Category Archives: News

Digital Learning Week 2018, Early Level, Primary 1, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

P1P get Digital! #NDLW18

Leave a comment

As part of National Digital Learning Week P1P have been using digital technologies to enhance their learning accross the curriculum.

We started the week with a fantastic session from P7. We were introduced and shown how to use VR Headsets! We were able to explore emersive virtual tours of castles which linked brilliantly with our Castle IDL context. P1P loved how the VR Headsets made them feel like they were really in different locations. We also used Purple Mash to digitally paint castle related images using different textures.

We have continued to share our learning on our class Sways that you can find on the blog and our twitter. In class, we independently scanned QR codes linked to our Sways to recap and discuss our previous learning experiences. We love looking at pictures from our previous lessons.

The Technical Troopers also visited our class to introduce us to a new app ‘Puppet Pals’. We loved animating the different characters and adding our own pictures and voices to our stories. Some of us were able to record our digital puppets and show it the rest of the class through mirroring on our Promethean Board.

This week we have also continued to develop our reading skills on Teach Your Monster to Read, practise our numeracy and maths on Sumdog and explore coding on Scratch JR.

Digital Learning Week 2018, Primary 5, Second Level, Technical Troopers, Technologies

iMovie Masterclass in P5

Gallery Leave a comment

On Thursday this week, some of Primary 5A and Primary 5C were lucky enough to receive a lesson in how to use the iMovie app as part of Digital Learning Week. Jamie, Dylan, James and Euan came to our class to show us how to record and edit movies. We then all had a chance to go off and make our own short films, which was a lot of fun; these were then shared with the rest of the class. The p5s who were lucky enough to take part in this lesson will now have a chance to teach the rest of their class -they say the best way to learn is to teach someone else, so watch this space! Thanks to Miss Sherlow and the fab Technical Troopers for their input, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Digital Learning Week 2018, English & Literacy, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 1, Technical Troopers, Technologies

P1W Digital Learning Week 2018

Leave a comment

This week we have enjoyed participating in a lesson run by our fantastic technical troopers! They came into our class and demonstrated how to use Puppet Pals 2 on the Ipads. We then developed our tinkering and experimentation skills by trying out all the different features of the application. We really enjoyed taking pictures of our friends and making them into different characters. We even managed to create some fantastic videos, using our voices to make stories and sound effects!

In class we have also been continuing to enjoy using digital technology to enhance our learning. We have been using teach your monster to read in language. You can access this at home using your password at the front of your homework jotter using our special class link:

https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/u/8145

We have even been using Purple Mash, as part of our learning for our IDL castles context, to create patterned and symmetrical flags, decorate a castle with different types of materials and lots of other games. You can access all our castles learning tasks by visiting the purple mash link below and entering your login details at the front of your homework jotter. Then visit the red to do section at the top of the page.

https://www.purplemash.com/sch/midcalder-EH53

Digital Learning Week 2018, Maths & Numeracy, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Primary 4 enjoy Digital Learning Week and National Numeracy Day!

Leave a comment

On National Numeracy Day, Primary 4 enjoyed using digital learning to support their work in Maths. As part of our Nasa Missions, the boys and girls had to collect data from children across the school about day and night time. Using digital technology each Nasa home team used their data to create a pie chart on the netbooks. Have a look at their fantastic pie charts:

During Digital Learning Week, the boys and girls have enjoyed several activities. In particular, they loved creating sun and moon fact files using Microsoft Word. After identifying the features of a fact file and conducting research using netbooks, the children then put their notes together to create their final fact files. They enjoyed setting up tables, adding pictures, changing fonts and laying out their fact file in an attractive way.

The Technical Troopers also came to visit Primary 4 this week. They took a mini lesson where they showed the boys and girls how to create a SWAY document about their chosen theme. The Technical Troopers did a fantastic job and were very helpful and patient. Have a look:

 

Digital Learning Week 2018, Technical Troopers, Technologies, Uncategorized

Digital Learning Week in Primary 6

Leave a comment

This week in Primary 6, we have been taking part in Digital Learning Week. We have trying out a variety of resources for practising coding, a key part of the Technologies curriculum. Examples of the activities pupils took part in include creating their own games using visual programming language and designing a new Google logo.

A list of resources is given below to allow pupils to carry on their learning at home. This list is also on the P6 Yammer page.

Carry on coding!

https://www.codeforlife.education/rapidrouter/

Code for Life – Rapid Router
www.codeforlife.education
1: Can you help the van get to the house? 2: This time the house is further away. 3: Can you make the van turn right? 4: You are getting good at this!

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch – Imagine, Program, Share
scratch.mit.edu
Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations.

https://hourofcode.com/uk/learn

Learn – Hour of Code
hourofcode.com
Try a one-hour tutorial designed for all ages in over 45 languages. Join millions of students and teachers in over 180 countries starting with an Hour of Code.

https://studio.code.org/s/express

Code.org
studio.code.org
Express Course Learn the basics of computer science and internet safety. At the end of the course, create your very own game or story you can share.

Tutorials for Scratch:
https://codeclubprojects.org/en-GB/scratch/

Modules – Code Club
codeclubprojects.org
Scratch. Learn how to program your own interactive stories, games and animations.

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Digital Learning Week 2018, Expressive Arts, Primary 5, Primary 7, Second Level, Technical Troopers

Capturing the Decisive Moment

Leave a comment

Second Level have been working on digital photography leading up to and during Digital Learning Week. Primary 5s led the way after their successful photography trip to the National Museums. The latest challenge involved the young photographers looking at the work of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson who specialised in street photography in Paris and who was describes as trying to capture ‘the decisive moment’.

They went round the school trying to hunt down interesting subjects and then had the advantage of digitally manipulating their efforts – a luxury in the digital age of i-pads and apps that Cartier-Bresson did not have. They used Art Set, Snap seed and Photoshop express to change a few selected images. The children had to narrow down their winning shots to one and these were then printed off for a school exhibition. They were helped by the Technical troopers from P6 and P7 and Miss Sherlow was on-hand to offer advice on downloading and printing.

A lot of the school-life images focussed on portraits and here is what the pupils said, thought and felt. Some captured the moments of school life in black and white just like the master himself.

Digital Learning Week 2018, Second Level, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Primary 7 Digital Learning Week 2018!

Leave a comment

In P7 this week, we have completed lots of different exciting tasks using digital technologies to enhance our learning!

We completed a VR session with P1 and P3 all about space.  We looked at the International Space Station and taught our P3 buddies how to use the VR headsets.  We also looked at a variety of castles with P1.

Calum – “It was very fun teaching the P3s how to use the VR headsets and seeing their faces when it came up!”

Jamie – “It was good listening to what they thought about the VR headsets.”

Zachariah – “It was an immersive experience.”

We also had a teaching session from a young, budding teacher – Miss Murchison – who taught P7 and P3 about how to access and use Glow FORMS.  We learned how to create a range of questions, upload them our Yammer page and how to answer the surveys we had created focused on our transition to high school.

We also spent some time on our newly formed class Yammer page – which will be used until the end of term as an excellent way to share our learning and successes in P7.

#ndlw18

 

 

 

Events, Interdisciplinary Learning, Primary 3

An out of this world week in Primary 3!

1 Comment

On Tuesday 2nd May, we had a very exciting visit from Cosmos Planetarium, a state of the art, 360° theatre experience. We were transported on a journey through our solar system and beyond – from flying through Saturn’s rings to diving into Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, to search it’s vast ocean for signs of life. We learned about the first moon landing, as well as what life might be like on the moon in future and were able to share our knowledge of Neil Armstrong from the biographies we wrote about his life and experiences. We also took a virtual tour of the International Space Station and learned more about what life would be like in space. To continue this learning when we got back to class, we got to try astronaut food. Some of us loved it, others…not so much.

After that, Steven Gray from Cosmos Planetarium, who is also a STEM ambassador, led us in a rocket making challenge. You can check out what we got up to in this amazing video made by Rose and Zoe:

To top it all off, Primary 3 shared all of our learning through our IDL context, NASA Juniors: Mission X with our parents/carers, families and friends in our assembly. We also blasted our audience back in time to meet Neil Armstrong and some other famous astronauts from throughout history. So fasten your seat belts, check the oxygen levels and prepare for lift off….

Information for Parents, Primary 7, School News, Transition

Important dates for some P7 pupils

1 Comment

Some important dates for P7…..more information will follow as soon as we have it.

 

  • For pupils going to West Calder High School from August 2018 

Tuesday 5th June, Wednesday 6th June, Thursday 7th June – Transition days

 

 

  • For pupils going to James Young High School from August 2018

Thursday 17th May – Health Day.  Pupils should arrive for 9.30am, dressed and ready in PE kit and suitable footwear.  Outside jackets may be required as some activities will be outside.  (It is preferable that they arrive dressed in PE kit, although there will be changing rooms available).

Pupils must all take a packed lunch as they will not be able to purchase food from the school dinner hall that day.

The event will end at 2.30pm.

Pupils should make their own way to and from JYHS.

 

Tuesday 12th June and Wednesday 13th June – Transition days

 

Thank you for your continued support.