Category Archives: Learning Stories

Health & Wellbeing, Primary 5, Primary 7, Sporting, Uncategorized

West Lothian Triathlon

Leave a comment

Yesterday, over 40 pupils from P5, P6 and P7 took part in the West Lothian Triathlon at Deans CHS. Pupils had to swim, cycle and run through a course laid out by a team of brilliant volunteers, high school students and members of Active Schools and Triathlon Scotland. In all, hundreds of pupils took part throughout the day. By all accounts, it was a fantastic time. The pupils really enjoyed the opportunity to take part in something totally different to what they had previously experienced. Staff and parent helpers were so impressed with the level of determination and enthusiasm shown by the pupils and also the confidence to have a go at something new. Well done to everyone involved. Bring on next year’s event!

Digital Learning Week 2018, Early Level, Primary 1, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

P1P get Digital! #NDLW18

Leave a comment

As part of National Digital Learning Week P1P have been using digital technologies to enhance their learning accross the curriculum.

We started the week with a fantastic session from P7. We were introduced and shown how to use VR Headsets! We were able to explore emersive virtual tours of castles which linked brilliantly with our Castle IDL context. P1P loved how the VR Headsets made them feel like they were really in different locations. We also used Purple Mash to digitally paint castle related images using different textures.

We have continued to share our learning on our class Sways that you can find on the blog and our twitter. In class, we independently scanned QR codes linked to our Sways to recap and discuss our previous learning experiences. We love looking at pictures from our previous lessons.

The Technical Troopers also visited our class to introduce us to a new app ‘Puppet Pals’. We loved animating the different characters and adding our own pictures and voices to our stories. Some of us were able to record our digital puppets and show it the rest of the class through mirroring on our Promethean Board.

This week we have also continued to develop our reading skills on Teach Your Monster to Read, practise our numeracy and maths on Sumdog and explore coding on Scratch JR.

Digital Learning Week 2018, Primary 5, Second Level, Technical Troopers, Technologies

iMovie Masterclass in P5

Gallery Leave a comment

On Thursday this week, some of Primary 5A and Primary 5C were lucky enough to receive a lesson in how to use the iMovie app as part of Digital Learning Week. Jamie, Dylan, James and Euan came to our class to show us how to record and edit movies. We then all had a chance to go off and make our own short films, which was a lot of fun; these were then shared with the rest of the class. The p5s who were lucky enough to take part in this lesson will now have a chance to teach the rest of their class -they say the best way to learn is to teach someone else, so watch this space! Thanks to Miss Sherlow and the fab Technical Troopers for their input, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Digital Learning Week 2018, English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 1, Technical Troopers, Technologies

P1W Digital Learning Week 2018

Leave a comment

This week we have enjoyed participating in a lesson run by our fantastic technical troopers! They came into our class and demonstrated how to use Puppet Pals 2 on the Ipads. We then developed our tinkering and experimentation skills by trying out all the different features of the application. We really enjoyed taking pictures of our friends and making them into different characters. We even managed to create some fantastic videos, using our voices to make stories and sound effects!

In class we have also been continuing to enjoy using digital technology to enhance our learning. We have been using teach your monster to read in language. You can access this at home using your password at the front of your homework jotter using our special class link:

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/u/8145

We have even been using Purple Mash, as part of our learning for our IDL castles context, to create patterned and symmetrical flags, decorate a castle with different types of materials and lots of other games. You can access all our castles learning tasks by visiting the purple mash link below and entering your login details at the front of your homework jotter. Then visit the red to do section at the top of the page.

https://www.purplemash.com/sch/midcalder-EH53

Digital Learning Week 2018, Primary 7, Technologies, Uncategorized

P7/6 Digital Learning

Leave a comment

As part of digital learning week, we had a choice from a range of new digital skills to learn.  As a class we opted to improve our coding skills. Our technical troopers Zack and Ben gave us a demonstration and explained to us about different things we could do, when programming games. We had great fun coding new games and pictures.

‘We had fun teaching people things about scratch that they did not already know. We taught them how to properly code things. Feel free to share what you learnt at class at home’. – Zack and Ben

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2018, Expressive Arts, Primary 5, Primary 7, Second Level, Technical Troopers

Capturing the Decisive Moment

Leave a comment

Second Level have been working on digital photography leading up to and during Digital Learning Week. Primary 5s led the way after their successful photography trip to the National Museums. The latest challenge involved the young photographers looking at the work of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who specialised in street photography in Paris and who was describes as trying to capture ‘the decisive moment’.

They went round the school trying to hunt down interesting subjects and then had the advantage of digitally manipulating their efforts – a luxury in the digital age of i-pads and apps that Cartier-Bresson did not have. They used Art Set, Snap seed and Photoshop express to change a few selected images. The children had to narrow down their winning shots to one and these were then printed off for a school exhibition. They were helped by the Technical troopers from P6 and P7 and Miss Sherlow was on-hand to offer advice on downloading and printing.

A lot of the school-life images focussed on portraits and here is what the pupils said, thought and felt. Some captured the moments of school life in black and white just like the master himself.

Health & Wellbeing, Nursery

Active Alfie!

Leave a comment

To develop our understanding of the well being indicators the children created names for them one being ‘Active Alfie.’ We spoke about how we keep ourselves active during nursery by taking part in enjoy a ball sessions,  sticky kids and our outdoor activities. We know that this is a good way to stay fit and healthy but the most important thing is that we have fun.

 

Events, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 3

An out of this world week in Primary 3!

1 Comment

On Tuesday 2nd May, we had a very exciting visit from Cosmos Planetarium, a state of the art, 360° theatre experience. We were transported on a journey through our solar system and beyond – from flying through Saturn’s rings to diving into Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, to search it’s vast ocean for signs of life. We learned about the first moon landing, as well as what life might be like on the moon in future and were able to share our knowledge of Neil Armstrong from the biographies we wrote about his life and experiences. We also took a virtual tour of the International Space Station and learned more about what life would be like in space. To continue this learning when we got back to class, we got to try astronaut food. Some of us loved it, others…not so much.

After that, Steven Gray from Cosmos Planetarium, who is also a STEM ambassador, led us in a rocket making challenge. You can check out what we got up to in this amazing video made by Rose and Zoe:

To top it all off, Primary 3 shared all of our learning through our IDL context, NASA Juniors: Mission X with our parents/carers, families and friends in our assembly. We also blasted our audience back in time to meet Neil Armstrong and some other famous astronauts from throughout history. So fasten your seat belts, check the oxygen levels and prepare for lift off….

Maths & Numeracy, Primary 7, Sciences, Technologies

STEM workshops

Leave a comment

Primary 6 and 7 had a real treat this morning when they were visited by four parents working within STEM careers. The pupils had the chance to take part in two workshops, learning about different jobs through a variety of  presentations and activities. It was great to see the pupils learning about the world of work and engaging with issues they had little previous experience of. I’m sure many were inspired to keep learning about STEM subjects and build on the skills they have already developed. As discussed with one of our visiting parents, pupils are preparing for jobs that perhaps do not even exist yet! The world of work is constantly changing and developing. Thank you to all those involved in making the event happen and well done P6 and P7 for listening well and engaging with the workshops.

Information for Parents, Primary 7, School News, Transition

Important dates for some P7 pupils

1 Comment

Some important dates for P7…..more information will follow as soon as we have it.

 

  • For pupils going to West Calder High School from August 2018 

Tuesday 5th June, Wednesday 6th June, Thursday 7th June – Transition days

 

 

  • For pupils going to James Young High School from August 2018

Thursday 17th May – Health Day.  Pupils should arrive for 9.30am, dressed and ready in PE kit and suitable footwear.  Outside jackets may be required as some activities will be outside.  (It is preferable that they arrive dressed in PE kit, although there will be changing rooms available).

Pupils must all take a packed lunch as they will not be able to purchase food from the school dinner hall that day.

The event will end at 2.30pm.

Pupils should make their own way to and from JYHS.

 

Tuesday 12th June and Wednesday 13th June – Transition days

 

Thank you for your continued support.