Category Archives: Junior Leadership Teams

Anytime Anywhere Learning, Events, Primary 5, Primary 7, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Dishing Out Our Digital Knowledge

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Today, representatives from Eastertoun Primary visited our school to find out some of the ways that we use digital technologies to enhance our learning. Primary 5B showed our guests how we share our achievements on our iAchieve blog, as well as how we have used some of the Glow tools to support and challenge us across the curriculum. We shared how Bring Your Own Device works in Mid Calder, and also gave them a tour of our class Yammer pages, explaining the different ways in which we have used these.

Next, pupils from P6 and P7 who were involved in the process of MCPS becoming a Bring Your Own Device school shared this journey with our visitors. This offered an excellent opportunity for questions to be asked and answered by pupils from both schools. Our guests also popped into Primary 4B who shared their new knowledge of the language of coding with them.

The visit ended with a chat with some of our Technical Troopers who explained some of their roles and responsibilities and how they have helped to support digital learning across the school.

We hope that our guests found their visit valuable and we look forward to hearing how they progress in their own journey using our new collaborative Yammer page.

Primary 7, Responsible Roles, Uncategorized

Playful Pal Training

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It is the end of another term and it is time for the P7’s to hang up their safety jackets and pass on the responsible roles to the P6’s. On Monday all of the P7 Playful Pals were involved in training the P6’s for their upcoming year of taking on their roles. It was a fun packed morning and all of the P7’s were responsible for creating a programme that would fully equip the P6’s in their roles. The P7’s took 2 mornings to create their programme and had to think of things that would fully involve everyone and make sure that the P6’s understood the role of a Playful Pal and what this actually involves, and of course there was some fun along the way.

The morning started off with a bit of first aid training and the children learning basic first aid of putting a bandage on and how to stem a wound. Things got a bit more serious when the CPR dummy came out and the children got the opportunity to try out some life saving skills. I would feel safe in any of their hands now!!!  Once the children had completed their first aid training it was time to hand it over to the P7,s. First on the agenda was a short video letting the P6’s know exactly what the Playful Pals do in the playground and a short expectations power point. Next was on to some team building games, the P7’s really thought about what games would bring the children together as a team. In order for the P6’s to experience what scenarios they might come across in the playground, part of their training involved role play situations. Finally our new Playful Pals had to write a job description for their role and after all of their training they were able to pinpoint the skills required for their new position.

Overall the P7’s put on a great programme to train our new Playful Pals and the P6’s had a great learning experience. The P6’s are now fully equipped to take on their new roles.

Good luck in your new roles.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and stay safe.

 

Miss Anderson

 

Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council, School Improvement Plan, Self Evaluation

Learning Walk Part 3 .. Visit to Woodmuir Primary!

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Today our Pupil Council went along to Woodmuir Primary School, along with Addiewell Primary for the finale of our Cluster Learning Walks. The Pupil Council gave us a presentation about their school.

We asked the Pupil Council some questions about their school:

  • What is your favourite thing about your school?
  • Is there anything you would like to change about your school and why?
  • What is it like being in multi-composite classes?
  • Do you get awards at your school? What kind of awards?

We also asked Ms Hamilton, their Head Teacher some questions about her job:

  • What is your favourite part of your job?
  • What do you like about your school and why?
  • How many pupils and teachers are in your school?
  • How do you plan your assemblies?

There were lots of things that we found interesting about Woodmuir Primary:

  • There are 23 pupils in their whole school.
  • They have 2 classes.
  • In the mornings they go for a walk and have a quick assembly everyday.
  • They have toast after break time every day.
  • Outdoor learning is an important part of their learning and they have lots of outdoor spaces.
  • There is no fence around their school.
  • Woodmuir is a new school so it looks really nice.
  • They have unisex toilets.
  • P5-7 have been learning about the Mars Rover.
  • Some of their school values are the same as ours.
  • They have walls in their classrooms.
  • P1-4 were learning about Art.
  • We even got to meet Ms Gordon who used to teach at our school.

Thank you to our tour guides and answering our questions.

A big well done to Harry for helping Miss Burton navigate her way to Woodmuir (after getting lost!).

Primary 7, Sciences, STEM 2017, Uncategorized

STEM P7/6

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This week we had our STEM open afternoon and P7/6 enjoyed showing friends and family a few of the experiments that we have been doing in class. All of our experiments have their own unique qualities but they were all chemical reactions. This week we made more slime, more elephant toothpaste (our water was the correct temperature), blobs in a bottle and a fizz inflator. When we made our we mixed together glue and washing detergent, we had to be careful though because if we mixed too much detergent with the glue, the mixture became too gloopy and lumpy and wasn’t the correct consistency for slime, we seem to have now perfected our slime and it really is now taking over P7/6!!!! Blobs in a bottle and the fizz inflator were new experiments, so were excited to find out what the results would be. Blobs in the bottle was a bit like a lamp lamp and The Fizz Inflator was a bit like a balloon pump. With our Blobs in a Bottle experiment we mixed together sunflower oil, and water but they did not mix together and the oil sat on top of the water, we then added some food colouring and this mixed with the water, once we had all the materials in the bottle we added an alka seltzer. The results were amazing…..the alka seltzer fizzed and pushed the water up into the sunflower oil and made blobs, it was really amazing. The Fizz Inflator consisted of bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, a balloon and a bottle. We had to put the vinegar in the bottle and then carefully put some bicarbonate of soda into the balloon. Once we had all the materials in place we had to very carefully try and put the balloon on top of the bottle, this allowed the bicarbonate of soda to fall into the vinegar, the two chemicals worked together to create an acid base reaction and the two chemicals work together to create carbon dioxide and this blew up the balloon, it really was exciting to watch. I think all of the family and friends were impressed by our experiments. Hopefully they might be able to try this at home!!!

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Miss Anderson and P7/6

Interdisciplinary Learning, Learning Stories, Maths & Numeracy, Primary 5, STEM 2017

Kidnapped! Mission 8: Tyre Track

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L.I. We are learning to use line symmetry to complete an image

S.C.- I understand the terms symmetry and symmetrical and can use a mirror to help me complete a symmetrical pattern

-I can use my completed symmetrical pattern to match to an identical pattern

Primary 5 received communication from Police HQ telling us about the discovery of a partial tyre track which was found close to the home of Alan Green. Unfortunately the track found was too incomplete to be able to match it to a vehicle so we were given the task of trying to complete the image.

We inspected the track and found that half the tread was missing so we were able to use our knowledge of line symmetry to complete the whole tyre track.

We used a mirror to give us an impression of what the complete pattern would look like and then used the squares on the grid to ensure our mirror image was absolutely accurate. It took us a long time and quite a few attempts to get our symmetrical patterns right , but we eventually managed to produce the completed image. This allowed us to match it against the tyre tracks on Police HQ’s database and narrow down the make of vehicle which had left it.

We were able to demonstrate our knowledge about line symmetry during our STEM open day when parents and carers came into school to find out about our topic.

Internet Safety, Junior Leadership Teams, Rights Respecting Schools, Technical Troopers, Technologies

Yammer Responsible Use Agreement

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As lots of our classes are using Yammer to share their learning, the Technical Troopers created a Responsible Use Agreement to ensure that it is used in an appropriate, relevant and safe way. Kirknewton Primary School had kindly shared their Glow Charter with us to give us ideas about the important statements to include. We decided on the key ways that we need to keep ourselves and our information safe, as well as how we can share our opinions in a kind and mature way.

We then sent our agreement to our Rights Respecting Schools Junior Leadership Team, who linked some of our statements to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. You can find a copy of the agreement here. Each class will review this together, editing it to suit their needs if appropriate. The new copy will then be posted to their own class Yammer page to show that everyone has agreed to the Responsible Use Agreement.

Community, Events, Outside of School, Primary 5, Primary 7, Pupil Council, Self Evaluation, Uncategorized

Pupil Council Learning Walk … Take 2!

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Today our Pupil Council went along to Addiewell Primary School, along with Woodmuir Primary to continue our Cluster Learning Walks. The Pupil Council gave us a presentation about their school and showed us a video.

We asked the Pupil Council some questions about their school:

  • What IDL topics are you learning about?
  • How do you use digital technologies in your school?
  • What kind of outdoor learning do you have?
  • What is your school motto and values?
  • What type of whole school events does your school have?

We also asked Mrs MacMillan, their Principal Teacher some questions about her job:

  • What is your favourite part of your job?
  • What are you most proud of in your school?
  • How do you deal with behaviour in your school?
  • How do you plan your assemblies?

There were lots of things that we found interesting about Addiewell Primary:

  • Together Time
  • How they eat their snack together
  • Wheelie Wednesdays
  • Improvements they had made in their playground
  • Their school motto
  • Everyone was very friendly
  • Cozy Corners in their classrooms
  • Their movie models in P5/6/7
  • That it was a combined school with St. Thomas Primary

Thank you to Charley, Jessica-Lee and Ryan for being our tour guides and answering our questions.

Expressive Arts, Outside of School, Sciences

Crystal Grotto at Jupiter Artland P2/3

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P2/3 visited the artwork entitled The Light Pours Out of Me at Jupiter Artland. They were using their senses to describe the artwork and they talked about the artist and the other senses she uses in her art such as the taste of her chocolate room!

Back in class they solved a design challenge to create an amethyst grotto as a class display. They made artworks with salt crystals and shades of purple acrylic paint. They also used triangles to make a geometric design. They used paint but also an Art app called Art Set. This can be downloaded free.

We learnt new words for purple such as mauve, periwinkle and magenta.

We also saw a smooth shiny material called obsidian. Can you find out more about this glass-like rock? can you find out more about the artist who made the huge grotto. What is her name? What other sculptures has she made?