Category: Thistle
Calderwood Can – 30/09/22
Happy First Birthday Calderwood!
Thistle Maths Week Scotland 30.9.22
This week we have been enjoying Maths Week Scotland. We have been hearing number through stories and then using the number concepts to help us better understand challenges in our own learning. For example, we read “A Million Dots” by Andrew Clements and then challenged ourselves by trying to do our own million dot wall, number ordering to a million and finding the craziest facts around one million. Some pupils enjoyed finding the roman numerals and others tried to work out what could be bought for £1,000,000.
We loved celebrating Calderwood Primary’s first birthday on Tuesday with a conga and a silent disco.
We have been working really hard on a research project on 3D shapes. Pupils have been using the assignment on teams to work to a criteria and then find a new and creative to share their learning. We are really excited to see what they come up with!
In STEM we have been exploring the respiratory system and investigating how our organs all work together.
We have been continuing to work on our Calderwood Cranium Consultants project, this week we have been using oil pastels to create artwork of neurons.
In PE we have enjoyed testing our stamina and balance and have been comparing our skills now to what we could do at the beginning of term.
P5-7 Basketball Team
Speak Out, Stay Safe
NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme
This term we participated in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme. This consists of an online assembly and supporting classroom based activities. Speak out. Stay safe. is a safeguarding programme available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a child friendly way. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or Childline.
In the online assembly, the Speak out. Stay safe. messages were delivered in a fun and interactive way with the help of their mascot Buddy as well as special guest appearances from Ant and Dec.
We studied the content of the materials and are extremely confident that they are appropriate for primary-school-aged children. By the end of the programme, the aim is that children feel empowered – knowing how they can speak out and stay safe.
If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme you can find information on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout
Additional resources
Adapted assembly for home use
The NSPCC has also developed an adapted version of their assembly for parents/carers to use at home with their children. This can be found here: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/safety.  With the help of celebrities, the film focuses on how a child can get support if they have any worries or concerns.
To complement the assembly, there are some resources that can be used to enable further discussion whilst doing activities with your children. These are hosted on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/activities.
Online safety hub
You may also like to visit the NSPCC Online Safety Hub where you will find advice and information on a range of different online safety topics including gaming, social media, sharing nudes, parental controls and more.
You will also find online safety information for families of children with additional needs and disabilities. We have worked with Ambitious about Autism and parents and carers who have children with additional needs and disabilities to create activities to help talk about online safety which you can find at www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-families-children-with-send.
Childline Under 12’s Website
Childline also have a website with age appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools. Your child can visit it at www.childline.org.uk/kids.
If you’d like to know more about the NSPCC’s work, or take a look at the wide range of information and advice which is available for parents and carers, please visit their website www.nspcc.org.uk/parents.
Talking PANTS with your children
Talk PANTS is a simple conversation to help keep your child safe from sexual abuse. From P through to S, each letter of PANTS provides a simple but valuable rule that can help keep your child safe. You can find out more and download the free resources at www.nspcc.org.uk/pants.
Penguin and Ladybird have partnered with the NSPCC to create a brand new Pantosaurus book aimed at children ages 4 – 8. You can find copies of the new book on sale, either in Matalan’s selected stores and online, selected SPAR stores or at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/. All profits from the sale of this book will support the NSPCC.
Support the NSPCC
You may be interested in the NSPCC’s new selection of BUDDY goodies available from the NSPCC shop at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/collections/buddy which make perfect gifts for children – and all profits go to help keep children safe.
Home Learning Choice Boards
Please find below a copy of the home learning choice boards for Term 1. Our approach to home learning is flexible to ensure we met the needs of our families and children’s extra curricular activities, therefore the amount of tasks you complete are up to you as a family. The tasks are a mixture of online and discussion/ paper tasks. If children choose to share any of their home learning with their clan they can do this via their champion.
The tasks are also uploaded to Seesaw/ Teams. Children will bring home their log in cards this week, please ensure you keep these in a safe place.
You can find further information here:
Our Parent Council are currently setting up a working group to consult on our approaches to home learning to ensure we meet the needs of our families.
P1 Home Learning Choice Board T1
P2 Home Learning Board- Term 1
Primary 3 Home Learning Board– Term 1
P4 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1
P5 Home Learning Choice Board_Term 1
Primary 5-7: BYOD
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.
Thistle Clan 9.9.22
This week in Thistle we have enjoyed moving our bodies and practicing our skills in balance and stamina. We have been using a variety of equipment to help us with static and dynamic balance.
We have also been investigating whole number and have enjoyed using a variety of different materials and resources to help us with numeracy activities and challenges this week.
We also have been continuing to look at different addition strategies in our Number talks. We have been talking about partitioning, friendly numbers and using a number line.
In French this week we consolidated our vocabulary from last week around hair colour and moved on to looking at eye colour. Children took time to ask “Tu et comment?” (What are you like?”) and had a go at answering both verbally and written. We then took a class survey of eye colour using our key vocabulary.
In writing we have been focused on the key features of description genre. We started off by writing a piece without any input to see what we could remember from last year. We have then been exploring a passage called “The Moon” and investigating the key features and vocabulary of a descriptive piece. This week we wrote a model together of what a good description looks like called “The Sun.” We will now use this piece to support us next week as we begin to write independently about the brain – related to our focus of Calderwood Cranium Consultants.
Here is the document we use to support us and help us self and peer assess a descriptive piece of writing. 1st & 2nd Level Narrative_self_peer_assessment_placemat
