Over the past four weeks the children at the P1-3 ICT club have been learning from each other to:
– Program Beebot to travel along paths and mazes
– Use the paint tool in Purple Mash
– Access Sumdog
– Explore apps on our new IPads.
We have all learned new ICT skills as well as develop our communication and problem-solving skills whilst having great fun.
Last week we had our first House meeting of 2016 and the House and Vice Captains decided the focus should be on Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and internet safety, as these are currently hot topics of conversations in our school.
As usual we started the meeting going over the plan for the meeting and expectations. Then the house members took part in a community builder. The House and Vice Captains showed us a video about internet safety as it is Internet Safety Day soon.
This led on to telling us about Bring Your Own Device, this is something the Technical Troopers and Pupil Council are leading. We had to create a post-it pledge to show how we would follow our school values of responsible and respectful if we became a BYOD school. The House and Vice Captains have taken these post-its and created a school crest.
Thank you to the House and Vice Captains, and P7s for organising such an interesting house meeting.
http://www.slideshare.net/midcps/house-meeting-3
As P3-P7 now have access to Sumdog to support their learning in maths, and P2-P7 have it to support their learning in reading, P5 buddied up with P3/2 today to show them the wonders of Sumdog. The Primary 5s showed their buddy how to login, how to play some of the games, how to earn coins as well as explained how to get their first pet and how to decorate their Sumdog house.
Sumdog will be used to support learning in school, but can also be accessed at home where the children can complete challenges set by their class teacher. They can access this account at home by using the log in provided in their homework diary/book.
To access Sumdog, go to: https://www.sumdog.com
This morning the Pupil Council held a Morning Blether to explain to parents what profiling is, how we are profiling at Mid Calder Primary School and how was can improve our approaches to profiling.
We also shared a new profiling tool that our staff have created in order for parents to understand what a level looks like in Maths and Language. This will be launched at the Curriculum evening on February 25th at 6pm and will be made available to all parents at this event and on the blog.
Thank you to the Pupil Council for organising this event and to the parents who attended, you can find a copy of the PowerPoint below.
http://www.slideshare.net/midcps/profiling-morning-blether
We are learning to make and display equal groups in different ways and write number sentences about them. MNU 1-03a
In P3, we have been learning about arrays. We know that they are arrangements of objects/pictures in equal rows and columns. Arrays help us visually see what an equal group looks like so as we can apply it to remembering multiplication sentences.
We have been getting into human arrays outside, finding arrays within our homes and classroom and making arrays within Maths.
We started by making equal groups of objects and counting how many we had altogether e.g. drawing flowers with different petals and aliens with different body parts. Through making arrays out of counters, play-doh, squared grids and gameboard actvities, we are continuing to develop our knowledge of arrays and our recognition of multiplication sentences. Have a look at some of our learning from in class below…
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Today at our Pupil Council meeting we discussed the concerns we had about bring our own device and came up with some solutions.
On Thursday some of the Pupil Council and Technical Troopers are having a Glow Meet with the Pupil Council at Williamston Primary. They are using BYOD and we think we could learn lots of them.
Our new school devices are almost ready to use on our Anytime Anywhere Learning network … We are very excited abut the possibilities this will have for us and our teachers!
On Friday 22nd January, Mid Calder Primary participated in their annual Burns/Scots poetry celebration.
Pupils from Nursery, right through to Primary Seven, we asked to develop their knowledge and understanding of Scots language by learning a selection of poems. Each class selected two representatives who then recited their chosen poems to the whole school community.
Mr MacFarlane, Mrs Bokhari and Mrs Ross were asked to judge the participants- the winners of each stage from P4-7 will represent the school at the West Lothian recital competition. Thank-you to Mr MacFarlane and Mrs Bokhari for their excellent judging skills.
Many thanks to the Vice Captains for compering the morning and welcoming our visitors into school.
A huge thank-you to the parents and carers who came along to show their support during the morning. Also a huge thank-you to all of the parents and carers from the school community who helped prepare poems with all of our learners at home. The level of commitment and effort when learning these difficult pieces of text, was phenomenal.
Well done to the girls from Primary 5 and Primary 7 who were keen to share their skills and talents in Highland dancing. What a fantastic performance!
All of the pupils and staff members participated in preparations for the assembly with enthusiasm and dedication – another example of successful learning in Mid Calder Primary School!
Congratulations to Calderwood who won the House Cup in Term 2. Millie and Jamie organised a Glow Party which included, glow sticks, glow corners, games, dancing and lots of yummy food – chocolate fondue, popcorn, sweets and juice. A big well done to the house captain, vice captain and all the Primary 7s who helped to organise and run the party. A special thanks to Mrs Bokhari for helping with the food.
Well done Calderwood!
On Friday we had our second 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 gave out Star Writer Awards, Top Scorer prizes and announced the winning house for the term.
Well done who everyone who received an award!
