Category Archives: Junior Leadership Teams

Capturing the Decisive Moment

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.

Primary 7 Digital Learning Week 2018!

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

 

 

 

Calderwood news!

Calderwood

As we were the winning house last term, we will be having another House Party!  This will be on Friday 11th May, 9.30am until 10.30am.

We have decided we would like to have a Pyjama Party, so if you are in Calderwood House, please bring your pyjamas/onesies/slippers to change into that morning.  We will be playing games and having fun (and food!) in the Hall.  We will come round classes and remind you nearer the time.  Thank you 🙂

Olivia – House Captain

and James – Vice Captain

LUSH in school

LUSH Livingston will be in school on Tuesday 24th April (this was previously arranged as part of Fairtrade Fortnight, was then cancelled due to snow/school closure and has now been re-scheduled) and after a presentation with the whole school, they will have a LUSH stall, where some products will be available to buy.  If children wish to buy anything they should bring money in a purse/wallet/envelope.  It would help if the younger children also brought a note of what parents would like them to buy and if the older children knew too.  Please note that these products are subject to change depending on their delivery so LUSH can’t guarantee full availability on the day.

Cream Candy Bubble Bar £2.95
Ickle Bot Bath Bomb £1.95
Rocket Bath Bomb  £2.95
Cheer Up Buttercup Bath Bomb £2.95
7 Deadly Spins Bubble Spinner £4.95
Deep Sleep Shower Jelly £4.25
Whoosh Shower Jelly £4.50
Charity Pot Hand and Body Lotion £1

Term 3 Celebration Assembly

Today we welcomed parents and friends along to our Celebration Assembly so that pupils could receive their STEM Super Star and Successful Speller awards.

Certificates and prizes were also given to the children who won our Bookworm, STEM and Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team’s challenges and competitions, and to the 5 pupils who represented our school at the West Lothian Burns Contest. We also announced the Top Scorers for each house, along with our house winner.

A big thank you to Hannah Rarity for inspiring us by sharing her interpretation of our school motto, Believe, Achieve, Succeed, and for sharing her journey of hard work and determination to become the successful singer she is today. Thank you also to Leah, P6, who impressed us with her own musical talents and played ‘Clowns’ for us on the piano.

Well done to all of our award winners!

Fairtrade Fortnight 2018 at Mid Calder Primary School

Over the last two weeks we have been celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight by taking part in various activities, competitions and experiences. The children have embraced learning about Fairtrade and enjoyed sharing their learning.

Each class was assigned a Fairtrade product to find out about. Have a look at what each class got up to!

Nursery

We have included a picture of our floorbook, comic life and pictures of the children exploring the fairtrade items Mrs Murphy had brought in from the Fair Tradewind shop in Linlithgow. After seeing the worry dolls the children asked if they could make their own worry dolls.

Primary 1: Bananas

P1 learned about Pablo the Banana. He taught the P1’s about what Fairtrade means and also about the journey of the banana. We then designed our board games for the competition.

Primary 2 and 3: Coffee

P2 learned about coffee and other Fairtrade products. They were able to colour and label Fairtrade products from around the world and then draw a Fairtrade product that they have seen or tried.

Primary 3 learned about what Fairtrade is and why it important before researching their Fairtrade product, coffee. We used the netbooks to find out interesting facts and shared them with a partner. As we have been learning about fact and opinions in our reading lessons, we then using the Glow tool Forms to create a fact and opinion quiz about Fairtrade.

Primary 4 and 5: Brazil Nuts

P4 and P5 learned about the Brazil Nut. We found out about the story of the Brazil nuts by:

  • Finding out where and how Brazil nuts are grown and gathered
  • Looking at the rainforest and the factors needed to grow Brazil nuts
  • Talking about Fairtrade and how it can help Brazil nut gatherers to get a better deal

Primary 6: Tea

P6 had a great time  looking at a tea planting community in Malawi as part of Fairtrade Fortnight. We learned about how Fairtrade pays their workers fairly and also provides money to benefit the whole community. Pupils worked in groups to decide how money should be spent within a community (e.g. Food, water, healthcare, education etc). They had to decide which needs were most important- a difficult decision!

Primary 6/7: Footballs

Primary 6/7 took part in their own competition to ‘Design a Fairtrade football’. The Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team had a look at the fantastic designs and picked 1st, 2nd and 3rd place! Have a look at some of the designs:

 

There was lots of other fun things happening around the school too!

Nurture group: Baking with Fairtrade products

The nurture group worked with Mrs Kellner to make a Fairtrade banana loaf. They had lots of fun following the recipe, measuring the ingredients and mixing everything together! A delicious smell filled the corridors of the school and it tasted delicious!

 

Fairtrade breakfast: Bananas and Chocolate!

This week during breakfast club the children had the opportunity to taste Fairtrade bananas and chocolate. The boys and girls enjoyed dipping their bananas in the rich dark chocolate and it was smiles all round!

 

Fairtrade competition

The Fairtrade Junior Leadership Team launched a competition to design a Fairtrade board game. Lots of children across the school entered the competition and the JLT had a difficult decision trying to pick a P1-3 and P4-7 winner. They played some of the games to help make their decision. Winners will be announced next week! Have a look at some of the fantastic competition entries!

Visit from Lush Livingston

Lush in Livingston kindly offered to hold an assembly for the school to talk about their fresh handmade cosmetic products and give pupils the opportunity to purchase some of their fantastic range! However, due to the untimely Spring snow the visit has been re-scheduled. We will update you with this visit soon!

Tidy Toilets!!

Our House Captains and Vice Captains were keen to improve the school toilets for everyone and they’ve been working with other members of the school community to improve things and ensure they are a nicer place to be!  After discussions at House Meetings, they decided on rotas and rewards and put this in place a couple of weeks ago.  After counting up the scores today, they announced that the Upper Girls Toilets and the Infant Boys Toilets had the highest points.  They will have ‘fancy’ toilet paper and hand wash in their toilets next week.  A very big well done to everyone for trying hard and leaving the toilets as they would like to find them! 

Fairtrade Fortnight

Good afternoon everyone,

With schools closed today I am sure you have been enjoying some fun in the snow! However, if you are looking to stay warm and keep busy indoors there are lots of fun Fairtrade activities to explore during Fairtrade Fortnight.

These websites are packed with lots of fun ideas and activities!

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

https://schools.fairtrade.org.uk/resource/pablo-the-super-banana/

http://www.traidcraftschools.co.uk/schools-activities-and-games

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/explore-fairtrade

http://www.scottishfairtradeforum.org.uk/take-action/schools-and-nurseries/fair-trade-nurseries/linking-to-the-curriculum.html#.Wpgi5PnFLIU

If you take any pictures of any Fairtrade activities you do it would be great to share them on the school blog. You can do this by emailing your pictures to the school or tweeting them to @MidCalder_PS .

Take care in the snowy weather, stay warm and most importantly have fun!

 

Miss Clark

Nursery Eco Warriors!

The nursery children have been exploring the outdoors. While on these outings they noted there was lots of litter in the area. After discussing what we could do about this the children said they would like to help to clean up their environment. Armed with litter pickers and bin bags they set out on their eco warrior adventure. I’m sure you would agree, what a fabulous job they did.

Fairtrade Fortnight- Visit from Lush

As part of Fairtrade fortnight, LUSH Livingston will be in school on Thursday 1st March and, after a presentation with the whole school, they will have a LUSH stall, where some products will be available to buy.  If children wish to buy anything they should bring money in a purse/wallet/envelope.  It would help if the younger children also brought a note of what parents would like them to buy and if the older children knew too.  Please note that these products are subject to change depending on their delivery so LUSH can’t guarantee full availability on the day.
 
Cream Candy Bubble Bar £2.95
Ickle Bot Bath Bomb £1.95
Rocket Bath Bomb  £2.95
Cheer Up Buttercup Bath Bomb £2.95                     
Baa Bar Bubble Bar £4.50
 
Whoosh Shower Jelly 4.50
Charity Pot Hand and Body Lotion £1