P3 had to solve problems based on finding number sequence rules doing the activity of Hopscotch! They worked in trios and had to explain their thinking as they worked together. Some children saw the odd and even patterns whilst others saw the number sequence and could predict what would be the next few terms in that sequence. Just brilliant. They will be working together again in the coming weeks with miss Clark and Miss Brolls.
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!!! Â 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 3 received a letter from Natalie and baby Ailish asking us to design and build a baby gym. We decided to make the Baby Gym Challenge our topic this term.
We have enjoyed working in small design teams to design and build the ultimate baby gym to meet baby Ailishs’. needs. We worked hard to create 4 toys to help develop Ailishs’ sense of touch, smell, hearing and sight.
This week Natalie and baby Ailish came to visit and look at our baby gyms. Here are some pictures that show this lovely visit:
A big well done to everyone who participated in the PSA Easter Egg Competition. Mrs Murray and Miss Sherlow had a difficult job judging the competition! Mrs Learmont from the PSA presented the winners with an Easter Egg at the Church service today. Thank you to the PSA for organising this event.
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
This week Primary 3 enjoyed showing parents and friends the activities and challenges we have taken on during our STEM challenge. We are continuing to make great progress with our Baby Gyms too and our visitors were very impressed with our designs! 
This week, we had the opportunity to set up a number of experiments and activities, that are part of our STEM topic ‘Project Planetarium’. Â This included designing and building a rocket launcher, which we then tested according to how high the rocket would go from the launcher.We had some help from the parents that came along top our open afternoon.
We created an experiment using a rocket, balloon and string to test the most effective way of forcing the rocket to move. Lastly, we were able to reinforce our knowledge of constellations using marshmallows and toothpicks by carefully following the design of different constellations. Well done Primary 4A and thank you to the parents that came along to see our hard work.
P2/3 for their STEM challenge at open day on Wednesday 15th March had to design a bike seat for Mr Tickles or Snuggles.
We learned to:
consider a design brief
take part in a group discussion in our bike teams
draw a design sketch
make a seat from cardboard that had fastenings and would be of an appropriate size
evaluate their designs
Alfie said it was quite hard to make the seat. He thought the cutting and shaping to make it fit was tricky.
Nathan thought it was fun and a little bit hard. It was hard to decide on who had the best design in his group.
Jessica thought it was fun to have the parents and grandparents come into the class to help. She thought her design was fun to make but was not so sure how practical it was.
This afternoon we opened our doors to parents, carers and friends to come and explore our STEM interdisciplinary learning. In the different areas we had:
Visitors had an opportunity to take part in a range of science, technologies, engineering and mathematical activities with their children including chemistry experiments, designing the front of our new nursery, making parts of a bike, trying out toys for our baby gyms, making star constellations, fingerprint analysis and showcasing how we use digital learning.
The Nursery used this opportunity to try out their Go Pro, and Scarlet and Archie recorded the STEM afternoon through their eyes.
Our Technical Troopers also tried out using Microsoft Forms to collect information about out visitors’ experiences. This was a fantastic and instant way to gain feedback. You can complete the form by clicking here if you did not have time to do so during your visit.
Some of our feedback so far has included:
The most popular Science, Technologies or Mathematical skills evident during your visit:
We use a range of ways to involve parents/carers in their children’s learning. The methods you prefer are:
At Mid Calder we use digital technologies in a range of ways to enhance learning and teaching experiences. How do you feel the use of digital technologies enhances your child/ children’s learning?
Thank you to everyone who came along to support the event.
As part of our IDL topic Project Planetarium, we have begun looking at the Solar System by focusing on the sun and the moon. We watched a educational clip about the sun and moon, which encouraged us to think of more questions that require us to research how the sun and moon operate more in depth. For our challenges, we had to make a projector to enable us to see the sun through a pinhole using two sheets of paper. We completed this task outside to compare our findings and check that our projectors worked. Our next task was to complete the phases of the moon using Oreo biscuits and label them correctly. We certainly enjoyed eating them at the end of the challenge!
We are learning to safely observe and recording the sun and moon at various times.
We are learning to describe the patterns of movement of the sun and moon and changes over time.
I can safely observe the sun and moon and make recordings of what I see.
I can understand the stages of the moon.
I can relate these to the length of a day, a month and a year.
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