Category Archives: Technologies

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Nursery, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Digital Leaders for Digital Learning Week

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To celebrate Education Scotland’s National Digital Learning Week, our Technical Troopers have been working extremely hard to make a #digitaldifference in Mid Calder Primary School. They have delivered lessons across all stages of our school, teaching our pupils how to use a range of digital tools to enhance their learning. Primary 4A, 4B and P3 received a lesson on how to use the Glow tool Forms, while P7/6 and P5A learned how to the Glow tool Sway. The Technical Troopers helped our Nursery children to develop their positional language by using the Bee-Bots, as well as supporting P1 with logging onto the netbooks and accessing a pirate themed activity using Purple Mash. Primary 6 were taught about the language of coding using Hour of Code, while P5B continued to develop their programming skills using Scratch to create a simple game. P3/2 were shown how to use the different features of iMovie to create a short film about their IDL context.

The Technical Troopers received lots of positive feedback from both the teachers and the pupils, and they did a fantastic job at sharing their own digital skills confidently to make a #digitaldifference.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Primary 5, Primary 7, Technologies, Uncategorized

Developing Digital Detectives in P5B

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We are learning to identify reliable sources online

– I can state what makes a source reliable
– I can spot signs that a source might not be reliable and justify my opinion
– I know the importance of double checking the facts I find online

To celebrate National Digital Learning Week, P5B became Digital Detectives and were learning all about how to spot the truth online. We discussed the different ways we can find out information and, as we live in a digital age, we realised how much we rely on the internet to find out facts and help us with research. However, we are also aware that we can’t believe everything we read online! We learned about lots of different ways that you can check if a source is reliable, for example, by looking at the date it was published or updated, considering the credibility of the author, and double checking the facts using a least one other site. We were given a range of QR codes and URL links and we had to use our detectives skills to work out whether or not we could trust each site.

In addition to this, we have also been receiving coding lessons from Sean and Ben in Primary 7 to celebrate Digital Learning Week. We had been using Hour of Code to learn about the language of programming, and then we heard that P7 were becoming Scratch experts so asked them to share their skills with us.In our first lesson, they helped us to explore the features of Scratch, and in the second lesson they extended our skills and helped us to begin to create a simple game. By the end of our two lessons, we were even able to teach each other following learning conversations with our experts.

We have also been using our own and the school’s devices to take part in the Scottish Sumdog contest this week to develop our mental maths skills.

Digital Learning Week 2017, Modern Languages, Primary 5, Technologies

Primary 5 aiment le francais!

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L.I. To read and understand French vocabulary

S.C. I can read and say some simple words and phrases in French

I can follow instructions in French

I can ask and respond to simple questions in the target language

 

In French this week, Primary 5 were consolidating their knowledge of colours, numbers and some food types. The children regularly use digital technology to enhance and extend their learning in French and this week was no exception. Using the Digital Dialects website they matched words to pictures in an interactive game to help consolidate their knowledge of fruit and vegetable names. They also used Google Translate to find the meanings of words and phrases related to our Lion King learning context. P5s are becoming increasingly confident in French and are enjoying using different ways of learning.

Niamh S said, ‘I thought using Google Translate was much more fun than using an ordinary dictionary’

Lucy P said, ‘Using the games on Digital Dialects helps me to remember the words better’

 

 

 

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Primary 7, Technologies

P7 Digital Learning Week

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National Digital Learning Week 2017 was taking place Monday 15 – Friday 19 May and was about celebrating how digital technology can make a positive difference to learning and teaching.

P7 have been learning about coding as part of their learning on for one of the technologies outcomes:

I can create, develop and evaluate computing solutions in response to a design challenge. TCH 2-15a

This started with learning about what coding is through a suitable platform. We chose Scratch as it is a child friendly and easy to use. We started with this as a reading task by reading the instructions to create a simple Scratch game. This gave us the understanding of using blocks of code and instructions to make things happen in a game. This included creating characters, making objects move and creating a way to win. We learnt that the computer will only do something if it has the right set of instructions so it is really important to check each stage is correct. We then started making and designing games to meet a challenge such as winning by getting 10 points, collecting items or beating an opponent.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Primary 7, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

Digital Learning Week in P7/6

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It has been Digital Learning week across the country and we at MCPS have been celebrating by  sharing our learning across all levels. The technical troopers have many talents and Cailin and Olivia  shared their knowledge of Sway, a tool for producing presentations, where the children can either work independently or contribute to a group Sway. Cailin and Olivia were the teachers for the morning and gave a short presentation as to how to use Sway and the features that can be used. Some of the children had already used Sway and were just building upon their knowledge but others had not used it before and needed a little bit more guidance. By the end of the lesson all children were able to contribute to our class ‘How does your garden grow?’ Sway and had made their own, some added pictures and some added videos. It was good to see Amy continuing with her Sway during free time Friday this week and building on her knowledge. I hope that some children might just use Sway in the future when presenting.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend.

Miss Anderson

 

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Digital Learning Week in P6

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On Tuesday, Primary 6 were lucky to have some Technical Troopers come into class and lead a session exploring coding. We were shown some resources such as https://code.org/learn to help us get started. This resource can be used at home to continue learning. The pupils were incredibly enthusiastic as they were given an opportunity to experience something completely new. We will follow this up over the coming weeks.

Achievements, Community, Events, Fundraising, Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3, Primary 5, Primary 7, Technologies

Hadden Construction Safety Competition

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Hadden Construction are building our new Nursery and they set us the challenge of designing a safety poster for the building site. As Primary 1 have been learning all about building they judged the competition. The winners were announced at assembly this morning and received a gift voucher funded by Hadden Construction. We are also using the rest of the donation to buy some new books for our new library.

A big well done to everyone who took part and thank you to Hadden Construction.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Nursery, Primary 5, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Digital Learning Week in the Nursery

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The Primary 5 boys and girls came to the nursery to show us how to use the beebots. They learned positional language, forwards, backwards, side to side, left and right. They used these directions to program the beebots and make them move. They linked it to number by rolling the dice and the number they rolled was the number of moves the beebot would make.

“They were going backwards and front ways!” – Sophia

“They were really fun.” – Eilidh

“I liked the beebots because I made mine go round in a circle.” – Hannah

 

We used the visualiser to project the children’s writing on to the smartboard. They were able to show their friends how they wrote their name and how they formed letters. They loved seeing their work on display.

The children have continued to use the ipad apps and have enjoyed choosing songs for the new ipod! They are now in control of the music in the nursery!

The go pro was in full swing keeping track of the children’s learning. It was keeping active and was also used for the children interviewing each other about what they were doing.

Some of the boys and girls have been practicing their keyboard skills while learning their letters and sounds.

 

The children then helped Mrs Murray do the blog post to share their learning.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2017, Primary 3, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

P3’s Digital Learning Week!

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This week P3 have been thinking about Digital Literacy and how it is used in our classroom to support and enhance learning. P3 think that Digital Literacy:

  • Gives children a different way to present information and demonstrate their learning.
  • Allows children to explore Numeracy, Literacy and other curriculum areas in a fun way through games and apps such as Sumdog and Purple Mash.
  • Allows children to share and discuss our learning through Sway and Yammer.
  • Helps children to concentrate because it is a fun way to learn.
  • Lets children explore new things that they have not seen before.
  • Helps to prepare children for CEM testing.

We also had a visit from the Technical Troopers this week who delivered a fantastic lesson showing the children how to create a questionnaire using Forms. The children loved this and were able to create questionnaires based on our context of Healthy Bodies and Healthy Minds.

Miss Clark: The Technical Troopers did a great job of showing the children how to create their questionnaires step by step.

Eilidh: I enjoyed learning how to make a questionnaire with pictures and videos!

Lewis Adams: I liked being able to pick a picture to add to my questionnaire.

Marc: I think the Technical Troopers were helpful and they showed me how to add a video and picture to my questionnaire.

Ben: The Technical Troopers were very kind and let us take our time using the netbooks.

Alex: I enjoyed the Technical Troopers teaching us more about using the Glow page to learn new things!

Curriculum Areas, Digital Learning Week 2017, Technologies, Uncategorized

P4B’s Terrific Tiling

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In maths this week, P4b have been developing their understanding of tiling and tessellation.
We have taken part in a range of practical, written and digital activities to explore how different shapes fit together to make different tiling patterns.
In class, we used digital technologies to research tiling in a real life context and to create a Word document showing different examples of tiling patterns. We were also able to explore how different 2D shapes fit together using our class SMARTboard and different tiling games.

As it is Education Scotland’s National Digital Learning Week, P4b have continued to use digital technologies to enhance and support their learning across the curriculum.

In technologies we have continued to develop our knowledge and understanding of the language of programming.

In literacy we have used online search engines to research letters of invitation and have also used Sumdog to develop our reading skills.

The Technical Troopers also came to P4B to lead a lesson on the Forms glow tool. This is a fantastic tool that the children have loved learning about. Some pupils have even made their own Forms Quiz at home since having this lesson.

#digitaldifference