Category: Clan News
Orkney Clan Phonics
Orkney Clan have had a fantastic and busy few weeks. It is clear that the children’s confidence has grown hugely with following the day to day routines. They especially enjoy our morning check-in where they find their name and then place it in a pot which best describes how they are feeling. Orkney Clan also love learning new things! An aspect of our learning that we would like to share with you is our learning in phonics.
This week has been very exciting because we have been introduced to some of our initial sounds. The children are learning two new sounds a day as part of a fast track introduction. This will ensure they have some understanding of all the sounds before we look at each sound in more detail after the September break. So far we have learned a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i and j. We have learned a character, sound and action for each of these letters. For example, the character for ‘a’ is Annie Apple and she makes an ‘a’ sound. The action is pretending to eat an apple while saying ‘a’. Maybe you could ask your child to tell you about the letters and the sound they make? Can your child spot any objects around the house that begin with any of these sounds?
One of the children’s favourite learning activities has been colouring in the letters and their characters. They have great discussions about the characters and what they might like. For example, someone asked if Clever Cat likes to eat carrots. It is fantastic to see some of the children choosing to practise writing letters for themselves too. Over the next few weeks we are going to have a look at the rest of our initial sounds. We are so excited to meet everyone else in Letterland.
Orkney Clan had an amazing dress down day today! I hope you have a great weekend and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again on Monday.
Miss Cunningham
Invisible Strings at Calderwood Primary
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
Calderwood Connects – 27/08/21
Our First Day at Calderwood Primary
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.
