Calderwood Curriculum – Page 31 – Calderwood Primary and Nursery

Musings from Mull 3/9/21

It has been another busy few weeks in Mull Clan. We have gotten to grips with our day to day routines and have demonstrated a confident attitude within our school environment.

Our big focus this week was an introduction to our initial sounds through the Letterland characters. Pupils have a fast track introduction to all the letters characters, their sounds and actions before we look at each sound in more detail after the September break. Have you heard of Harry Hat Man or Annie Apple yet? Ask your children to tell you all about them and the sound that they make.

We have also been continuing to practice our number recognition and counting skills. We have used smartboard games, playdoh and monster numbers to help us with a multi-sensory learning. We are going to be building on our subitizing skills with using dot patterns for quick identification of a number of items in a set. A set of dominoes are great for this if you want to practise at home.

We continued to engage with our whole school project of ‘Invisible Strings.’ All pupils made a special gift for an important person they have an invisible string connection to, we hope you liked them. We have also been summarising some of our favourite parts of the book; making connections to our own interests and experiences. We also looked at some of the interesting vocabulary with the text and discussed this in more detail.

Mull Clan have also started to explore Rights Respecting School and the UNCRC whilst building our class charter. Our class charter will be our agreed class rules. Our pupils came up with some really thoughtful suggestions for how they would like our classroom to: feel like, sound like and look like. We will continue to reflect on and review our class charter once we move to our new home at Calderwood.

Please keep on checking your individual Seesaw accounts for day to day learning.

Mrs Robertson

Beyond the Dream – Shetland Week 1

It’s been lovely to welcome the children and parents of Shetland Clan to Calderwood Primary this week. I am so proud of how wonderfully the children have settled into life at school. They have worked hard to learn our daily routines, started to build strong, positive relationships with other Clan members and Champions, found their bearings in a new building and increased their independence with a variety of tasks as the week has progressed.

We have played lots of team games, had Clan discussions and enjoyed engaging in a range of play contexts to help us get to know each other better. Shetland Clan loved using their problem solving skills at the construction zone, developing their fine motor skills at the Funky Fingers station, displaying their creativity through imaginative play and exploring the sand and water trays.

We also had our very first STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) session with Miss Christie. We explored the story of an adventurous mouse and made our very own rocket mice. We had to use our STEM brains to decide which bottles we could use to shoot our rockets into space. We had so much fun!

We’re looking forward to more learning adventures next week!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Greig

New beginnings ~ Week 1 in Mull Clan

It has been a busy week for all of our new P1 pupils in Mull Clan. This week we have had a big focus on:

Building relationships
Developing independence
Learning all of our daily routines
Developing quality listening skills

All of our pupils have worked hard to find their way around our school building, how to access the toilets and playground with increasing independence. We have had to look after all of our belongings, remembering to put our things safely in our bags (we will keep on working on this!). Many of our pupils have also had to learn how to order their lunch and manage the routines in the dinner hall; we now know where we need to sit and our collect cutlery and drinks.

Mull Clan have played lots of team games that have helped us; learn about each other, follow rules; listen carefully to instructions and most importantly have fun!

In our classroom we have tried hard to build up new friendships through our play zones. We have enjoyed lots of construction, imaginative role play, exploration of sand, problem solving with puzzles and time to explore our fine motor skills with writing and drawing opportunities.

We even had a visit from Miss Christie who helped us investigate STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) where we explored the story of an adventurous mouse
and made our very own rocket mice using our STEM brains to decide which bottle we could use to shoot our rockets to space.

It has been wonderful to see everyone’s confidence grow in such a short space of time.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Robertson

Orkney Clan’s First Week

A huge welcome to Primary 1! We have had a very special and exciting week in the Orkney Clan. It was our first ever week of school and the first ever week of Calderwood Primary! It has been amazing seeing everybody come together for the first time.

The children have settled in beautifully into their new environment and routines. They have made new friends and enjoyed getting to know each other. They have also been developing their imaginations and experiencing the world around them through play.

Orkney Clan loved learning about STEM with Miss Christie, they were discovering how they could make a rocket fly by using a plastic bottle. After learning about the rockets, some of the children have even tried to make their own in the construction area. They also enjoyed developing their movement skills for PE with Miss Miller.

I have been so impressed by the children’s curiosity, excitement to explore and enthusiasm. It is fair to say Primary 1 have had a fantastic week and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again next week for some new learning and adventures.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Cunningham

Calderwood Connects Week 1

Today was the first time all of Calderwood Primary joined together across East and Mid Calder through a Teams Call. It was such a special moment to be able to wave and say hello to all our clans.

We shared some Calderwood moments from the week and celebrated our first week together.

Miss Burton read The Invisible Strings book to us, showing us that we are all connected even though we are in two different buildings. She set us a Connecting Clans Challenge for next week, asking us to connect with a different clan in a creative way.

We finished the week having a sing and dance to this song which we think sums up our first week at Calderwood Primary, thank you to everyone who has made it possible.

Ben Lawers & Ben Lomond’s First Week

We have had a very exciting first week at Calderwood!

Our P5&6’s have enjoyed getting to know each other, taking part in challenges, games and getting to know you activities.

By far, our favourite (and messiest) task was making towers from spaghetti and marshmallows! Well done to Team “Wyvern Wolves” who won by making the tallest tower! Everyone worked well to communicate, problem solve, try our best & of course, have lots of fun.

We’ve also been outside playing lots of games with new friends.

It’s been lovely for Miss Watt & Mrs Clarkson for meet all of our new pupils and we are looking forward to seeing you all next week for some new adventures!