On Friday, Primary 5 demonstrated all of the new knowledge and skills they have been developing through their IDL topic of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. They invited parents, carers and the school to attend their class assembly to celebrate the life and works of the author, Roald Dahl. Primary 5 thoroughly enjoyed sharing their learning and can’t wait to find out what their next wonkalicious golden challenge will be. Stay tuned…
On Saturday night, some of the pupils from Primary 1-3 braved the weather to come and sing some of their nativity songs at the Kirk of Calder Parish Church. They sounded fantastic and there was a real sense of community spirit shown by the number of people who came along to attend the service and to support them.
Learning Intention: We are learning to use our research skills to answer the key questions about Roald Dahl that we have created
We are learning to present our findings in an interesting way
A successful personal project will include:
As a homework challenge, Primary 5, P5/4 and P4 were asked to think about 5 key questions they would like to find the answers to about the life and works of the famous author, Roald Dahl. We were given a month to complete this and, last week, we shared our findings with the class. In P5, we also used the new knowledge we learned to help us to write our script for our class assembly. We think it is fair to say, Roald Dahl lead a very interesting life!
For example, did you know that he could speak 3 languages- English, Norwegian and Swahili.
Did you know that during the Second World War at 23 years old, Roald joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot.
Did you know that Roald Dahl published 17 children’s books, 2 rhyme books, plus 2 autobiographies, 2 adult books, 51 adult short stories and more.
Did you know that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was recently voted number one in the top 100 fiction books all children should read before leaving primary school.
Did you know that the inspiration for Willy Wonka’s infamous Inventing Room came from being a taster for the famous chocolate making company, Cadbury’s.
If you wandered into Mid Calder Primary School this morning, you might have seen some slightly unusual sights. Mr Willy Wonka, for example, taking the register to the office. Or Violet Beauregarde, Fantastic Mr Fox and Matilda playing spelling games. Or even an Oompa Loompa lighting a candle to celebrate advent! But, it was all for a very good cause. As Primary 5, Primary 5/4 and Primary 4 have been learning all about the life and work of Roald Dahl through their IDL context of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we decided to hold a ‘Dahlicious Dress Up Day’ to commemorate 25 years since his death. We dressed up as our favourite characters from his many fantastic novels and made a donation which will go to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. We raised £53.10 and we had a fantastic day full of fun and laughter.
A big well done to all those who made such a Wonkatastic effort for a very worthy and relevant cause!
A huge well done to all the children in Primary 5-7 that took part in Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest last week. Each person that contributed was to answer 1000 questions on a variety of topics within maths and were then ranked based on how many questions they answered correctly. Out of the 743 children that took part, Mid Calder had 10 pupils in the top 50! A fantastic achievement, and a brilliant opportunity to build upon your mental maths skills. Congratulations!
Learning Intention: We are learning to use our market research to create our own confectionery product
A successful product name will be:
Successful packaging will be:
This week, Primary 5 received another one of our mysterious golden envelopes from Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. It contained our third challenge that asked us to design our own confectionery product and packaging. We had to think a bit more about what ingredients would be in our product, and we used our market research questionnaires to help us. We had asked Primary 5/4 about whether they prefer sweets or chocolate, what flavours they like, what packaging designs they like and if they have any allergies. We looked at their answers and then we based our sweet on that. We had to give our product a catchy and memorable name and design an eye catching packet for it to go in. We were developing our listening skills by listening to our team mate’s ideas, as well as our team work skills by each having a job to do and sharing the work equally.
“We looked at our questionnaires and we decided to go for chocolate because that was the most popular. With the other flavours, we decided we were going to make a mix of flavours in one bar so that everyone could enjoy it,” commented Katie.
“I had fun deciding what we were going to put inside our chocolate tube. We put lots of sour and hot sweets because lots of people like to trick people with sweets. We also put game cards inside for people to collect,” said Jamie.
“I liked deciding what we were going to put on the wrapper and we made it nice and bold. We all enjoyed saying what we wanted to put in it and what the flavours would be, and I really like working with my group,” added Erin.
Learning Intention- We are learning to conduct market research into the different types of confectionary that people like
Success Criteria:
A quality questionnaire includes:
On Tuesday afternoon, Primary 5 received a very special delivery to our classroom. We got a golden envelope addressed to P5, P5/4 and P4 and inside was a letter from which set us an exciting challenge- to design our very own Wonkatastic confectionary. Before we started our creations, we were asked to work in groups to write a questionnaire to conduct market research. We learned that market research is when you ask the people that might want to buy your product lots of questions to help you with your design. You might ask, for example, what ingredients they like, how much they would pay for the product, their favourite type of confectionary and what allergies they might have. We looked at an example of a questionnaire and decided on the success criteria of a quality questionnaire. We then used this to help us to write our own. When we had finished, we looked at each other’s and gave feedback then we used that to improve our questionnaires. We will be handing those questionnaires out to classes in the school and using the answers that we get to start our designs.
“I enjoyed it when we first found out that we had got an envelope and everyone wanted to get it opened as soon as possible,” said Sophie.
“I loved it when we got started on the questionnaire. I enjoyed discussing it and everyone in my groups had great ideas,” added Amy.
“I enjoyed going into groups, making our questionnaires and discussing what kind of chocolates and favourite sweest they have,” commented Joe.
We can’t wait to find out what our second challenge will be….
On Friday we had our first Achievement Assembly of this session. Each class nominated one pupil to receive the Achievement Award for their class and parents and carers were invited along to watch the assembly.
We also gave out Star Writer Awards, Top Scorer prizes, JRSO certificates and announced the winning house for the term.
Well done who everyone who received an award!
2015-10-16 achievement assembly nominees
Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference.
In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.
In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.
Please see the links below for further information and tips on how to help your child to develop a growth mindset.
https://www.mindsetkit.org/growth-mindset-parents
https://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/parenttips.aspx
Learning Intention: We are learning to write a set of instructions for a rainforest in a bottle
Success Criteria:
I can use the key features of instructions including:
-a title
-an introduction
– a list of equipment needed
– short, clear and easily understandable steps
-numbered steps
-a picture/diagram
I can use commas correctly to separate items in a list
I can use connectives to show the order of events
In our writing lesson this week, Primary 5 were learning to write a set of instructions about how to make a rainforest in a bottle. We watched a video to help us, then we used the information we had learned to make an example as a class. We then felt ready to write out our instructions.
“I loved making a rainforest in a bottle with my Mum. It was fun and educational to make.” said Ryan.
“I liked when my Mum got most of the answers right in my quiz. She got my trick question wrong!” added Joe.
“I loved showing my Mum around our class, especially the quiz because she didn’t know that gum came from the rainforest and it was cool to teach my Mum something new” said Kiera.
“I loved it when we did the money challenge where we had to spell words from the rainforest and find out how much they cost. My Mum got on quite well.” said Katie.
“I liked making the rainforest in a bottle with my family and i think we should do something like this again” added Amy.
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