Author: Mrs Campbell

Primary 5 have had a busy week celebrating Book Week Scotland this week. We began by writing reviews of our favourite books and sharing these with the rest of the class. We joined an Authors Live event where we took part in a draw-along session with author and illustrator Emily Mackenzie to recreate her character Granville, who features in ‘There’s Broccoli in my Ice Cream’- great fun! On Thursday we joined a live Giglets session where we heard the story of Tommy Foghorn and had an opportunity to hear from the illustrator and ask him questions. We also enjoyed creating animal-themed book covers for our school competition and received our Queen’s Jubilee commemorative books from Mrs Robertson. We enjoyed stories from two Secret Readers and made bookmarks with our P3 Reading buddies. A fantastic celebration of books and reading!

We had some absolutely amazing responses to our Rainforest Challenge in Primary 5. Pupils were asked to create a 3D model of a rainforest scene, showing the 4 layers and some of the creatures who live there. As you can see, we had some truly amazing creations – so much ingenuity and imagination!
They currently have pride of place outside our classroom and so many people have commented on how good they are- a big thank you to all who took up the challenge, well done on your amazing creativity!

Primary 5 had a visit from Angharad from the Ranger Service who taught us all about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. The session reminded us of how to use our green spaces responsibly and we enjoyed some mapping activities in class before heading outside. Everyone had a range of features to look out for, including wildlife, cyclists, water and even dog poo…!

One thing which surprised us was the amount of litter we saw, which gave P5 the idea of doing a litter pick soon-watch this space!

Primary 5 met up with Miss Marra and her P3 class in our Library for our first Reading Buddy session. Everyone enjoyed using this lovely space to discuss our favourite books and share our reading, we all enjoyed getting together and are looking forward to many more sessions!

More Gala success in Primary 6A- well done to runners Jaymin and Ryan!

One of our P6 girls took part in the Edinburgh Marathon Festival on Saturday to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Fund. Jaymin ran 2km in 8 minutes 56 seconds, raising £153, an amazing achievement! Well done, Jaymin!

P6A had an early wake-up call on Thursday morning when we took part in a silent disco. Although it was a chilly morning, we soon warmed up as we boogied our way around the park, singing and dancing to some very upbeat tunes! Although some of us drew the line at Gangnam Style, we all joined in enthusiastically with a resounding rendition of YMCA as we made our way back to the playground. There were some very bemused East Calder residents (including dogs!) but we all agreed it was a fantastic way to start the day! Thank you to Charlotte from Sustrans for facilitating the disco.

On Monday February 21st, P6A and P6B took part in the Almondell Cemetery Memorial Artwork project. Visiting artist Svetlana Kondakova specialises in public and environmental art and has been commissioned to create a piece of art for the cemetary at Calderwood with the help of our P6 pupils.

Svetlana Explained the concept she had in mind and showed us how to make templates to represent water, leaves or flowers. We then cut the shapes from silver, gold and bronze card and glued them together.

Once they were finished, all the pieces of art were joined together to make the final shape. It looks amazing! Svetlana’s plan is to use our design to help her create the finished 3D version which will be made of metal; we can’t wait to see the final result.