Category Archives: English & Literacy

Ooh La La! French Culture Hits Mid Calder.

Come along to our Curriculum Evening on Tuesday to find out how we learn about France, French culture and French vocabulary. The upper school will be there to present their learning with videos, Powerpoints and posters.

Miss Brolls will try to offer ways to support Modern Languages evening using cartoons

OR with a structured lesson as below

French First Level Classroom Talk Updated

Primary 5 Spectacular Spelling

Primary 5A and Primary 5C have been busy working on new ways to learn their spelling words. The children have enjoyed using their new spelling grids for homework which gives them a lot more choice and allows them to learn their spelling lists in different ways. In class, the children have continued to use a variety of games and activities to support their spelling, such as ‘Dictionary Race’, ‘Hangman’, ‘Spelling Tennis’, ‘Kim’s Game’ and ‘Words Within Words’. Children can work within their own spelling group or choose to challenge themselves by working with a different group to try more difficult words.

‘Spelling games are fun and great for learning’ – MILLIE

‘I think spelling games are good for learning and they help you remember how to spell your words’ – TEAGAN

Robert burns night

As you might know its Robert burns night on the 25th of January our school tradition is to learn a Scots poem and this year we’re doing it on the 1st of February.  we have filmed a video telling you facts all about Robert burns .we all give you good luck.

  • Robert burns was born on the 25th January 1759  and died on the   21 July 1796  at the age 37.
  • Robert Burns originally spelled his name ‘Burnes’
  • Robert Burns was going to move from Scotland to Jamaica. He decided against this when sales of poetry collection Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (also known as the Kilmarnock volume) took off. He moved to Edinburgh instead, and a second edition of his poetry book was published.
  • Robert Burns was voted ‘The Greatest Scot’ by viewers of STV in 2009. He beat William Wallace, Sir Alexander Fleming and Robert the Bruce.

An Avalanche of Arctic Advice

We are learning about the Arctic
I can describe the climate of the Arctic
I can describe the living things found in the Arctic
I understand how the climate and the landscape affects the living things

This week, a special delivery arrived for Primary 3. We used our skills of prediction to guess what was inside the box, using the clues on the wrapping to help us to make a realistic prediction. That is how we met Gamba the Giraffe. Gamba was lost and needed our help to find his way home. First of all, we had to use our research skills to find out where Gamba came from. We used iPads and netbooks to discover that we needed to help him get back to Africa, then we sent him on his way.

However, we soon heard back from Gamba to let us know that he hadn’t quite made it back home. He asked for our help to find out about this strange land that he had arrived in. He needed to know about the climate, landscape and living things that he might see in, what we quickly discovered was, the Arctic. Again, we used our research skills to find out new information, using key words to help us find out the facts quickly and easily.

We then used our Glow accounts to email Gamba to tell him what we had found out and give him advice about what to do next. We learned how to add a recipient, include a subject heading and how to layout an email.

We can’t wait to hear back from Gamba to see if he manages to get back home…

Book Week in P2

Last week the children in Primary 2  were very excited to receive their Read, Write,  Count bags as part of  the Book Week Scotland event.

First, Primary 5 children were welcomed into the classroom to  present the bags to the younger boys and girls. They explored the contents of the bag together, and spent a little time choosing and reading one of the books.

We were then joined by family and friends later in the afternoon, and had lots of fun playing some of the suggested number games using the resources in the bag, as well as completing some of the tasks related to the book ‘Mr Tiger Goes Wild’ by Peter Brown.

At the end of the afternoon we listened to author Kes Gray read his story of Quick Quack Quentin which was the other book in our Read, Write, Count bag. There was lots of fun and laughter as we worked out what our names would sound like if the letter A was missing!

Kes Gray is one of our favourite authors in Primary 2, so please ask us about some of the other books we have read that were also written by him.

Thank you to everyone to came to visit. We hope you enjoyed exploring the Read, Write, Count bags as much as we did.

P1W’s Book Bag Gifting

Last Thursday, we invited our P7 buddies to our class to gift our book bag’s as part of Book Week. Our P7 buddies enjoyed reading the stories with the children and showing P1 what they had been given in their book bag.

We also invited our relatives and friends to our class on Thursday afternoon, to participate in activities related to the three picture books included in our book bag (Gorilla Loves Vanilla, Little Owl’s Egg and The Fourth Bonniest Baby in Dundee) and gain ideas of how to use this fantastic resource at home.

 

We were all very excited to receive our book bags and share them with our families and friends. Thank you to everyone who was able to visit P1W!

 

Nursery Book Bag Gifting

The nursery children were very excited today as it was the day of our book bag gifting and all our anti-preschool children were receiving their bag with lovely new books and activities inside. Our preschool children were not forgotten and were delighted to receive a new book to take home.

Some of our parents and grandparents attended the gifting and along with the children were very excited about our special visitor. The Book Bug came along to our nursery to give the boys and girls their gifts. The children enjoyed giving him hugs and high fives and loved showing him our new nursery. After our gifting the parents and grandparents went with the children in to their key groups and the teachers read the group one of the books from the anti-preschool bag. The adults were able to observe our voting system and were involved in choosing what book each group read. We used the title, cover and author to help us make the decision. We all then enjoyed reading together and listening to the stories, discussing afterwards what we liked about it.

This was a lovely way to spend our session at nursery and a super way to encourage families to read at home together and learn more about the books they enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who supported this event.

 

 

P1P’s Brilliant Book Bug Bags

P1P have had a very exciting week for Scottish Book Week!

At the start of the week we spent time reading and exploring the 3 picture books that were shortlisted for The Bookbug Picture Book Prize, we also watched some fantastic videos of the authors reading their stories. After we watched the author videos we voted for our favourite book using gems, ‘Gorilla Loves Vanilla’ was the winner of the vote!

On Thursday we were very excited because our P7 Buddies came down to our class to deliver very special P1 Bookbug Bag. These bags were filled with fantastic activities and stories for us to use at home. Later in the afternoon our parents came in and we shared different activities we can use with our Bookbug bags!

We had a fantastic time and thank you to everyone who was able to come in and visit!