Mid Calder Primary » Eco schools

Lukalu Umea Primary School - Uganda October 29, 2008

Posted by wgordon in : Eco schools, Enterprise, Global citizenship, International work, P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7 , 1 comment so far

This is Lukalu Umea Primary School in Uganda. The other photo is the primary two class. Over the coming months the whole school, at Mid Calder will be working on a variety of ways to raise funds to help Lukalu Umea refurbish their P3/2 class. At present Mid Calder’s P3/2 has produced playground books, P4 are making calendars and P6 will be writing a novel in collaboration with their French partners. Primary seven have designed a logo which will go on all fundraising items. We hope to set up a working partnership with Lukalu Umea where many classes will be examining culture and diversity.

Primary Seven

P5B The Outdoor Classroom October 4, 2008

Posted by wgordon in : Curriculum for Excellence, Eco schools, Health, P5 , 2comments

Steve Bretel is an environmental musician. Money was allocated from our lottery grant to provide some of Steve’s workshops on music in the outdoors. So far he has worked with P3, 4, & 5. Future workshops have been arranged with other classes.

P4 and P5 experienced music in our outdoor classroom. P3 participated in a drum circle.

Woodland Finding October 1, 2008

Posted by wgordon in : Curriculum for Excellence, Eco schools, P6, School grounds , 3comments

Primary 6B are studying woodlands. We are comparing our woodland to rainforests.

We went outdoors to take a look at different types of leaves we could find and the different trees around our school. We found more than we expected.

Jack McKenzie found a caterpillar feeding on a leaf. Miss Storrar told us to take it inside and we put it in a tub with some oak leaves. We studied the type of leaf we found it on and discussed what the caterpillar looked like.

We then used a caterpillar identifying website to find out what type of caterpillar it was. http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.com

We looked at various pictures of caterpillars and narrowed it down to a few possibilities.

We decided that it must be a ‘Dichonia aprilina’ caterpillar because of the markings on his body and the type of leaf it was eating, an oak leaf.

We thought it was pretty strange that a caterpillar was out at this time of year, because you rarely see butterflies in the autumn. We then found out that this caterpillar was actually going to turn into a moth. We found a picture of what the caterpillar will look like when it changes! We also learned that his appearance helps it to camouflage, because the lichen on the trees is the same colour as its body.