Category Archives: Learning Stories

English & Literacy, Primary 3

Dear family and friends of P3…

1 Comment

We are learning to write a letter of invitation.

Success Criteria

I can include:

  • the school address in the top right hand corner
  • The date underneath the address
  • An appropriate greeting
  • Persuasive wow words to make my guest want to come to my event
  • The date, time, price and venue of my event
  • An appropriate sign off

In P3 last week, we wrote our letters of invitation for either our Nativity called ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ or to Edinburgh Zoo for a day out with friends. Within our writing, we needed to include features such as an appropriate greeting and sign off, the price of the ticket and correct punctuation.

During our planning session, we worked in pairs and read through Miss Kerr’s good example of a letter of invitation and a letter of invitation that was missing some important features. Our job was to highlight features that met the success criteria (tickled pink) and highlight features that were missing with green (green for growth). We had to tell Miss Kerr how she could make her letter better.

After, we wrote our letters of invitation in our groups with help from Miss Kerr, Mrs Allsopp and Mrs Robertson. Some of us read out our letters to inspire others that were struggling with their ideas.

When we finished our writing, we had to self and peer assess using traffic light colours and then write the evidence to match our assessment.

“I enjoyed it because I like writing invitations and it was fun”- Finlay Fraser

“I thought it was fun because I like writing invitations”- Rebekah Bell

“I am proud of myself because I got my letter completely finished in the time, meeting the success criteria and including details about my part”- Matthew P W

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

Sumdog’s West Lothian Maths Contest

3 Comments

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, Nursery

The Grumpy Sheep

1 Comment

We are learning to sing songs and follow a tune for our nursery nativity. EXA 0-16a

This week during gathering time we have been practising our nativity songs. We had to listen carefully to the music and words. We have also started adding actions to show what the sheep looks like when he is grumpy and happy. Miss Thompson and Miss Burton were very impressed with our singing skills.

 

Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 2

Primary Two visit Linlithgow Palace

1 Comment

On Monday 16th November Primary Two visited Linlithgow Palace. We had a wonderful time and learned lots about how people lived in the past. Our day began with a tour of the palace from the P7’s from Linlithgow Primary. We really enjoyed playing the games and learnt about Mary Queen of Scots who was born there. After our lunch we did some exciting outdoor activities with the park rangers. We learnt about how people might have got food and water to the palace and how walls were made from sticks and mud. Mr Nelson and Primary Two would like to thank all the helpers who came along and made this trip such a success.

DSC00728 DSC00726 DSC00716 DSC00712 DSC00722

Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5

Creating Confectionery in Primary 5

1 Comment

Learning Intention: We are learning to use our market research to create our own confectionery product

A successful product name will be:

  • Catchy and memorable

Successful packaging will be:

  • Eye catching
  • Memorable
  • Neatly designed
  • An appropriate shape for your product

This week, Primary 5 received another one of our mysterious golden envelopes from Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. It contained our third challenge that asked us to design our own confectionery product and packaging. We had to think a bit more about what ingredients would be in our product, and we used our market research questionnaires to help us. We had asked Primary 5/4 about whether they prefer sweets or chocolate, what flavours they like, what packaging designs they like and if they have any allergies. We looked at their answers and then we based our sweet on that. We had to give our product a catchy and memorable name and design an eye catching packet for it to go in. We were developing our listening skills by listening to our team mate’s ideas, as well as our team work skills by each having a job to do and sharing the work equally.

“We looked at our questionnaires and we decided to go for chocolate because that was the most popular. With the other flavours, we decided we were going to make a mix of flavours in one bar so that everyone could enjoy it,” commented Katie.

“I had fun deciding what we were going to put inside our chocolate tube. We put lots of sour and hot sweets because lots of people like to trick people with sweets. We also put game cards inside for people to collect,” said Jamie.

“I liked deciding what we were going to put on the wrapper and we made it nice and bold. We all enjoyed saying what we wanted to put in it and what the flavours would be, and I really like working with my group,” added Erin.

English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 5, Uncategorized

P5/4’s Confectionery Creations

1 Comment

Inspired by Roald Dahl’s book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, P5/4 have been inventing their own confectionery products.

Learning intention – We are learning to use our market research create our own confectionery product.

Success Criteria – A successful product will reflect the findings of our market research.

A successful product name will be catchy and memorable.

Firstly, we created our own market research questionnaires about the choices that other children in the school make about confectionery (e.g. Are you allergic to anything? What colour of packaging would you prefer? Do you like chocolate/sweets?). We sent these questionnaires to Miss Sherlow’s class and they answered them for us.

Next, we studied the responses carefully and collected information from the questionnaires. We used this to invent our own confectionery product.

Soon we will be designing logos and packaging for our products.

Fraser: ‘This is a fun and exciting task!’

Freya: ‘I am excited about the challenge.’

Ryan: ‘I think the challenges will be fun and I am looking forward to building my skills from P4.’

Mhari: ‘I enjoyed coming up with a product name.’

Lewis: ‘We used the research to figure out what we were going to do.’

Natalie: ‘I enjoyed making the questionnaire because we got to create lots of questions to help us make our product.’

Expressive Arts, Primary 7, Transition, Uncategorized

Transition: Dazzling Dazzle Camouflage Art – P7 Art

1 Comment

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

4 Comments

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!’