Category Archives: Learning Stories

P.5/4 Homework

Homework for P.5/4 this week is as follows:

Topic

Following on from learning about the phases of the moon in class, use your moon observation sheet to record how the appearance of the moon changes over the next four weeks.

Reading

The Dream Catchers The Country Pancake – Anne Fine (chapter 1)

The Gangster Grannies The Guard Dog – Dick King-Smith (chapter 1)

The Cookie Readers The Ghost Teacher – Tony Bradman (chapter 1)

The Ruthless Readers The Great Spaghetti Suit – Alan MacDonald (p.3-16)

Maths

Use Sumdog homework challenges to practise times tables.

Spelling

Follow instructions from your Spelling teacher.

P.5/4 have been learning about the moon!

P.5/4 have recently been learning all about the phases of the moon as part of our new topic: Space.

Learning intentions

We are learning to safely observe and recording the sun and moon at various times.

We are learning to describe the patterns of movement of the sun and moon and changes over time.

Success Criteria

  • I can safely observe the sun and moon and make recordings of what I see.
  • I can understand the stages of the moon.
  • I can relate these to the length of a day, a month and a year.

One way in which we displayed our findings about the phases of the moon was by using Oreo cookies!

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Eventually, our cookies resembled this diagram:

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Over the coming weeks, for homework, we will be observing and recording the moon to see whether it matches up with what we have been learning.

Busy start to our final term!

P7 has got off to a busy start this term.

In Primary 7 we have been learning about Forensic Careers. These jobs are vital in a crime investigation.

The first thing we did was we learnt about all the possible jobs in Forensic Science. Such as a Toxicologist, a SOC (Scene of crime) officer, a Pathologist and much more. We then discussed the job requirements if you were to apply for one of these jobs; we came up with different answers to what we would need in order to work in the Forensic environment. We thought we needed to have good eyesight, curiosity, imagination, be very good with details, have integrity and have the ability to keep accurate records.

After we chose one of the jobs to research and make an advert.

In Science, we completed an experiment to see whether or not an orange would float or sink in water.  First we had to make a prediction on whether we thought it would float with the peel on and then we had to predict whether it would float once it had been peeled. Here are some of our predictions:

‘It has it’s skin on so it is not going to absorb water so it will float’

‘It will float as the peel will make it lighter’

‘The peel has small holes in it creating air pockets, air will fill these making it float’

We discovered that when the skin was kept on, the orange would float, but as soon as we peeled the orange it sunk, meaning that our predictions were correct.

This term we are looking forward to learning all about STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths), and learning new skills that will help us in the world of work.

As P7’s we have our transition visits to look forward to, our leavers assembly and our final trip as a year group. We are all looking forward to the journey.

 

Miss Anderson & P7

The Great Desert Island STEM Challenge!

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This week P2 found out about our new exciting interdisciplinary context which is the Great Desert Island Challenge. We started by listening to a story about a group of sea travelers who were exploring the seas when their ship became wrecked on a desert island. There was only one survivor, Sir Harley Houndstooth III. We now have to help him survive on the desert island and get back to the civilized world. We were all very excited and up for a challenge!

Over the next few weeks P2, P2/3 and P3 will be given a series of challenges in which we will have to help Sir Harley Houndstooth III. We will be developing our skills in group work through carrying out different roles and developing our knowledge of the STEM subjects (Science, Technologies Mathematics and Engineering.)

Parents and carers can help by bringing in materials from the list in your child’s homework jotter. We will keep you posted on the challenges we do,

Thank you for your continued support.

Mr Nelson.

Primary 7/6 Learning Letter

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to Term 4 in Primary 7/6.  In this last term the children are looking forward to planning and developing their knowledge and understanding of STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Exciting and challenging lessons and activities will be completed by the pupils, using the context of CSI style investigations.  Here the pupils will have the opportunity to develop reasoning and logical thinking within problem solving scenarios.  We are excited about P7 leavers activities and starting with our new roles in P6 in preparation for P7.

Mrs Murray and Miss Gordon

learning letter p7.6 term 4

Using ICT to enhance learning in Mid Calder

We are living in a constantly evolving digital world and technology has an impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. And, we are very lucky to be able to use this technology in school to develop skills that will help us in the world of work and in our journey as lifelong learners in our ever advancing world.

Here are some of the ways that we use ICT to enhance our teaching and learning in Mid Calder Primary School:

P1 Funny Faces

 

LI: We are learning to use a simple map with a key and symbols.

SC: I understand the concept and function of a map.

SC: I understand the use of symbols and a key.

SC: I can transfer information on a map to reality.

Last week, both Primary 1 classes started to explore positional and directional language, and enjoyed creating and navigating simple mazes. 

This afternoon, we went outside to progress our learning in the sunshine. After discussing our prior experiences with maps, we talked about their features and clarified how to use a key with symbols.

In small groups, the children then had to work collaboratively to recreate a ‘funny face’ using a map with a key. This was even more challenging than the children first thought. Only one team member could move one object to the ‘face’ at a time. Furthermore they couldn’t bring the map with them, so they had to analyse the map very carefully before travelling to the ‘face’. Evie pointed out that it would have been much easier if they could just take the map with them!

We hope to apply our new mapping skills to increasingly challenging orienteering games during the next few weeks.

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