Category Archives: Curriculum Areas

Expressive Arts, Outside of School, Sciences

Crystal Grotto at Jupiter Artland P2/3

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P2/3 visited the artwork entitled The Light Pours Out of Me at Jupiter Artland. They were using their senses to describe the artwork and they talked about the artist and the other senses she uses in her art such as the taste of her chocolate room!

Back in class they solved a design challenge to create an amethyst grotto as a class display. They made artworks with salt crystals and shades of purple acrylic paint. They also used triangles to make a geometric design. They used paint but also an Art app called Art Set. This can be downloaded free.

We learnt new words for purple such as mauve, periwinkle and magenta.

We also saw a smooth shiny material called obsidian. Can you find out more about this glass-like rock? can you find out more about the artist who made the huge grotto. What is her name? What other sculptures has she made?

Events, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7

West Lothian SumDog Competition

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P1-7 have been entered to take part in West Lothian’s latest Sumdog contest. This runs from 10-16th March and can be played at both home and at school using the SumDog website or app. All pupils should have their SumDog log in their homework diary/ book.

The children have to answer 1000 questions and their score is based on accuracy, not speed or winning games. There are also prizes to be won and certificates will be given out at Assembly for those children in the top 50 from across West Lothian.

Good luck everyone!

Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Technologies

Leadership through Digital Technologies

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Several of our classes have created a class Yammer page to share their learning journey throughout our STEM IDL contexts. Last week, Primary 5B supported Primary 3/2 and Primary 3 to help them to get logged on to and explore the features of Yammer. They helped them to access the tool through the Glow launchpad, join their class group, contribute to a poll, and to comment on pictures. Maya and Brooke also took the lead as administrators on each Yammer page, accepting new requests to join and keeping the teachers informed with progress.

To support the use of other Glow tools, P5B also shared their knowledge of Sway with Primary 4B to help them to create a fact file about the solar system. P5 gave them a tour of the key features of the Glow tool, then supported them when they began to explore it themselves while making their presentations. They also logged on to P4’s Project Planetarium Yammer page to view the completed Sways, giving them two stars and a wish feedback based on their success criteria.

This week, Primary 4B were then able to use this new knowledge and skills to support P4A when they were creating their Sways about the solar system. A fantastic example of our pupils becoming digital leaders!

Achievements, Events, Health & Wellbeing, Primary 7, Responsible Roles, Uncategorized

Magical Mediators receive WL Stellar Award!

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On Friday afternoon the Magical Mediators and their parents/ carers were invited along to the West Lothian Stellar Awards at Howden Park Centre where they received the winning award for Responsible Citizens.

The information below details why these group of pupils were nominated for the award and the impact they have had on the school and themselves. A big Congratulations to all the Magical Mediators for this huge achievement, we are very proud of them.

https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/13221/Spotlight-on-pupils-at-Stellar-Awards

  • How the outcome was achieved, were there barriers, new ideas, teamwork etc.

Over two years as a Senior Management Team we recognised that we were having ongoing issues in the playground. As part of a way to address the issues we introduced Responsible Roles for Primary 7 pupils which included:

  • Playful Pals: They have the responsibility of teaching younger pupils playground games, looking after the playground equipment and ensuring children are not on their own at break and lunch times.
  • Safe Security: They have the responsibility of ensuring the playground area and toilets areas safe and pupils are using the facilities responsibility.
  • Magical Mediators: They operate a peer mediation programme which helps pupils solve disputes in the playground through a coaching programme.

The Primary 7 pupils filled out an application form and were allocated a role depending on their knowledge, skills and qualities, they then underwent training for their specific role.

  • Who was involved/ affected – those involved, those supporting, those who benefitted.

Initially the Magical Mediators were trained along with St. Ninian’s Primary by the Scottish Mediation Network, the pupils now run their own training programme. They work in partnership with the pupil support workers and are supported by the depute head teacher. The Magical Mediator service is offered to P1-7 pupils. Our Magical Mediators are still in regular contact with the Scottish Mediation Network, who have written case studies about our programme to share our learning with others.

  • What was learned.

The Magical Mediators help our pupils become independent by helping them develop conflict resolution skills there preparing them with skills for learning, life and work. Pupils in the school have become more solution orientated by trying to solve their own problems first before asking an adult for help.

The Magical Mediators programme has impacted hugely on their Primary 7 leadership skills as they have responsibility for leading and developing the programme. They have developed their communication skills in a number of ways from promoting and advertising the service through Assemblies, promotion videos and our school blog to how they communicate with the pupils who use their service. They have developed resilience and problem solving skills in order to independently  overcome difficult situations. They have also developed their organisation skills by

  • What makes the achievement/project/group/individual special.

Our Magical Mediators have represented our school and West Lothian at the Scottish Medication Conference and more recently they were asked to share our journey to schools across Scotland at the Scottish Young Talks Conference.  At this conference they received an award from the Scottish Mediation in recognition for our Outstanding Contribution to Peer Mediation in Scotland by a School.

  • What are the lasting impacts of the achievement/project etc.

Our Magical Mediators continue to have a lasting impact on the health and wellbeing of the pupils in our school. It is a sustainable programme, as the Primary 7 pupils have developed training workshops to  train the new magical mediators each year. We regularly support the Scottish Mediation Network with their research and have appeared in their Young Talks Magazine several times.

You can find out more about our Magical Mediators on our blog:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/wl/mcps/?s=magical+mediators&searchsubmit=

Primary 1, STEM 2017, Technologies

Building in P1

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We are learning that buildings are created for a variety of purposes                               

We are learning that different materials are used for different parts of a building

SC

  • I can name different types of buildings
  • I can name different parts of a building
  • I can describe the different materials used in a building and say why each one is effective

We started our new IDL by reading and talking about the story of The 3 Little Pigs. We explored the materials used to build the houses in the story, and decided why the straw and the sticks were not particularly suitable. The bricks were definitely the best choice!

We then watched a video clip about building a house, and considered some of the materials suggested for the different parts of the building – jelly walls? hair roof? newspaper windows? We could give very good reasons why these materials would not be appropriate, and we suggested much better alternatives. There were lots of examples of these building materials all around us in school- eg bricks, concrete, wood and glass.

We decided that these materials would probably be used for other types of buildings too.

We have now set up a Site Office in our classroom,  and we are going to keep an eye on the progress that is being made with the Nursery next door. Now, we plan to investigate some of the different types of work carried out when a new building is created, and we would also like to explore the various roles that people have throughout the process.

English & Literacy

Getting Ready for Responsible Roles

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Learning intention:

We are learning to complete an application form.

Success Criteria (decided by P6):

I can show my understanding of the role through my answers.

I can write persuasively.

I can use formal language.

I can present my work neatly.

 

Primary 6 have been thinking ahead to next year and getting ready for taking on their Responsible Roles: Playful Pals, Magical Mediators and Safe Security. We have been learning about what each of these roles entail and have written our application forms ready to pass onto Miss Burton to check over with a fine-tooth comb!

To prepare to write our application forms we read examples and discussed what would should be include in an application. We thought about our previous experiences, specialist knowledge and personal skills. The result was that each application turned out to be very personal and a true reflection of each pupil. We look forward to hearing back from Miss Burton in a few weeks!

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, STEM 2017

MISSING!

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L.I. We are learning to select key information from a description.

As part of our STEM topic, ‘KIDNAPPED’, Primary 5 have been helping the police in their search for the missing Green children who have been kidnapped from their home. This week we decided to create some Missing Persons posters to help with the investigation. We revised all the information we already had about the children and the circumstances of their disappearance.

In our investigation groups we discussed the information we had and selected the key points to include in our posters. We agreed that they had to:

  • be eyecatching, to hook people in
  • provide as much accurate information about the children as possible
  • give details of the date and time of the disappearance
  • give an accurate representation of how the children look
  • provide details of who to contact with information

Once we had planned our posters, we got to work in our teams and managed to produce some really eye-catching posters. We are hoping to get permission to display some around the school – look out for them!

Sciences, STEM 2017, Technologies

P4b’s Space-tacular Assembly!

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Well done to Primary 4B for a FANTASTIC assembly today all about their Project Planetarium STEM IDL Context. We have learned so much about the planets and the moon in our space missions so far and cant wait to find out what is next!
Thank you to all parents and carers who managed to attend. The children enjoyed preparing, practicing and presenting their assembly! Here are some pictures from the assembly and a link to the prezi presentation for any parents and carers who couldn’t attend and for the pupils to watch again!

Prezi Presentation: http://prezi.com/r6m6ljei5pt6/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Primary 7, Sciences, STEM 2017, Uncategorized

Cool Chemistry in P7/6

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LI: We are learning to identify the features of a fair test

LI: We are learning to classify materials

SC: I can identify that a material/substance has changed through decay, cooking, burning, rusting, melting and dissolving.

I can investigate what causes this change.

This week we kicked off our new topic ‘Cool Chemistry’ and we have been very busy discovery what chemistry is and what processes we have to go through when conducting an experiment.We are all excited that we are going to be learning about chemistry and what this involves. At the beginning of the week we looked how materials can changed through different processes. We were all given a small piece of clay which we examined and we had to describe its properties. Some of the words that we came up with were: flexible, moist, dusty, strong smell, squishy, gritty and soft. We then watched a film to see what happens to clay when it gets fired in a kiln. Once the clay had gone through the heating process the properties of it were very different. Some of the words that we used to describe the properties of the fired clay were: smooth, hard, fragile, rigid, breakable. We discussed how clay would not be able to go back to its original form and came up with other materials that this would happen to when they have gone through a change, we discussed that  bread and eggs could not go back to their original form.

We also learned about fair testing, what this involves and why it is necessary. Once we had learned about fair testing we then conducted our own investigation into what melts faster, butter or chocolate. We discussed how we could make this a fair test and decided that we had to keep the water at the same temperature when melting the butter and chocolate, the water had to be the same amount and the butter and chocolate had to be the same amount otherwise this would not be fair and our results might vary. We made predictions and were surprised at some of the results. We are looking forward to learning more about chemistry over the coming weeks.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for more experiments.

 

Miss Anderson

 

Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 1, Primary 2, STEM 2017, Technologies

P2/1 – Building Our Nursery

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We are learning to understand that different materials are used for different purposes.

We are learning to investigate the properties of different materials.

  • I can name different materials and explain why they might be used for different parts of a building.
  • I can find a variety of materials around the school and explain why it has been used for the purpos

This week we have been exploring the different materials we can use to build and design, we had a choice of different rotations:

  • Using machinery in the sand to build.
  • Designing plans for the nursery in the architect’s office.
  • Selecting materials to build a nursery.