Every year West Lothian Council holds a ‘Class of …’ so Head Teachers can share interesting and new practice and they can find out about what’s new in education. On Friday Mrs McKenzie was invited along to Class of 2016 to share how we use ICT to support our learning and teaching at Mid Calder Primary. You can view the video below.
Category Archives: Primary 1
Meet the Teacher
Come along and meet your child’s new teacher on Thursday 8th September at 6:30pm. You will have the opportunity to find out what your child be learning and explore some of the resources they will be using. We look forward to seeing you.
Learning in Early Level
Below you will find copies of our Profiling Tools for Early Level. This show what your child will be learning about in Maths if they are working at Early Level.
Term 4: Achievement Assembly
On Friday we had our final Achievement Assembly of this session. Each class nominated one pupil to receive the Achievement Award for their class and parents and carers were invited along to watch the assembly.
We also presented Star Writer Awards, Magical Mathematician Awards, Top Scorer prizes, Smoke Free Homes certificates, ICT Awards and announced the winning house for the term.
Well done to everyone who received an award!
School Assembly for P7 Leavers
This morning Mid Calder Primary celebrated all things P7 as every class made a presentation to P7. This included songs, memories, poems and some interesting masks! Thank you to everyone for making this such a special occasion for Primary 7.
P1 Outing
This week, Primary 1 visited the The Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.
They had been invited there by Edward Bear, who wanted to show them what creatures like him need to survive in the wild.
When we first arrived at the Yurt that was our base for the day, there was no sign of Edward Bear at all!
After a quick snack we set off on a walk through the garden in search of him. Luckily, he had left a trail for us, so all we had to do was follow the clues! By following the clues we began to understand that Edward needed SWAF to survive.
We learnt that this stands for SHELTER, WATER, AIR and FOOD.
Soon we were playing a game to help us remember SWAF.
The ‘bears’ were very good at knowing what they needed!
Next, we tried using our ears to listen to the sounds around us. We didn’t hear Edward Bear, but we did hear lots of birds!
Here we are finding and reading the clues. This one told us that some animals enjoy eating berries. They are a source of food. We also saw a bush that the bees like to visit. Bees make honey and we knew that some bears love eating honey. We still couldn’t find Edward Bear though.
We could feel and hear the air around us as we walked through the trees and past the tall plants.
We also found evidence of insects.
The trees also provided us with shelter.
Keep looking! There’s a bear around here somewhere.
We found water, but still no bear.
A badger has been scraping here to find food, not a bear! We found a really big badger hole too, and we had to walk carefully round the edge of it.
Sadly, we couldn’t find Edward Bear anywhere, so we decided to walk back to the Yurt for lunch. On the way back we listened to a story about a rainbow in the garden. Then we were each given a little coloured card, and we had to find as many things as we could to match the colour we had. We searched all around us as we walked, and soon we had found things to match all the colours of the rainbow.
At last we arrived back at the Yurt. What a surprise! Edward Bear was waiting there to meet us. We were delighted to meet him at last.
After lunch it was time for another game. Can you see lots of bears sheltering under the trees?
At the end of the afternoon we worked together in small groups to create an island that provided SWAF for the creatures living on it. We shared ideas, tried out different things and eventually agreed on what was needed. Great teamwork!
What fantastic islands we made. They clearly demonstrated all the things we had learned throughout the day.
We enjoyed going around looking at what the other groups had made, and checking they had included SWAF too!
Primary 1 really enjoyed their day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and they represented the school so well on their very first outing. Well done boys and girls! We must also say a special thank you to our parent helpers who helped to make the trip possible, and who joined in so enthusiastically with all the fun.
Mid Calder Gala Day 2016
A big thank you to everyone who walked with the school during the Gala Day Parade – your costumes were fantastic! A big well done to our Gala Relay Team.
Symmetry in P1
LI
We are learning to recognise and create a symmetrical pattern
SC
I can identify a symmetrical pattern
I can make a pattern that is symmetrical
This week we have been learning about symmetry.
We first noticed symmetry when we were observing our butterflies.
We looked especially carefully at the position of the different shapes and colours on each wing. There was something really interesting about their wings. Perhaps you can ask us to describe what we saw!
We discovered this was called symmetry.
We decided to investigate further!
First, we looked for examples of symmetry around us. We found quite a few!
Next, we explored interactive games and activities to help us learn even more.
Finally, we created our own symmetrical patterns using bricks, pegs, pattern blocks and shapes.
We worked very hard and created some fantastic designs.
Bye, Bye Butterflies!
LI
We are learning to recognise and describe the stages of the Butterfly Life Cycle
SC
I can describe the changes I see using appropriate vocabulary
I can sequence pictures and create a diagram to show the Life Cycle of a butterfly
The last two weeks have been very exciting in Primary 1. We have watched very carefully as our tiny, wriggly caterpillars have grown, formed chrysalises and eventually turned into beautiful butterflies.
Last week we took the butterflies outside and released them in the garden.
Perhaps you will be lucky enough to see them as they fly around Mid Calder!
P1 Transition
Nursery children have enjoyed teaming up with Primary 1 to create their own butterfly. They worked cooperatively to design and plan their beautiful butterflies. Thank you to Primary 1 staff and pupils for making us feel so welcome. 
