Category Archives: Nursery

A Special Visitor

This morning the nursery had a very special visitor…Charlie Dog. Charlie is a therapy dog who works with lots of children and used to be a regular visitor in our school. The children were very excited and asked lots of questions…

“Why is he deaf?” Daisy

“Why does his tail wag?” Liam

“How old is Charlie?” Molly

Carol told us that Charlie was 14 and went to hydro therapy to  help his legs and because he was old he had lost his hearing. Erin told us that Charlie wags his tail when he is happy. We really enjoyed our visit and look forward to  Charlie coming back to visit the afternoon children.

Our New Friends in the Nursery

To help us remember our well being indicators we decided to give them names, SAFE Sophie, RESPONSIBLE Nina and Flynn the dog, ACTIVE Alfie, INCLUDED Pom Poms, Achieving Alex, RESPECTFUL Rookies and NURTURED Cookie. The children shared how the indicators helped them and decided to create a book to help them remember what the indicators were. Anyone who visits our nursery can have a look through our fantastic book to see our wonderful drawings and read what the children have written.

Term 3 Celebration Assembly

Today we welcomed parents and friends along to our Celebration Assembly so that pupils could receive their STEM Super Star and Successful Speller awards.

Certificates and prizes were also given to the children who won our Bookworm, STEM and Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team’s challenges and competitions, and to the 5 pupils who represented our school at the West Lothian Burns Contest. We also announced the Top Scorers for each house, along with our house winner.

A big thank you to Hannah Rarity for inspiring us by sharing her interpretation of our school motto, Believe, Achieve, Succeed, and for sharing her journey of hard work and determination to become the successful singer she is today. Thank you also to Leah, P6, who impressed us with her own musical talents and played ‘Clowns’ for us on the piano.

Well done to all of our award winners!

The Nursery Bake Off!

The boys and girls have been taking part in bake off sessions in the nursery. So far they have made crispie cakes, scones, top hats and shortbread. They have enjoyed learning how chocolate melts, how to measure ingredients, the feeling and smells they experience while baking. We have all enjoyed this learning experience…including the staff! Keep watching for more bake off updates.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2018 at Mid Calder Primary School

Over the last two weeks we have been celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight by taking part in various activities, competitions and experiences. The children have embraced learning about Fairtrade and enjoyed sharing their learning.

Each class was assigned a Fairtrade product to find out about. Have a look at what each class got up to!

Nursery

We have included a picture of our floorbook, comic life and pictures of the children exploring the fairtrade items Mrs Murphy had brought in from the Fair Tradewind shop in Linlithgow. After seeing the worry dolls the children asked if they could make their own worry dolls.

Primary 1: Bananas

P1 learned about Pablo the Banana. He taught the P1’s about what Fairtrade means and also about the journey of the banana. We then designed our board games for the competition.

Primary 2 and 3: Coffee

P2 learned about coffee and other Fairtrade products. They were able to colour and label Fairtrade products from around the world and then draw a Fairtrade product that they have seen or tried.

Primary 3 learned about what Fairtrade is and why it important before researching their Fairtrade product, coffee. We used the netbooks to find out interesting facts and shared them with a partner. As we have been learning about fact and opinions in our reading lessons, we then using the Glow tool Forms to create a fact and opinion quiz about Fairtrade.

Primary 4 and 5: Brazil Nuts

P4 and P5 learned about the Brazil Nut. We found out about the story of the Brazil nuts by:

  • Finding out where and how Brazil nuts are grown and gathered
  • Looking at the rainforest and the factors needed to grow Brazil nuts
  • Talking about Fairtrade and how it can help Brazil nut gatherers to get a better deal

Primary 6: Tea

P6 had a great time  looking at a tea planting community in Malawi as part of Fairtrade Fortnight. We learned about how Fairtrade pays their workers fairly and also provides money to benefit the whole community. Pupils worked in groups to decide how money should be spent within a community (e.g. Food, water, healthcare, education etc). They had to decide which needs were most important- a difficult decision!

Primary 6/7: Footballs

Primary 6/7 took part in their own competition to ‘Design a Fairtrade football’. The Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team had a look at the fantastic designs and picked 1st, 2nd and 3rd place! Have a look at some of the designs:

 

There was lots of other fun things happening around the school too!

Nurture group: Baking with Fairtrade products

The nurture group worked with Mrs Kellner to make a Fairtrade banana loaf. They had lots of fun following the recipe, measuring the ingredients and mixing everything together! A delicious smell filled the corridors of the school and it tasted delicious!

 

Fairtrade breakfast: Bananas and Chocolate!

This week during breakfast club the children had the opportunity to taste Fairtrade bananas and chocolate. The boys and girls enjoyed dipping their bananas in the rich dark chocolate and it was smiles all round!

 

Fairtrade competition

The Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team launched a competition to design a Fairtrade board game. Lots of children across the school entered the competition and the JLT had a difficult decision trying to pick a P1-3 and P4-7 winner. They played some of the games to help make their decision. Winners will be announced next week! Have a look at some of the fantastic competition entries!

Visit from Lush Livingston

Lush in Livingston kindly offered to hold an assembly for the school to talk about their fresh handmade cosmetic products and give pupils the opportunity to purchase some of their fantastic range! However, due to the untimely Spring snow the visit has been re-scheduled. We will update you with this visit soon!

Nursery are Winter Ready!

Hello boys and girls,

We hope you are having fun with your family and friends on your snow days! Your teachers have been busy in the snow and have even set themselves a bake off challenge today. Look out for photos in our floorbook!

Here are some activities that you might want to do at home:-

  • First things first…… ‘Do you wanna build a snowman?’ Give him/her a name, put a photo on your learners journey and tell us about your new friend!
  • Use junk to make your snowman a friend indoors.
  • Bake some tasty treats and look at the numbers on the recipe. Can you measure the ingredients correctly?
  • Go for a number hunt around you house and local area. Where can you see numbers and why are they important? Take some photos and put them on your learners journey.
  • Practice writing your numbers in the snow. Can you use your footprints to make dotty patterns?
  • We have been using tally marks at nursery. Sort your lego in to colour groups and then record how many of each colour there is using tally marks.
  • Look for shapes around the house. Can you make some shapes using sticks, straws, playdough or go outside and make big shapes in the snow.
  • Practice writing your name. If an adult writes lots of names on a piece of paper, can you find your own name?
  • Read your favourite story. You could choose 2 books and show your family how we vote for our favourites in story time.
  • Play a game together – take turns, and look out for dotty patterns on the dice.
  • Go on to the RSPB website and find the recipe for making bird cake. This will help the wild birds who might be finding it difficult to find food.
  • Make ice balls – fill up balloons with water, hang them from a tree and leave them in the cold for a while. What do you think will happen? Take off the outer balloon and what are you left with?

Most importantly, stay safe and keep warm. We are looking forward to seeing your smiley faces back in nursery soon!

The Nursery Team

 

School Closure

Good morning everyone,

I know you will have had a group call to say the school is closed tomorrow and that we will miss both the ‘P7 Assembly’ and the ‘Bingo Night’.

We will reschedule the P7 assembly for later in the session, I know they have put a lot of work into their presentations and it would be a shame if they did not get to showcase them. I am sure the PSA will be in touch to let everyone know the new arrangements for the bingo night.

The conditions are not ideal but it is lovely to look out and for children to venture out and have fun. I was out yesterday for a short while to clear garden paths and it was bitter cold, this morning you would not know where these paths are!

Boys and girls if you are outside keep wrapped up cosy and keep yourself safe. I look forward to seeing you all back with lots of stories on Monday.   Mrs McKenzie

Snow Snow Snow

Good morning everyone,

Here we are all stuck at home and wondering what we can do!

I do not imagine that is the situation at all and you are already very busy. However, boys and girls you could catch up on your spelling homework, read an extra few pages of your reading book or use your Sum-dog log in to complete some maths challenges OR you could get outside build an amazing snow structure, take a picture and e-mail the school with them. I am sure your teacher would love to see what you did on your day off. Take care and keep safe when you are outside, hope to see you tomorrow.                                                     Mrs McKenzie

 

Nursery Eco Warriors!

The nursery children have been exploring the outdoors. While on these outings they noted there was lots of litter in the area. After discussing what we could do about this the children said they would like to help to clean up their environment. Armed with litter pickers and bin bags they set out on their eco warrior adventure. I’m sure you would agree, what a fabulous job they did.