As part of our Communication @ Calderwood strategy, please find below a learning letter for your child’s clan. This will give you an overview of some of the learning taking place in and across clans from now until the Christmas holidays.
Term 2 Learning Letter Mull Orkney Shetland
Term 2 Learning Letter Bluebell Clan
Term 2 Learning Letter Bramble Clan
Term 2 Learning Letter Ness Clan
Term 2 Learning Letter Rannoch Clan
Term 2 Learning Letter Tay Clan
Term 2 Learning Letter Ben Lawers_Lomond
Today all the Clans had the opportunity to get outdoors, braving the rain, and plant bulbs. We were really excited to spend time with different Clans – Ben Lawers and Ben Lomond should be so proud of the support they gave to younger children in our community.
We did this to play our part in the nationwide Edina Bulb Project – you can find out a little more about this by clicking here. We were really excited to explore our learning about the needs of a plant even further and cannot wait to see these bulbs begin to sprout in spring!
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an initiative offered across all West Lothian schools to give children the opportunity to safely use their own devices in school.
At all times, children will also have access to school devices such as netbooks and iPads, this is an opt in programme.
Please watch the video below that the children have made. If you would like your child to take part, please read and complete the contract with them. This will start on 19th October. 2021.
It was with a little sadness we said goodbye to our (rather small) classroom at Mid Calder.
We started the day with a reflection activity called “Head, Heart, Bin, Bag” where we talked and wrote about:
Lots of us are bringing our maturity, leadership skills and our responsible qualities!
As part of our Invisible String topic, we looked at how we are all connected to each other. We found out we’re connected through our likes, dislikes, interests, friends, families and values.
We also wrote a beautiful piece of personal writing about who our strings are connected to. We got to write a personal recount about a time when we were apart from someone we loved. We included lots of feelings and emotions words to describe how that felt and discussed ways that help us when we have difficult emotions.
We also had a lot of fun creating art pieces in the outdoors. Each group worked together to create a picture that showed their feelings. I think the apple face is happy!
Mrs Clarkson and Miss Watt have been teaching us different games that help our logic, problem solving and thinking skills. Cards, dominoes, draughts and ‘9 man morris’ are the ones we’re the most competitive with!
We ended our week with a little Friday party and can’t wait to begin our adventure at Calderwood!
This week we have been extending our skills, knowledge and understanding through exploration, investigation and play in STEM.
In Orkney, Mull and Shetland we have been learning about toys whizzing faster or slower down a ramp, depending on the angle of the ramp and the force applied by little hands. We have lots of great photos to show us learning through play and collaborating with others in our gallery. I wonder if you could explore: ‘how does the surface of a ramp (whether it is rough, shiny, smooth or bumpy) change the speed or distance a toy travels?’ at home. You could give it a go with a car, train, bus, lorry, any mode of transport which takes your fancy or even see if this movement changes if the toy doesn’t have moving wheels. We can’t wait to see how you get on!
In Bramble and Bluebell we put on imaginary wellies and headed off to the beach to extend our learning about under the sea to explore food chains at the seaside. We learned new vocabulary such a predator, prey and tides. We applied this new knowledge through imaginative play and games outdoors and had such fun doing this! We also took time to sort different types of animal and plant we would find at the seaside and learned a bit more about carnivores and herbivores at the shoreline. If you want to extend your learning you could click here to find out more about rockpools. We can’t wait to hear about your research next week, in Calderwood!
In Ness we were imaginary intrepid explorers in the Amazon Rainforest this week. Last week we managed to conceal ourselves well enough to go unnoticed on the Amazon Rainforest’s floor; as we lay in hiding we watched Capybaras grazing, Caimans lurking in the water nearby and Goliath Tarantulas hiding in their burrows until nightfall. This week we fashioned camouflage from cocoa tree leaves and, when satisfied with our disguises, steeled ourselves to venture out of our hiding spot into the Understorey. Our first encounter was with a Praying Mantis, hunting prey with deadly precision. We had a few too many close calls with a jaguar so decided to make a speedy getaway into the Canopy Layer ready to explore further in Calderwood, next week!
In Rannoch we donned our imaginary rock pooling gear and waterproof jackets (to make sure we didn’t get splashed in the spray zone!) to explore the intertidal zone. We clambered to high ground as tide rushed in and the wave action caused conditions like a washing machine and as the tide rushed out we watched as crabs burrowed into soft sand and hid in small holes in the rocks. Through this imaginary exploration we were able to understand the specialist adaptions afforded to animals and plants which reside in this extreme environment. We used this newly-acquired understanding to put our sorting skills to the test – deciding which animals and plants would live in the high, mid and low tide zones. At home could you explore the types of food webs and chains which can be found in these environments and share all your great ideas with your adults in school next week, in Calderwood!
In Tay we built bridges to round off our amazing research into types of bridge and bridges in the world around us. You can find some great shots of us with our bridges in the gallery. We have had great fun exploring shapes which make a bridge stronger and the sorts of problems civil engineers need to overcome to build structurally sound bridges. We think the smiles on our faces definitely show how proud we were when applying our research!
In Ben Lomond and Ben Lawers we explored the concept of Algorithms. We learned that algorithms are sets of precise instructions used with digital technology. We then extended our understanding, and put our coding skills to the test, by creating our own written algorithms for different tasks. We had great fun acting out these instructions to check how precise they really were. You could explore this further at home by using free online coding games – we can’t wait to see how you get on next week, in Calderwood!
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!
