Category Archives: English & Literacy

Community, English & Literacy, Events, Homework, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Useful Websites

P4-7 Parent Drop In: Using ICT to Support Homework

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Thank you to all of you who attended the 4-7 parent drop in session, looking at how to use ICT to support learning at home.

If you were unavailable to attend you will find out more information by clicking below:

Sum Dog

Purple Mash

Here is the feedback from those who attended:

Tickled Pink:

  • It was excellent to see SumDog and to know more about Purple Mash. Both will be good learning tools made fun for the children.
  • Sum Dog and Purple Mash both look like fun programmes for learning.

Sum Dog:

  • My child loves it can use it independently.
  • They have never been so keen to do maths homework before this.
  • Likes to compete with friends.
  • Quick, fast, keeps the mind ticking.
  • Feels like a game.
  • Can do it on their own, therefore it doesn’t seem like homework.
  • Instructions really clear and formative.
  • I now understand what Sum Dog does.
  • Excellent way for them to learn in a fun way.

Purple Mash:

  • Really caught their imagination.
  • My child loves it.
  • Great that they can use it independently.
  • Looks like a great tool. Many thanks to Anna for her clear explanation.

Green for Growth:

  • Purple Mash can have some aspects that are quite difficult
  • Would be good to have written work to back up Sum Dog
  • Clearer instructions of what homework is and what is ‘nice to do’
English & Literacy, Primary 3

Dear family and friends of P3…

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We are learning to write a letter of invitation.

Success Criteria

I can include:

  • the school address in the top right hand corner
  • The date underneath the address
  • An appropriate greeting
  • Persuasive wow words to make my guest want to come to my event
  • The date, time, price and venue of my event
  • An appropriate sign off

In P3 last week, we wrote our letters of invitation for either our Nativity called ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ or to Edinburgh Zoo for a day out with friends. Within our writing, we needed to include features such as an appropriate greeting and sign off, the price of the ticket and correct punctuation.

During our planning session, we worked in pairs and read through Miss Kerr’s good example of a letter of invitation and a letter of invitation that was missing some important features. Our job was to highlight features that met the success criteria (tickled pink) and highlight features that were missing with green (green for growth). We had to tell Miss Kerr how she could make her letter better.

After, we wrote our letters of invitation in our groups with help from Miss Kerr, Mrs Allsopp and Mrs Robertson. Some of us read out our letters to inspire others that were struggling with their ideas.

When we finished our writing, we had to self and peer assess using traffic light colours and then write the evidence to match our assessment.

“I enjoyed it because I like writing invitations and it was fun”- Finlay Fraser

“I thought it was fun because I like writing invitations”- Rebekah Bell

“I am proud of myself because I got my letter completely finished in the time, meeting the success criteria and including details about my part”- Matthew P W

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Uncategorized

P4 Week ending 20th November 2015

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In P4 this week the children have been working hard on their IDL project linked to our Roald Dahl topic. In the spirit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the children have worked in a group to set up a company. The aim of the company is to design a chocolate bar which will be a top seller for Willy Wonka! The companies are currently very busy conducting market research. Mrs Mackie.

In  P4 we have been learning about Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.

In maths we learned how to measure water using a scale. In our  project we got a letter from Mr Willy Wonka . Jamie Hardie

We have been learning about our body in class. Lucy Paris

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, Uncategorized

P5/4’s Confectionery Creations

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Inspired by Roald Dahl’s book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, P5/4 have been inventing their own confectionery products.

Learning intention – We are learning to use our market research create our own confectionery product.

Success Criteria – A successful product will reflect the findings of our market research.

A successful product name will be catchy and memorable.

Firstly, we created our own market research questionnaires about the choices that other children in the school make about confectionery (e.g. Are you allergic to anything? What colour of packaging would you prefer? Do you like chocolate/sweets?). We sent these questionnaires to Miss Sherlow’s class and they answered them for us.

Next, we studied the responses carefully and collected information from the questionnaires. We used this to invent our own confectionery product.

Soon we will be designing logos and packaging for our products.

Fraser: ‘This is a fun and exciting task!’

Freya: ‘I am excited about the challenge.’

Ryan: ‘I think the challenges will be fun and I am looking forward to building my skills from P4.’

Mhari: ‘I enjoyed coming up with a product name.’

Lewis: ‘We used the research to figure out what we were going to do.’

Natalie: ‘I enjoyed making the questionnaire because we got to create lots of questions to help us make our product.’

English & Literacy, Homework, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Supporting homework, Technologies, Useful Websites

Homework: Using Purple Mash at home to support literacy and numeracy

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All pupils will soon have a Purple Mash login in their reading records or homework diary. Purple Mash helps develop literacy and numeracy skills in relevant and engaging ways whilst promoting ICT skills.

You can find out more about Purple Mash by clicking here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxDWPUZVSNc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahKiZpM_H_0

Pupils can log into Purple Mash using their logon through the following link: https://www.purplemash.com/sch/midcalder-EH53

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5

P5’s Wonkatastic Market Research

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Learning Intention- We are learning to conduct market research into the different types of confectionary that people like

Success Criteria:
A quality questionnaire includes:

  • An introduction
  • Numbered questions
  • A variety of different types of questions
  • Simple language to make sure the reader understands
  • A clear order
  • A concluding statement
  • Accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation

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….

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, Uncategorized

Rainforests in a Bottle

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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.


During our sharing the learning afternoon, we used those instructions to make our own rainforest in the bottle with our family members. To share our learning, we had also created rainforest quizzes on the computer that our guests had to complete, we had a rainforest themed money challenge and we had made krispie cakes as a treat because cocoa beans that are used to make chocolate can be found in the rainforest.

“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.

English & Literacy, Expressive Arts, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5

Rainforest Art in Primary 5

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Learning Intention:

We are learning how to blend colours using oil pastels to create a piece of rainforest art.

Success Criteria:

I can use pictures and images to help me accurately draw a sketch of my chosen animal

I know what colours work well together to blend my pastels effectively

 

Through our rainforest IDL context, we have been learning all about the people and animals that live in the rainforest. Having already learned about different rainforest animals by researching then using our notes to create a fact file, we decided to use this knowledge to help us create a piece of art. We knew all about the appearance and habitat of our chosen animals and used this to sketch out an outline of our animal before exploring how to blend colours through the medium of oil pastels. We felt very proud of the end results, and we hope that you like them too!