ work, provide feedback and monitor pupils’ completion of tasks.  
  • Languagenut provides an opportunity for whole school and council competitions where pupils can receive certificates and prizes.  
  • Champions can use this to create their own learning activities for the pupils in their clan. 

  • Pupils can earn points for their achievements and can monitor their learning.

 

How will this be taken forward in our school?

 

  • All pupils will get a login card with their username and password. They will have a card to keep at home which will be issued after the September break.
  • We will host our first Calderwood School Competition to show our learning in French in Term 1.
  • We will get involved in West Lothian Council Languagenut competitions.

 

Explore Languagenut here!

NSPCC Online Safety Workshops for P5-7 Families

Primary session 1 – Social Media, Parental Controls, Modelling Good Behaviour, Screen Time vs Screen Use

Tuesday 11th October @ 7pm

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 360 183 895 563Passcode: nLTnf4

Primary session 2 – Grooming, Online bullying, Online friendships

Monday 7th November @ 7pm

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 358 089 273 611Passcode: FDU7tm

Bug Hotel – We need your help!

As part of Primary 1’s ‘Calderwood Creatures’ context for learning. They plan to make a Bug Hotel with the children. We are looking for donations of any resources from our lovely Calderwood community. If you can help please let us know!

  • Bricks
  • Bamboo canes
  • Tiles
  • Stones/Pebbles
  • Bark
  • Plastic Bottles
  • Cardboard

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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