Bluebell – Page 3 – Calderwood Primary and Nursery

Christmas in Bluebell

Christmas Crafts

We have had such a busy week in Calderwood! Bluebell Clan have been engaging in lots of fun Christmas craft activities, creating little handmade gifts for their loved ones. We won’t give away what they made just yet and will leave this as a little surprise for Christmas day. However, have a look at how Bluebell Clan have been extremely busy elves!

We then wrapped our Christmas presents and watched tutorials on how to make a bow. This supports our fine motor skills development as we were using small muscles in our hand, wrist and fingers to wrap the presents and tie the ribbon. We helped each other along the way demonstrating great team work and collaboration.

Christmas Party Fun

We had an amazing time at our Christmas Party. We played games such as musical bumps, Christmas corners and pass the parcel. We then enjoyed some party food before having a dance off! Well done to the pupils that won the dancing competition, it was such a difficult decision as everyone danced so well!

Have a look at how much fun we all had!

A Little Message from Miss Ali and Mrs Robertson:

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas, filled with lots of laughter and cheer and all the best for the New Year. Enjoy the break. We cannot wait to hear all about your holiday fun!

Love Miss Ali and Mrs Robertson x

Calderwood Primary Presents Christmas Around the World

Primary 2-7 children invite one family member along to the performance below in our Arena. We look forward to seeing you.

If you are attending both performances you can wait in the Arena between times.

(Children should wear Christmas jumper/ accessorise on top and uniform on bottoms).

Cosy Corner Club – Upper Challenge 1

A group of our upper school pupils were tasked with a challenge to fully research what activities are available for kids in Livingston. They had to work in a small group to find total costs, bus times and costs before voting on the best place to go. They invited Miss Burton to listen to their ideas and pitched their proposition. All of the children were able to convince Miss Burton that a visit to our local cinema via local transport and to visit Hot Flame was the best option. The pupils created their own itinerary using the information they had gathered, were involved in the risk assessment and one of our pupils was responsible for booking of the trip by phone.

This group are now our ‘Upper Skills’ ambassadors and some are looking forward to leading the next challenge… Ready, Steady, Cook 👨‍🍳

Blogging Friday in Bluebell

In Bluebell clan we have been working very hard on developing our narrative writing. We changed our shared writing on ‘Cinderella’ and created our very own. Pupils in Bluebell clan used their imagination to develop their characters, theme and setting. We discussed the importance of using adjectives to describe our narrative writing and learned how to use speech marks correctly throughout. We are continuing to self and peer assess our work using our genre and core targets. We used our self and peer assessments to support us to edit our writing. We focused on ‘up levelling’ some of our work by adding more descriptive language. We have developed our ‘Phenomenal wall of words’ which supported us to do this.

In addition to this, we have been excellent authors and illustrators as we manufactured our very own book! We looked at different methods of book binding, chose our materials and planned our writing before making them independently. We loved the opportunity to share this with our parents on Book Week Scotland and are looking forward to share our finished products!

We have enjoyed narrative writing that much that we have chosen to focus our next weeks assembly on our literacy! We have planned this production together and shared out the roles and responsibilities. This involved an invitation committee, a power point team, backdrops and props teams, VCOP team, choreographers for our dancing and our tech and equipment team. We also participated in drama where we learnt about freeze frames and have incorporated this within our assembly. We have been practising lots and cannot wait to share our learning with you all next week!

Christmas Choir Events

Dear parent/ carer,

If your child attends the choir rehearsals at lunch time or at Monday afterschool club, they are invited to take part in the following community events: https://forms.office.com/r/ByLWXEXhH6

Kind regards,
Miss Burton

Bluebell Clan

Over the last few weeks we have participated in various creative activities to further develop our team working skills, use our critical thinking skills and listen attentively to each other as well as instructions. Have a look at some of the activities below:

Diwali

For Diwali we read the story of ‘Rama and Sita’ where we clearly understood why it is known as the ‘festival of light’. This festival celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. We made ‘diya lamps’ together in small groups where we took turns to add the ingredients, mix them together and divide the mixture. We also helped each other mould them into a bowl shape. In addition to the vital teamwork, we also had some problem solving to do. We realised that if the mixture was too dry we need to add more water and if the mixture was too wet we need to add more dry ingredients like salt and flour. Once our diyas were baked in the oven, we decorated them and added a tealight before taking them home to show our families!

Block Play

As part of our Stag Starts, we have participated in block play challenges. This involved working in pairs and small groups to re-create a monumental building or design our own bridge! This involved co-operating with one another, but most importantly taking turns to talk by sharing our creative ideas and listening to one another. Alongside team working skills, we used our problem solving skills to manipulate the blocks and create the design we had in mind. We also used our mathematical knowledge to create patterns and use symmetry for the structures. Miss Ali was very impressed by our outstanding creations!

Literacy

One of our literacy tasks this week was to re-create the setting of our reading books. Again we worked in teams to design the setting and find the words that builds the setting for the reader. We sat in our small groups, discussed what the setting was and used the small blocks to create the setting and used the post-it notes to label our settings. We showed respect to one another and listened to the different point of views of my team members.

NYCOS (National Youth Choir of Scotland)

During our weekly Nycos visits we get to participate in a variety of active singing games which not only helps to develop our musical skills but also enhances our numerical, linguistic and social skills. We showed attentive listening to Miss DeLuen as we copied the beat and rhythm. We are developing our listening skills by focusing on good looking, sitting still (when required), staying quiet and listening to all the words of the instructions given.

In Bluebell Clan, we love being creative and love the opportunity to present and share our ideas and work. We look forward to further develop our team working skills throughout this term!