All posts by Miss Sherlow

Events, Health & Wellbeing

Responsible Roles: Playful Pals

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In preparation for the Responsible Roles that they will be taking on when they return as Primary 7s next session, some of the Primary 6 pupils have been learning how to be good playground games leaders today. Mrs Keogh, our Active Schools Coordinator, delivered a training session to teach the Playful Pals how to be a good playground buddy and to lead a variety of games with confidence. The P6s involved had an opportunity to try out some of their new skills with their peers and are looking forward to showing the rest of the school what great Playful Pals they can be in August.

English & Literacy, Sciences

P6 are Top of the Food Chain

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Learning Intention:

We are learning about the order of food chains in a variety of habitats

We are learning about the impact that different animals have on our planet

Some of the pupils from Primary 6 and Primary 7/6 were working together as a group today and had a very interesting and thoughtful morning discussing food chains. First, we reminded ourselves about what makes up a food chain before giving examples of food chains that we knew. Next, we were given a difficult challenge. We were given pictures of 10 different animals and asked- if we had to make 3 of the animals extinct to save ourselves and all of the others, which would we choose and why? We worked in small groups and had to come up with three reasons to justify our choices which we then shared with the rest of the class. The animals we had to choose from were the lion, zebra, sea turtle, blue whale, tree kangaroo, kitten, beetle, salmon, eagle and gorilla. Although it was very tough, here are the top three animals voted for as a class and the reasons why:

Blue Whale– because it is top of its food chain so removing it wouldn’t affect other animals too much, it can kill humans and not many people eat whales so it doesn’t help us.

Beetle– in Britain, we don’t eat beetles so it doesn’t help us, there are lots of different types of insect so making one extinct wouldn’t make a huge difference to the food chain and some insects carry diseases which can make us sick or kill us.

Eagle– it is at the top of the food chain so making it extinct would save other species, some birds of prey can attack our pets and we don’t usually eat birds of prey so we wouldn’t be affected.

We had a very interesting discussion about making the kitten extinct. Although we know that it sounds very harsh and we felt bad, to begin with several of the groups said that it was the first animal that they agreed to make extinct because it isn’t an animal that lots of animals eat, and it doesn’t really help humans (some members of our group have some very messy cats who are a bit of a nuisance). However, on further discussion, we realised that cats do help some humans by providing company and love, as well as bringing us happiness. We also discussed the fact that if we were to make either cats or dogs extinct, lots of businesses would go bankrupt, e.g. pet food companies, dog walkers, groomers, cat sitters etc. Arran added that his cat is an excellent spider catcher too!

What a fantastic discussion Primary 6! 🙂

Expressive Arts, Interdisciplinary Learning, Sciences, Technologies

P6 are Launching Ahead in Art

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Learning Intention:

We are learning to use recycled materials to design and make a space related object.

Success Criteria:

Our models must-

– be 3D

– resemble a real life space object

– be made from recycled materials

This week, the Primary 6s from P7/6 joined with the Primary 6 class and were given the challenge to design and make an object that you might find in space using recycled materials.

First, we sketched a design of our object then , when our plan was complete, we started to build. We had to use a real life picture of our object to help us. Michael, Ellie, Craig, Jamie, Lachlan and Kasse all made a space rockets, William made a space shuttle, Abby made the Hubble Telescope and Neve made a moon buggy. We had to use our knowledge of space from our learning in science, as well our craft, design and art skills to make our final objects. We  haven’t finished them yet, but we are sure they are going to look great.

“I really enjoyed painting and gluing my Hubble telescope to try and make it stand up on a tilt,” commented Abby.

“I thought it was one of the best things I’ve ever made and I really enjoyed it,” said Michael.

“Considering there were a few disasters, I liked getting messy with the paint,” added Neve.

Achievements, Events, Health & Wellbeing, Primary 7, Sporting, Uncategorized

West Lothian Track and Field Competition

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Today, 13 Primary 7 pupils represented Mid Calder Primary at West Lothian’s first Primary Track and Field event….and boy did they set a high standard for next year! Alix Fairley won both the long jump AND the shot putt events for the girls, and the girls relay team also came in first place, making Mid Calder the fastest relay team out of all of the 17 schools that took part. All 13 children were a credit to the school and themselves, showing each other fantastic support and good sportsmanship….despite the rain and hail that they had to compete in. Well done to all who were involved. Another fantastic achievement for Primary 7 this week.

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Events, Expressive Arts, Primary 7

Pirates of the Curry Bean

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Ahoy there me hearties! This here be a reminder that the squid sucking buccaneers in Primary 6 and 7 have been working their unwashed socks off for you to sail away on an adventure with them in their show, Pirates of the Curry Bean. Come and join us on the docks of Old London Town on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th May at 7pm for the piratical musical that’s sure to make you shake yer booty! Tickets can be seized from Captain Bokhari and Admiral Ritchie at the school office for the scurvy price of £3 each. Don’t monkey around and get yourself on board before the anchor is away…

Maths & Numeracy, Primary 7, Uncategorized

North, South, East and West our maths class is the best!

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Learning Intention:

We are learning to explore how right angles can be measured in degrees and how this links to fractions and compass points (MTH 2-17c, MTH 2-17a)

Success Criteria:

  • I know that a right angle is the same as a turn of 90°
  • I know that an angle of 180° is the same as a straight line
  • I know that a whole turn is the same as 360°
  • I can recognise angles which are 270°
  • I can relate 90°, 180°, 270° and 360° angles to quarter, half, three quarter and one whole turns
  • I can relate compass points to these angles and the appropriate fractions and turns (north, south, east and west)

This week in P7/6’s class maths, we started a new unit of work looking at different angles and linking this to our learning about fractions and compass points from last term. We started by creating a list of key words that link to directions and angles including: North, South, East, West, right, left, forwards, backwards, 90 degrees, clockwise, anticlockwise and diagonal. We all had to put our arms out in front of us and show a 90 degree turn, followed by 180 degrees, then 270 degrees then finally a 360 degree turn. We also looked at what these would look like when drawn on the board and realised that these turns were also linked to fractions, e.g. 90 degrees is a quarter turn. Next, we were given the challenge to direct Miss Sherlow to one of the chairs in the classroom using some of our new vocabulary, but Dylan made her go a bit too far and she bumped into it! We then had to try to direct Jack into the corridor but we overestimated how far he needed to move and Glen M accidentally  made him walk all the way into Mrs Gordon’s classroom. However, we learned from our mistakes and eventually managed to get each person where they needed to be. We used language like ’10 paces forward’ and ‘turn 180 degrees clockwise’ to help us.

We then split into groups and rotated around 3 activities:

  1. Theme Park Directions activity
  2. Working with Miss Sherlow- completing HAM textbook pages 6 and 7.
  3. Sumdog

There was a lot of laughing in our classroom during our maths lesson this week, but we definitely all learned something new about angles, compass points, fractions and directions.

“I especially enjoyed Miss Sherlow walking into the chair and table. It was hilarious. I also learned that a 270 degree turn is the same as a 3 quarters turn,” commented Kieran.

“Jack walked into Mrs Gordon’s classroom and it was funny. It took us a while, but we got there in the end” said Dylan.

“It was fabulous learning about angles and directions,” added Max.

Interdisciplinary Learning, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 7

Maths in Primary 7/6

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Learning Intention:

We are learning to talk about the different ways that money is represented and accessed (MNU 2-09a)

Success Criteria:

  • I can talk about the ways I can access money
  • I can talk about representations of money such as vouchers, credit cards, rail/pre-pay tickets
  • I can give examples of where people keep the money they have and how they access it
  • I can talk about how people earn or obtain money
  • I can talk about how to be safe with money

As part of our Young Enterprise IDL topic, we have been learning about money in real life contexts. We have been learning about what goods and services are and have been giving examples of each. We have also talked about the different types of bank cards that you can get, e.g. credit and debit cards and we learned about the differences between these. We learned about cash machines and we now know that some people call them ‘holes in the wall’ or ATM (automated teller machine) machines and that there is usually a £300 limit that you can withdraw. To help keep your money safe, everyone is given a PIN to access their money from the cashline. If you forget your PIN, the bank can send you a new one. This is to help stop fraud on your account. We also learned that if you are shopping online, it is safer to use a credit card. We talked about what cheques are and now know that they are a safe way of sending money to people as gifts because they can be cancelled if it doesn’t reach them.

Once we had a good understanding of all of these different ways to pay for things, we spilt into groups to complete our activities.

Group 1- Working with Miss Sherlow- We learned about the best ways to pay for different goods and services

Group 2- Game group- We were learning about different ways people pay for things and who might use those methods

Group 3- Sumdog Challenge

“I liked learning about credit cards because I now know the dangers and how to use them safely,” commented Ross.

“I enjoyed doing the board games because you had to explain what different money related items were and I learned about some new ones,” said Carrie.

“I enjoyed giving advice about how to safe with money because we got to use our previous knowledge to help us,” added Abbie.