A big thank you to our PSA for organising such a fun and creative Halloween Party. Two of our house and vice captions attended a PSA to discuss what the pupils would like at the Disco and the PSA used this information to plan our exciting parties. Thank you to all the pupils, parents and staff who attended the discos.
We have been learning to write a story about a dinosaur invasion at Mid Calder Primary School
Success Criteria: I use features specific to an imaginary story including:
– an interesting opening sentence to âhookâ my reader in
– a description of the dinosaur
– a description of what happened
– my thoughts and feelings
– an interesting setting for my story
I can use adjectives to paint a clear picture in my readerâs head
This week, Primary 3 arrived into our classroom to find that it has been destroyed. We checked the CCTV footage and found out that weâd had a visitor, a very large visitorâĤ
We used drama techniques to explore what we thought the tyrannosaurus rex might have done next during its invasion of our school. We improvised how we thought the rest of our pupils would react to seeing a dinosaur, then we created a still image using our body language and facial expressions to portray our thoughts and feelings.
We used these ideas to help us to write a story about the dinosaur invasion, describing what the tyrannosaurus rex got up to in Mid Calder Primary and how we reacted. We included lots of adjectives to help us to paint a clear picture in our reader’s mind. Some of us definitely enjoyed describing the teachers getting eaten a little bit too muchâĤ
Today Primary 3, Primary 4 and Primary 2 had a very special visitor, Mr T. Rex. At the beginning of their Dinosaurs IDL context, Mr Rex wrote each class a letter asking for their help, as he believed that the people were forgetting about the dinosaurs. He challenged P2, P3 and P4 to set up a Mid Calder Museum to teach other pupils and keep the memory of dinosaurs alive, and we enthusiastically accepted this request.
This week, we held our museums and shared our new knowledge and skills with Primary 1 and Primary 7. We loved showcasing our learning and we felt that we definitely helped Mr T. Rex. We were extremely excited to meet the man himself and asked him lots of relevant questions about his job and his experience of finding fossils. He was able to teach us lots of new and interesting facts about palaeontology and different dinosaurs.
A colossal thank you to Mr T. Rex for coming to visit. What an end to a very exciting week, and a fantastic IDL context. We have loved journeying back to the land before time to stop the memory of dinosaurs from becoming extinct.
This morning, we welcomed parents and friends along to our first Celebration Assembly of the 2017-18 session. We acknowledged the success of pupils from across the school and nursery with out STEM Super Star and, in line with our School Improvement Plan, our new Successful Speller Award. One member of each of the 6 groups from our recent Loch Insh residential were also presented with an award.
We announced the Top Scorers for each house and a big well done to Cunnigar who won the House Cup for the term.
We are getting ready for Christmas making cards using line drawing, painting and then cut-out collage in the style of Alice Druitt at Gingerpaws designs. Nathan’s gran is coming in to help with the careful mounting and card design at our Craft Club on the first Tuesday back after the hols and thereafter on a Wednesday. We have some very crafty staff helping too. If you are a keen crafter and want to help please let Miss Brolls know. We need small colourful or mother of pearl buttons for one of the cards so donations will be gratefully received. Get out yer button boxes and give for the fundraiser!
Pupils at Mid Calder Primary and Nursery School had a surprise visit from Donna McMaster, West Lothian Councilâs Head of Service for Education Curriculum, Quality Improvement and Performance, recently.
Mrs McMaster dropped in to congratulate the school on gaining national âDigital Schoolâ status for excellence in digital technology in teaching and learning.
The Digital Schools Award recognises the dedication and innovation shown by Mid Calder Primary in areas of leadership and vision, digital technology for learning and teaching, school culture, professional development and resources and infrastructure.
Donna McMaster commented: âI was delighted to have been invited to Mid Calder Primary School to congratulate pupils and staff personally on their achievement.
âMid Calder is the second primary school to achieve the Digital Schools award in West Lothian, earlier this year Kirknewton Primary School was also recognised as a digital school.
âBathgate Early Years Centre was the first facility to pick up the prestigious award in West Lothian, and it is believed to be the first early years centre in Scotland to achieve the accolade.
âIt is fantastic to see the work which has been achieved to embed technology into the school ethos and how technology is being embraced by the pupils, staff, parents and carers.â
Depute Head Teacher, Sarah Burton, Mid Calder Primary, West Lothian said: âThe Digital Schools programme offered our school a supportive structure to evaluate our digital learning journey and where we needed to go.”
âIt has also enabled our Technical Troopers pupil group, to take on a valuable leadership opportunity within our school. We are very proud of how digital learning is embedded in our school from nursery to primary 7, and this award was a chance to celebrate this work and share with others.â
On Friday, the PSA and House and Vice Captains organised a coin trail for money week and to raise money for school funds.
Longest line winners:
Total raised:
Total: £492.69
A big thank you to the PSA for counting the coins!
We are learning to sort and display information in different ways
Success Criteria:
This week, Primary 3 have been learning how to sort and display different types of data linked to their IDL context, Dinosaurs.
We learned what tally marks, pictograms, block charts and frequency tables were and looked at how they could be used to show information about our favourite dinosaurs. We created a class tally chart which we then changed into a pictogram and asked each other questions about the ‘most popular,’ ‘least popular’ and ‘difference between’Â the information displayed. We also created our own pictograms and tally charts.
Primary 3 also took part in Sumdog’s Maths Week Scotland contest, developing our mental maths skills while having fun playing all of the different games.
Today Primary 3 journeyed back to the land before time to learn all about the dinosaurs during our trip to the National Museum of Scotland. Linked to our new IDL context for learning, P3 learned about how the dinosaurs became extinct, how paleontologists learn about the dinosaurs and some of the key differences between carnivores and herbivores. We took part in a fossil hunt using the floor of the Grand Gallery, got to touch replicas of different parts of dinosaurs and even stood in the space that a dinosaur’s footprint took up to see how many of us could fit. We also had the opportunity to explore other parts of the museum and learn more about our amazing world. We had a perfect prehistoric day!
