Category Archives: Information for Parents

Community, Events, Fundraising, PSA

Christmas Raffle Prizes

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Thank you to the PSA for organising our Christmas Raffle.

The PSA Christmas Raffle will be drawn on Friday 11th after the last school concert. Raffle tickets can still be handed into the school and you will have the chance to enter the Christmas raffle during the Christmas Concerts this week . The prizes so far have been donated from –

  • PSA Luxury Hamper
  • School Staff Luxury Hamper
  • Partylite
  • Blair Castle
  • Butterfly & Insect World
  • Dundee Heritage Trust
  • Park View Coffee Shop
  • Linlithgow Union Canal Society
  • New Lanark World Heritage Site
  • Royal Commonwealth Pool
  • Edinburgh International Climbing Areana
  • Camera Obscura
  • Potter Around
  • The Scotch Whisky Experience
  • Hopetoun House
  • The Falkirk Wheel
  • Rosslyn Chapel
  • The Retreat Health & Beauty Salon
  • Jupiter Artland
  • Edinburgh Bus Tours
  • Sue Hunter Creations
  • Edinburgh Filmhouse
  • Bang Tidy Tans
  • Scottish Seabird Centre
  • Forth Bridges Cruise
  • Nicola Adams Forever Gifts
  • Variouse Toiletries donated by Parents

Thank you for supporting the school and good luck.

Community, Events, Fundraising, PSA, Uncategorized

Christmas Fair 2015

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On Friday Mid Calder community braved the weather and turned up at MCPS for our Christmas Fair. The PSA had organised lots to do from face painting to Christmas crafts, shopping to delicious refreshments, and there was a special visitor too! A huge thank you to our PSA and staff for organising the fair, and to our P7 helpers. Also thank you to everyone who came along to support our school, there was a real community atmosphere.

If you couldn’t make it along there will be a chance to enter the raffles during our Christmas Concerts this week.

 

 

 

After School Clubs, Primary 5, Primary 7

Scrapbooking Club

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We have spent the last 5 weeks making some decorative memory pages for our own scrapbooks. We have included baby photos, pets, friends and family, holidays, birthdays and lots of other exciting experiences.

Here is a photo of us with all of our fabulous scrapbooking pages.

Here are some comments from our scrapbooking team:

“This has been a fun experience . Try it out!”

“Scrapbooking rules!”

“I didn’t realise how much I loved scrapbooking!”

“Scrapbooking is the best!”

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Ms.Snobel

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’
Achievements, Events, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, Primary 7, Uncategorized, Useful Websites

Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest

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A huge well done to all the children in Primary 5-7 that took part in Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest last week. Each person that contributed was to answer 1000 questions on a variety of topics within maths and were then ranked based on how many questions they answered correctly. Out of the 743 children that took part, Mid Calder had 10 pupils in the top 50! A fantastic achievement, and a brilliant opportunity to build upon your mental maths skills. Congratulations! 

Expressive Arts, Primary 7, Transition, Uncategorized

Transition: Dazzling Dazzle Camouflage Art – P7 Art

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P7 Art-Ms Thompson

Ms Thompson comes to Mid Calder Primary from West Calder High School every Monday and Thursday to work with all the Primary 7’s. This is part of our transition to High School and to make it easier to experience what it might be like when we go up to High School next August.

In P7, we have been learning how to draw Dazzle Camouflaged Spitfires. The Dazzle technique was used in World War 1 and 2. They put it on ships to confuse the enemy of what speed the ship was going, what side was the front and which was the back and what side the ship was from. (The Germans or the Britains)

L.I: We are learning to draw spitfires and camouflage them using the Dazzle technique.

S.C: We will be able to successfully complete our Dazzle Camouflage Spitfires and make them into models out of clay.

The skills we need to use are: concentration, listening, sketching, respect (to Ms Thompson) and a steady hand.

Firstly, Ms Thompson explained what Dazzle camouflage is, then we got all of our necessary equipment (A pencil, tracing paper and a picture of a spitfire) and we traced the picture of our chosen spitfire. Then we drew a grid on a fresh piece of paper and our tracing paper, we then transferred our tracing to the other piece of paper. We drew in all of the details and then we were on to drawing our design. We then got a piece of paper and drew our Dazzle pattern in black pen; it included a lot of different and unique pretty patterns. Next we had to block our design to ensure we could camouflage it correctly. Finally we had to transfer our design on to our spitfire drawing.

We know that our next step is to start modelling the clay into the spitfire shape. The clay has ARRIVED!

“It’s really enjoyable and it is preparing me for High School” Laura Mackay

“It is good fun and it calms me down” Lachlan McGukin

“It is super fun and it’s getting me excited for High School” Olivia Jones

“It is a fun experience and gets us ready for High School” Romany Moffat

“It’s very enjoyable and making me more confident in art” Neve Cormack

“I love to make the designs on the Spitfires and now I really, really like art” Millie Thomson

“Art is fun and it gets you thinking at the same time” Caitlin Black

“It is exciting but challenging” Andrew Vince

“You can imagine what you are going to make” Callum West

Primary 7, Technologies, Transition

Transition: P7 CDT lesson

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This week Primary 7 group 1’s had a visit from the high school CDT teacher, Dr Cherry. He was here to help us with the transition to High School and show us some of the skills we would be learning when we get there.

We learned to draw straight lines without using a ruler, for example vertical, horizontal and diagonal. He also taught us a technique on how to draw squares, using only horizontal lines and then turning your paper to a different angle. He gave us a top tip – to use all the joints in our arm when drawing free hand straight lines. This will help us control our lines.

We all look forward to his future visits to primary school and we are especially excited about visiting his workshop at West Calder high school in 3 weeks time. We will keep on practicing our techniques until then!

“I liked drawing the lines free hand!” – Chiaro

“I liked it when he taught us the proper names for light lines and heavy lines” – Michael

“It helped us feel more comfortable and confident about moving up to high school” – Holly

“Dr Cherry made us feel comfortable about the lesson and trying new skills. He also told very funny jokes! – ‘Have you ever heard of the magic tractor? It turned in to a field!’