On Friday, Primary 5 demonstrated all of the new knowledge and skills they have been developing through their IDL topic of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. They invited parents, carers and the school to attend their class assembly to celebrate the life and works of the author, Roald Dahl. Primary 5 thoroughly enjoyed sharing their learning and can’t wait to find out what their next wonkalicious golden challenge will be. Stay tuned…
On Saturday night, some of the pupils from Primary 1-3 braved the weather to come and sing some of their nativity songs at the Kirk of Calder Parish Church. They sounded fantastic and there was a real sense of community spirit shown by the number of people who came along to attend the service and to support them.
On Friday Mid Calder community braved the weather and turned up at MCPS for our Christmas Fair. The PSA had organised lots to do from face painting to Christmas crafts, shopping to delicious refreshments, and there was a special visitor too! A huge thank you to our PSA and staff for organising the fair, and to our P7 helpers. Also thank you to everyone who came along to support our school, there was a real community atmosphere.
If you couldn’t make it along there will be a chance to enter the raffles during our Christmas Concerts this week.
The last two weeks in Primary Four have been very busy indeed!
In maths the children have been very busy weighing in grams using kitchen scales marked in increments. They have also been solving lots of mild, spicy and hot number challenges and talking about all the different strategies they can use to solve a number problem. Multiplying and dividing using arrays and times tables have also been keeping our brains busy!
Our IDL topic is continuing. This week the children have been recording advertising jingles to go with the chocolate bars they have invented. They have been considering what their market is interested in, such as relaxation, fun or health. We are currently very busy making eye catching posters that could be displayed on bus stops and poster boards around the country!
Last week’s Dahlicious dress up day was lots of fun. Here are some pictures of our fabulous costumes and of us playing chocolate races.
Over the last couple of weeks P.5/4 have been studying the novel ‘Storm’ by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Here is what we have learned this week.
Learning intention: We are learning to understand how authors use settings to create different feelings or moods.
Success Criteria: I can draw the setting from ‘Storm’ using evidence from the text.
I can use interesting and ambitious vocabulary to describe the marsh.
Firstly, we practised finding evidence in the text to support our ideas.
Then, we looked for information about the setting in the text.
Next, we chose whether to draw our setting in winter or summer. We then spent time drawing whilst looking back at the text to help us.
Finally, we wrote WOW words to describe our setting and then up-levelled these using a thesaurus.
“I thought it was really fun because I enjoy drawing.” (Lewis)
“I enjoyed reading the story because I like looking at the illustrator’s pictures of the setting.” (Erin)
“I really liked how the author described the ghost and the marsh.” (Owen)
“I found it fun working in pairs when we used a thesaurus.” (Eloise)
This morning the Nursery AM group had a very successful performance of The Very Grumpy Sheep. A big thank you to everyone who joined us to support the pupils.
We are learning to investigate and re-created well-known number patterns involving square numbers.
Today in Maths we investigated square numbers. We first of all used counters to represent square numbers and patterns, then we had to work out the calculation we would need to use to calculate square numbers. For example, 2² is 2 x 2. The we played a game were we had to calculate square numbers and we completed a written activity.
Support at home: You can support your child at home by helping them learn square numbers for example; 1×1, 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, 6×6, 7×7, 8×8, 9×9, 10×10
If you wandered into Mid Calder Primary School this morning, you might have seen some slightly unusual sights. Mr Willy Wonka, for example, taking the register to the office. Or Violet Beauregarde, Fantastic Mr Fox and Matilda playing spelling games. Or even an Oompa Loompa lighting a candle to celebrate advent! But, it was all for a very good cause. As Primary 5, Primary 5/4 and Primary 4 have been learning all about the life and work of Roald Dahl through their IDL context of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we decided to hold a ‘Dahlicious Dress Up Day’ to commemorate 25 years since his death. We dressed up as our favourite characters from his many fantastic novels and made a donation which will go to Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. We raised £53.10 and we had a fantastic day full of fun and laughter.
A big well done to all those who made such a Wonkatastic effort for a very worthy and relevant cause!
What a great day and fun was had by all…
As part of our IDL topic we have been exploring aspects of these Experiences & Outcomes:
By exploring places, investigating artefacts and locating them in time, I have developed an awareness of the ways we remember and preserve Scotland’s history.
SOC 1-02a
I can use evidence to recreate the story of a place or individual of local historical interest.
SOC 1-03a
I can compare aspects of people’s daily lives in the past with my own by using historical evidence or the experience of recreating an historical setting.
SOC 1-04a
By exploring my community and the groups within it, I can identify and consider different types of housing and how they meet needs.
Key Questions to be explored
We were also able to use the experience to make links with our functional writing. We are learning to select relevant ideas, order our writing, use connectives and adjectives to make our writing interesting.
My Personal Response
Yesterday we went to visit Linlithgow Palace because we have been learning about People and Places in the past.
We organised ourselves ready to leave at 10 o’clock.
We wore our welly boots and waterproof coats so we were prepared for the cold, windy weather.
When we arrived at the palace we met our tour guides then we went off in our groups to the first room and learned lots of interesting facts.
My favourite room was the Vomitorium as it was very interesting to hear about, it also made me laugh.
We ate our lunch altogether in the Palace Hall and then went to meet the Rangers.
When we were outside we had to imagine we were peasants, think about what their life was like. I got to carry the bundle of sticks as well as throw a mud mixture as if I was building my own hut!
We had a great day at Linlithgow Palace even though the weather was rather wet and cold.
Please enjoy a few visuals from our experience.
This week we have been shopping in the Toyshop.
LI We are learning to use coins to buy things
SC I can say how much each item costs I can choose the correct coins to pay for the things I buy
There are lots of things to buy in the toyshop. We choose what we would like and put it into our
shopping basket.
The shopkeeper checks the price and tells us how much we need to pay. We look in the purse and choose the coins we need. The shopkeeper puts the money in the till. We are using real coins to do our shopping!
Einartas – ‘You need money to buy the car. That’s my favourite.’
Aidan – ‘At the shop I bought an aeroplane and a car. The shopkeeper said it was 6p, so I counted out six 1p coins.’
Naomi – ‘You need 10p to buy the doll and the dinosaur.’
Daisy – ‘I went to the shop and I bought a dolly and a toy giraffe. It cost 2p and 3p, so that was 5p altogether.’
