Celebrating Scots Language

We have been celebrating all things Scottish over the last few weeks and classes have had fun learning about Scottish culture as well as reading and writing in Scots. They have enjoyed listening to Scottish poems, stories and songs.

Primary 1 have been using Scots words to describe the weather. Some classes have included Scots words in their WordBoost lists. Primary 5 created their own ‘scunners’, Scottish horror characters and also wrote examples of alliteration in Scots.

Many thanks to our wonderful Secret Readers who read some stories in Scots this week. Classes always love have a visitor and it is so important for learners to hear adults reading aloud. This is especially appreciated when we are encouraging and celebrating the diversity of languages at East Calder Primary.

We would love to hear from any parent or carer who would like to read to a class in a language other than English. Although pupils might not understand the words we would love to widen their experience of listening to other languages being spoken.

If you are interested please get in touch by emailing our school office.

Rights Article 30: I have the right to learn and use the language of my family.

 

 

P3 Learning

We are growing in confidence in using arrays to help with our division. We looked at different arrays and were able to write the 4 family calculations that go with them. Two multiplication and 2 division. ie. 5 x 4 = 20, 4 x 5 = 20, 20 / 4 = 5 & 20 / 5 = 4.

As part of our learning to understand what we read, this week we started to work on clarifying what we read. We worked with random partners to work out what an ‘alien’ word in a sentence could be replaced with. For example if our sentence was Mark looked at the gkdoiaful flower. Some of us replaced the ‘alien’ word with wonderful or beautiful. We had to think of the whole sentence and make sure it still made sense.

 

Expositions – Persuasive Writing in P7

Our pupils have been completing their writing journeys by pairing appropriate graphics with their writing, then they moved on to checking their writing targets. After this they record and read their writing to try and persuade us even more. I am sure a few of us will be persuaded on this one!

Have a look at one journey here:

 

Go to this Sway

 

French Tasting in P6 & P7

This morning we had a French tasting session between Primary 6 and Primary 7.

We had the opportunity to taste a variety of some French themed foods including: brie, camembert, croissants, brioche and baguettes. The pupils then had to record their views about the foods and research how to say them in French. We had a challenge activity to find out why certain foods exist.

Who knew that it was rumoured that the French baguette was created for soldiers. The long shape apparently meant that it was easier for the soldiers to carry bread during a war!

I’m not so sure that we were all a fan of the pungent French cheeses though, well done to everyone who had a go at tasting them!

Ethical Living in Primary 7

In Primary 7 we have gathered our questions and curiosities about our Ethical Living context. Have a look at some of the questions we have come up with.

We have already started to explore ethical branding, toilet rolls and how our eggs are produced and farmed. We are planning our questions around what might affect our future and we are having some rich discussions about how we are influenced in the media.

Learning in P2/1

 

 

 

 

During languages week we taught each other how to say ‘hello’ in different languages. In our class, we can say hello, in Urdu, Polish, French, Portuguese, Spanish and British Sign Language!

We are really enjoying our music lessons with Dave. We have been playing shakers to tell a story about a train ride. We were singing and playing our instruments loudly and quietly. We had good fun dancing and stopping to the beat of the drum.

Primary 1

It was great to see so many parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles who came to our ‘Sharing the Learning’!

Primary 1 were so excited to share some of their Scots Week activities. We made kilts, a model Nessie (using our push, pull and twist forces), built castles and discussed and ate some Scottish food.  We were super detectives trying to ‘I Spy’ a picture of a Burns Supper.

Shortbread was the favourite food in both classes.

 

We ended with a ‘Heid, Shooders, Knaps and Taes’ song!

Have a lovely weekend!

P3 Learning

We have been developing our core stability and balance. We have highlighted key points for balancing effectively and efficiently with control. We have been also been learning how to travel safely in a variety of ways across equipment.

This week we were using our body to create different shapes. We have learned how to make pike,tuck,straddle and many more! Exploring these shapes helps to develop our flexibility, strength and balance.

We have been learning and practicing our French. Today we counted to 20 using the mini bean bags. We also coloured in a French Flag for the Language Hub’s competition.

Problem Solving in The Hive

For the last couple of weeks we have had a focus on problem solving and life skills.

The children were set different challenges in the Block Play and were able to focus and work as a team to create some wonderful buildings.

Eoin was also helping Mr F fix his bike.  He was able to assist taking the chain and the wheel off and Mr F managed to cycle home with a fixed bike!! Great team work!

Victorian Artefact Handling in P6

We were fortunate enough to have a visit from West Lothian Museum services this week. Linking with our current Social Studies context we enjoyed an afternoon of Victorian artefacts! The class were allowed to handle a lot of the items and were amazed to see how things have progressed since Victorian times, even though we have the Victorians to thank for some of the amazing inventions that we use today. It was interesting to see that the Victorians used an abacus in Arithmetic similar to the concrete materials we use in Numeracy today.
This was a great springboard for our Victorian context as it led to discussions about Victorian inventions, housing and lifestyle to name but a few. We will be linking this learning to our current Literacy theme of creating a recount, the ability to retell and evaluate an experience. The Museum Service have kindly agreed to attend our Sharing the Learning in March so come along and see if you can identify the purpose of our Victorian artefacts, remember your child is now an expert!

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