On Monday 23rd April Primary 5 visited the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh to photograph some of the exhibits and to view the 2018 Wildlife Photography Exhibition. We were welcomed by Ms Gill (Theo’s Mum!), who gave us a very interesting insight into her role as a director of the museum and really inspired us to get the most out of our visit. P5A visited the exhibition first and were amazed by the clarity and composition of the many forms of wildlife which were on show. Some of the photographs were even taken by children their own age or younger! While P5A were visiting the exhibition, P5C got to explore the wonders of the museum…

Some favourite exhibits were Dolly the Sheep and the human hamster energise wheel within the Science and Technology installation. We were also blown away by the Natural History section, where we saw dino skeletons, sharks, narwhals, elephants, wildcats, big, cats, giant pandas….the list is endless.

Afterwards, P5A explored the museum while P5C went to view the wildlife photographs. Some of our favourites were the photos of animals interacting with their young, animals playing, animals hunting, underwater shots and so much more. There were also some images of animals which are hunted by humans, showing us the devastating effect we can have on wildlife.

Some of us made sketches of the exhibits; we are continuing to work these up back at school with Miss Brolls and we are adding more detail to these as we go along.

We had a fantastic day at the Museum and would highly recommend it as a day out, especially as it’s completely free!

Have a great holiday weekend,

Miss Anderson and Mrs Campbell

Primary 4 have been enjoying taking part in their NASA Juniors Missions over the last few weeks. In their last mission, they learned about the phases of the moon during a lunar month. We learned that:

• The Moon reflects the Sun’s light. What part we see of the Moon depends on where the Moon is when orbiting the Earth.
• ‘Waning’ means we can see less of the moon.
• ‘Waxing’ means we can see more of the moon.
• There are 8 phases of the moon in a lunar month.
• The moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the earth.

Have a look at the children creating their own representation of the phases of the moon using Oreo cookies!

A huge thank you to everyone in the community who came along to support Mid Calder Primary School at their annual Spring Fair, and for all your kind donations. With your help we made an impressive £1076.27, Well done everyone.

A Special thank you too for the help from the parents, teachers and P7s before and during the fair.

P6 were making paper cranes. In Japan they think if you make 1,000 paper cranes your wish will come true. Sadako Sasaki tried to make 1,000 cranes for her wish to come true an atomic bomb landed were she was and then she got blood cancer called leukemia. She died and didn’t manage to get 1,000 paper cranes but she got 644 and she died but then her class mates made the rest and put them in her coffin. People put a statue of her with a crane in her hand. They call it Oragami. Paper cranes are normally made out of colourful paper. If you want your own paper crane bring in 20p or 10p to buy your own one. You can buy it at the school fair on the 17.4.18. By Iona, Alicia and Lucy.  Continue reading Paper crane fundraising →

Primary 4 have enjoyed learning about the life of a Roman soldier this week. The class used their knowledge to then write a job application to become a Roman soldier. They had to share their skills, qualities and hobbies and explain why this made them a good candidate to be a solider.

We also looked at the armour and weaponry of a soldier and decided to design and make our own Roman shields (A Scutum)! We looked at shield designs and discussed the different colours, patterns and symmetry. Have a look at our progress so far!