Category Archives: Primary 1

Celebration Assembly- Term 1

On Friday, we had our first Celebration Assembly of this session. Each class teacher nominated two people in their class to receive a Remarkable Reader award and a STEM Superstar award and their parents were invited along to the assembly.

We presented top scorer awards and celebrated the fact that Linhouse were our winning house last term.  Some of our pupils have also achieved their bronze and silver awards for their iAchieve level which tracks achievement inside and outside of school.

Well done to everyone who received an award!

 

Learning Letter P1: Term 2

Dear Parent/Carer,

Welcome to Term 2 in Primary 1. The highlights of last term included our visits from Bobby Bear and our trip out to Almondell and Calderwood Country Park. We hope you enjoyed reading about our activities and looking at the photographs on the School Blog. This term we are looking forward to learning all about Fairytales through reading the story of The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.  We are also beginning to practise our Nativity.

Mrs Smith

P1 Teacher

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P2/1 Plan their New Topic

LI: We are learning to share our ideas to plan our learning

SC: I can share what I already know and what I would like to learn about a subject or stimulus.

SC: I can contribute ideas and suggestions about the types of resources and learning experiences I would like.

 

This week P2/1 have been planning their new topic, based on the fiction book Cops and Robbers by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. They took turns to choose an object or image from the ‘talking tub’, and discussed what they already knew about each object. For example, Rose told us that her dad is a police officer and even brought in his handcuffs and an old fashioned truncheon. She explained how and when these might be used by police officers. Sharing their prior learning helped them to sort and link each object on a 3D mind map. The children recorded some of their thoughts on strips of paper, and placed these where they thought was appropriate on the 3D mind map. We discovered some very interesting things from and about each other!

The children then discussed and decided lots of different things they would like to learn more about, and how they would like to learn them. They added black pen drawings of their ideas to the 3D mind map too.  As well as exploring the story and its characters and plot in more detail, they decided that they would like to learn more about the work of police officers and how they help to look after us. They agreed how they would like their small world and role play areas to be set up, and also decided some other resources they would like to find or make. For example, they would like the role play area to be set up as a police station, with a desk, telephone, maps and wanted posters, police hats and uniforms and handcuffs.

Everyone is excited to get started!

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Linhouse PJ Party!

Congratulations to Linhouse who won the House Cup in Term 1.

The pupils and staff of Linhouse joined together for a PJ party today organised by Jamie and Freya. The party  included  corners, games, dancing and lots of yummy food. A big well done to the house captain, vice captain and all the Primary 7s who helped to organise and run the party.

Well done Linhouse!

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Authors Live

Primary 1 – 3 logged in the BBC and Scottish Book Trust Authors Live event today with the author Tracey Corderoy and illustrator Steven Lenton from the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam books. We even had the opportunity to draw our very own Slippery Sam’s and we got very excited when they mentioned Mid Calder Primary live at the event.

This is part of our whole school focus on reading.

You can watch the event again by clicking here.

P2/1 Almondell and Calderwood Country Park Trip

Yesterday Primary 2/1 went to Almondell and Calderwood Country Park to discover if it would make a suitable home for Buddy Bear. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to apply and extend our learning about living things.

In the morning, we worked in groups to build shelters out of natural materials collected in the woodlands. On the way we looked for lots of things which Buddy Bear could use to survive, including examples of food and water. Some Primary 2 pupils also spotted parts of woodland food chains, like a caterpillar munching on a leaf. After lunch, the children also had the opportunity to play together the play park. The Rangers then led us on a nature trail, where we collected and compared different shapes of leaves, spotted a bat box and mole hills, and learned all about squirrels.

Here’s what some of the children had to say about what they learned:

“I learned to build shelters. You have to have a tree that’s got branches on it. You put sticks on the branch and make it into a triangle and then you put leaves on it. Then you have to test it out.” Grace

“My favourie part was when we were trying to catch leaves falling out of the tree.” Emily

“We learned about squirrels. They look behind them when they are digging to bury their nuts to see if there are any other squirrels. Sometimes they just pretend to dig the hole and put the nuts in.” Amber

“My favourite part was hiding the squirrel food and then finding them.” Cayla

“My favourite part was playing in the play park.” Finlay

And here are lots of pictures of  our day:

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Thank you very much to all the Rangers and Parent Helpers for making the trip so valuable!

Woodland Adventure

On Tuesday, Primary 1 visited the Almondell and Calderwood Country Park.

We went there because we had previously spotted this area on a map of our local area, and we wondered if it would be a suitable place for Bobby Bear to live.

We were very excited to be travelling altogether on a big coach. Our behaviour on the coach was very good indeed, so it was an excellent start to our day out. We soon arrived and met the Rangers who  were going to be working with us for the rest of the day.

First of all, we thought about the things that a bear would need in order to survive, and because we have been learning about Living Things in the classroom,  we decided that he would definitely need food and water, air to breathe and shelter. We walked on the path alongside the river, and as we walked, we could see  that  food and water   would certainly be available for animals living in the wood. Air was all around us too- it was blowing the leaves off the trees!

Next, we walked deeper into the wood  looking for somewhere that would provide materials to build a shelter. Soon we found a great place, and  in small groups we set off to find the things we would need. There was some fantastic teamwork, as everyone worked together to gather enough sticks  to begin building. Here are some photographs of us hard at work –

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After lunch we set off to look for evidence of more Living Things in the woods. We discovered lots!

First, with the help of some little toy clues that were hiding all around us, the Ranger introduced us to different kinds of animals and birds and she told us a little bit about each one.   The boys and girls listened carefully and asked some very good questions.

Then we explored some of the trees and plants round about. We discovered seeds, and we even acted out growing from a tiny seed into a great big, tall tree. We especially enjoyed hearing about the helicopter seeds and  the conkers, and were very keen to find some of our own.

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Finally, we created a little reminder of our day.

We had a few minutes to look at all the beautiful colours of Autumn. Then we took a piece of sticky card and tried to find as many different colours as we could to stick to it. We gathered lots of little things, and soon we had made lovely patterns and pictures using the nature that was all around us.

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We had a fantastic day, and we think that a wood would be a very good place for Bobby Bear to live!

We would like to say a special Thank You to all the Parent Helpers who came along to support our learning, and who did such a great job throughout the day.  We hope you come and join us again soon!

October Newsletter

Dear Parent/Carer

Where has a full term gone?

Throughout the school the children have been learning about many different topics and the classrooms are looking bright and inviting. Some children have been experiencing outdoor learning this term and the children were very excited when they came back to explain what they had been doing and what they had seen. It is great that new opportunities arise which keep the children enthusiastic about their learning and give them ownership of how to take the learning experience forward. It also gives them the opportunity to explore different ways of learning; sometimes the classroom is not always the best place to enthuse children. I would like to thank the parents who helped on these trips because without helpers these outings could not go ahead. If you are a parent/carer with a few extra hours and feel you could offer help please call at the office and complete a PVG form and we could add you to our list of helpers.

We are almost at a full complement of staff and following very recent interviews we, hopefully, will have a new teacher starting soon. This will be after all West Lothian Council checks are carried out and when they can be released form their own school. This will give class teachers a regular professional dialogue opportunity through time out of class with our support for learning also back to a full balance of hours.

I hope everyone has a lovely break and I look forward to seeing all the children back on Tuesday 25th October 2016

Mary McKenzie

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