Category Archives: Science

hot, Miss Maturana, Science, spicy, Whole School

Whoosh & Kaboom! Science-Stem Activity

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Good Morning Boys and Girls,

For today’s topic I am going to ask you to relate the title of this post and a picture of one of my favourite Disney films. Can you guess what we will build today? Can you name the film?

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Well done! Today we will build a Catapult, in order to do that I am going to show you some materials you can use and a possible way to do it. You can choose the level of difficulty you want:

Spicy: You can follow the steps from below.

Hot: You will build your own using your own way to do it.

With this activity you will be developing your Scientific skills, such as critical thinking, planning, problem-solving,  persevering, following steps.

Some of you might need help or supervision when using the materials. If you realize you don’t have the exact materials you can always find other things  to help you, that would be a fantastic problem-solving!

Score Card and Planner: Click the green link to find a handout that will track your design, play and questioning skills.

Whoosh & Kaboom!

 

Materials

 

Steps 1 

Collect all the materials you will need and set them on your table, ready to begin.

Step 2-3

As it is shown in the picture, pile up 7 popsicles  and make a safe knot at the end of each.  The 2 popsicles left, pill them up too and make a knot just at one end.

Steps 4-5

Like a big tweezer open the two popsicles and place them on top and under the other big pile. Make sure the one in the bottom passes between the last two popsicles of the pile. See picture below.

Step 6-7

Make sure everything is well tight and stable. At the end glue the lid at the tip of the popsicle, make sure it’s well glued before using it.

While you wait for it to dry you can start preparing your targets, here are two ideas.

Let’s begin the battle! You can comment on the post about your work and thoughts. Also, you can send me a photo of your design to amanda.maturana@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

This is mine, it was so fun trying it! There were a few things I didn’t have so I replaced them and it worked 🙂

Well done for trying!

 

Science

Let’s Get Blooming – Science Experiment

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Good Morning Boys, Girls and Families,

Today we will be learning to develop our scientific skills by thinking, asking questions, following steps, discussing and comparing. You will have to gather the materials and follow the instructions below. Before you answer the first set of questions I will ask you to read the material and steps first. If the day is beautiful you can try this outside.

Spring is here and I think we have all felt it (even our noses if you are allergic like me!), the sun hitting nice and warm, lovely flowers everywhere and birds making nests. During this season flowers start blooming and there is a really nice experiment in which we can make flowers bloom!

Let’s Begin!

Discussion Before the Experiment

After reading the materials and steps:

-What do you think it will happen?

-Is a flower a living thing? Why?

-What do living things need to survive?

 

Materials you will need:

-Sheets of paper

-Water (even a little bit will do)

-Colour pencils/markers

 

Steps to Follow

  1. Draw and colour a beautiful flower, you can do as many as you want and any size you want.

2. Cut the flowers on the edges, so it looks moreless like this.

3. Fold half the petals to the inside part of the flower.

4. Let the magic begin. Put them carefully in some water and wait to see what happens.

 

Discussion After the Experiment

-Was it the same as you thought it would happen?

-Do they take the same time if the flowers are different size?

-Why do you think this happens?

-How is water important to plants?

 

Read this after you have completed all the experiment.

Science Behind

When you mix a solid (paper, plants) with a liquid (water)  a “Capillary Action” (flowing of the water) will take place. This means the water will mix with the paper, the paper will absorb the water, allowing it to flow from the bottom of the paper to the tip of the leaves you draw and because the paper gets heavier with water, it seems it is opening or blooming 🙂  In plants the water will move from the roots up to the leaves or flowers.

How interesting is that? Comment below to tell us everything about it!

Creativity Challenge, Eco Schools, Health and Wellbeing, Outdoor Learning, Science

Earth Day 22nd April – Eco Challenge from Eco Group and Mrs Flockton

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Today marks Earth Day 2020.

This is the 50th Earth Day and this year the focus is on Climate Action. This also connects to The World’s Largest Lesson which is part of Eco Schools work. (Links to both websites below)

Lots of activities and events were planned but this year the theme will be digital based or an activity from home so the Eco Group have set some challenges for you to try.

Can you do any of the challenges?

It doesn’t have to be today but please comment and let us know if you have done anything so we can keep a record for the Eco Group and our Green Flag application.

Task 1 – 

  • Have a conversation around climate change with an elderly relative/community member, this could be on the telephone or video messaging.
  •  Draw a Then and Now picture based on their climate conversation, demonstrating the difference between
    the past and current ways of living and how that impacts climate change
  • Demonstrate a positive action for the environment

I have included a list of questions you could ask and a recording sheet if needed – Appendix Sheet 1/2.

Conversations-about-climate-for-Earth-Day

Task 2 –

Earth Day Spot clean –

  • During your daily exercise can you tidy your local environment. Can you collect a small bag of litter?

On our family walks we have noticed the litter around us more than previously as we have had more time and walked paths that we rarely go on, so can you help tidy the place around you?

Please use gloves and consider what you pick up at this time. Send a picture to your teacher of your rubbish if possible. We can keep this for evidence for Keep Scotland Beautiful but please do not have people in the picture if possible.

Here is our rubbish collected on one walk.

The World’s Largest Lesson

Earth Day 2020

Task 3

P1/2 – (and anyone else who would like to join in)

You have been set a fun task below based around the book you are reading. Have a look at the Sway to see what your task is. This is a fun activity but remember to work with an adult.

mild, Miss Maturana, Science, spicy

The Magic of Science – Ms Maturana -Mild and Spicy

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Good Morning Boys and Girls,

Today I planned some Science experiments to do at home. Since we have been learning about water there is something  that makes water super interesting and magical and that is how things look like when we look at them through water.

You are going to practice this experiments first and then you can set a magic show at home. You could easily be mistaken by a magician! At the end you can explain the Science behind.

These experiments are  simple and most important fun!

Do you know what refraction of light means?

In simple words, everytime we look at things through water the light in it bends and in result we see a different image.

Like this one

Does the pencil or straw looks normal? Why? Discuss.

Experiments

    Before and after you do your experiments there are a few questions you need to think first, such as:

Before: What do you think is going to happen?

-Why do you think that will happen?

After: What happened?

-Where you right or wrong?

-What do you think now?

 

1.Arrow and other objects Experiment

Materials

-Glass of water (not small so you can see better)

-Paper

-Marker

Steps

This experiment is very simple. First, draw an arrow near the top of the paper and one near the bottom, pointing the same direction. Second,  put it behind the jar of water. Third, look right through the middle of the glass. What happens to the arrow? You can do the same with different objects from your home like: pencils, toys, other types of paper. What happens with all of them? Do you see them the same way as normal?

Science Behind

The light bends once when it traveled through the glass cup into the water, and then it bends again when it traveled out of the glass cup and into the air. As a result, the light paths cross and the image appears to be flipped horizontally (left/right).

Isn’t it great?

2. Zip Lock Bag  Experiment

 

Materials:

-White paper

-Plasctic bag

-Marker

-Jar of water

Things change from the postition we look at them, so in this experiment you will look from above (looking at the surface) rather than in the middle of the glass.  The video below  will show you the steps and what happens. You can draw anything you want just make sure one drawing is white and the other has colour.

Steps

Video with steps

Science Behind

The same way the light bended -as we saw in the first experiment- will happen here. The difference is that we are looking from a different postition/angle, that makes the light to bend completely  so it doesn’t get to our eyes. The part that we can see it is because it has not bended completely.

Isn’t is great?

 

Here is how it worked for me

My Sway

Comment on what you did, what happened, how you felt and of course if you had fun. Can you do some magic at home now?

 

Ms. Maturana

Creativity Challenge, Health and Wellbeing, mild, Outdoor Learning, Science

Outdoor Learning Grid 1: Mild Challenge: Rainbow Scavenger Hunt

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Rainbow Scavenger Hunt

Which rainbow colours are outdoors at this time of year?

Print off the sheet in the mild links and add double sided sticky tape

or

use an egg box to collect items in 

or

make your own collection sheet to hunt for items to match the colours of the rainbow.

If you collect leaves and petals you could have a go at pounding them with a hammer or rubbing them onto a piece of thick paper to collect rainbow colours.

Take care, ask an adult for a safe tool to use.

“Yesterday morning when the sun was shining and it was dry I went outside and searched for rainbow colours and…”

Look through the sway below to find out more about what I did.

 

Expressive Arts, Literacy, mild, Mild literacy, P1 Ms Rossvoll, P2 Mr Mutch, Science

Literacy Grid 1 – Mild Challenge – Letter Formation – Down and Bounce Letter Family

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Good morning boys and girls,

I spent yesterday making some resources to help you with this mild challenge from Literacy Grid 1.

Letter Formation

Choose a family of letters to practise each day.

Watch the videos to help you form the letters

These resources help you learn to form the

Down and bounce family of letters

Think about a ball dropping down to the ground.

When it hits the ground it bounces back up and then often moves forward making an invisible rainbow line, curved line.

b h k m n p r

These letters always begin at the top, (a ball won’t bounce far if you don’t start with it up high);

with a straight line being drawn down.

The pencil travels back up the straight line;

and then the pencil is used to draw a curved line to the right, that line ends in different ways for the letters in this family.

Before you start to form your letters remember to warm up your hand by drawing curved lines – try drawing clouds and rainbows.

I have started a drawing that would help you practise these movements before you write letters from the down and bounce family. Click on the picture above to see a larger version for you to copy.

I wonder who might be holding the umbrella and have their feet in the boots?

A rainbow is drawn with curved lines

Clouds are a wonderful way to draw joined curved lines and this helps to improve fluidity.

Spirals could form puddles and lots of short diagonal lines can cover the page with rain. Zig zag lines could form grass.

Enjoy!

The videos in the Sway below show you how to write the the letters in this family.

Challenge levels, Eco Schools, Health and Wellbeing, P3 Mrs Flockton, Science

Growing Challenge by the Eco Group and Mrs Flockton

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Hello all and especially to my Eco Committee,

Maybe with some time at home you have been able to plant some seeds this year. I had just broken the news to Mrs Taylor that P3 were going to plant lots of seeds in class when they announced the school closures so P3 never had the chance in the end. We also had a delivery of seed potatoes from One Seed Forward so I will plant those at home and come up with a plan for use when we all return.

Anyway, we have been busy planting our own seeds and I have included some photos below, these were planted for a Spring Fayre at my daughters school so looks like we will have to make room for lots more in the greenhouse. We have planted some unusual varieties this year including pink and black tomatoes and yellow courgettes. Let me know what you are planting and there is even a wee prize for anyone who can guess the mystery plant on the second last picture.

Finally,  I have a Challenge task not on the grids to design your own “Perfect Garden”. This could either be drawn, designed on the computer or made up from magazine images. For those of you at Brownies you could get started on your Gardening badge with these tasks or let me know if you have started any others (Scouts or Guides too). You can upload a photo or comment telling us what you are doing but please stay safe when sharing this.

 

Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, hot, Literacy, mild, Numeracy, Outdoor Learning, Science, spicy

New – Outdoor Learning Grid 1

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Hopeful for some spring sunshine and warmth we thought you might like to explore the challenges on Outdoor Learning Grid 1 to learn about worms, create a nest and investigate the rainbow spectrum of colours.

Outdoor Learning Grid 1

Capture your learning in your journal or sway and leave a COMMENT to let us know what you have been learning to do. Help everyone to feel connected and that we are learning together.

Mild challenge

Rainbow Scavenger Hunt – Rainbow_Nature_hunt

Nest resource – giant-nest-building-sheet

Spicy challenge

Nest resource – pdf_build_a_bird_nest

Hot challenge

Worm resource – Opal Lab Worm Identification Chart

Rainbow resource – making-rainbows

Nest resource – andygoldsworthy-slideshare

When you come back indoors:

Mild challengers might like to sit and listen to ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. Worms are superheroes in our gardens. Can you find out why?

Spicy challengers might like to sit and listen to ‘Yucky Worms’ by Vivian French. You could turn the sound off and read the book independently by pausing the clip at the right time for you. List the facts you learn from the story in your journal or sway.

Hot challengers, older children might like to watch the Springwatch documentary about earthworms which includes information about their importance, varieties. predators, how they reproduce and how to investigate them.  Creating a mindmap would help you to summarise the main points in your learning journal or sway.

 

Miss Maturana, Science

Saving Water at Home

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Good Morning Boys and Girls,

Today I am going to show you some photos of things I have been doing at home to save water, can you tell me what you have been doing? You can copy the link of your sway in the comments so we can see or simply attach a photo or drawing to your comment.

Saving Water at Home
Hello Everyone! It is very nice to be writing to you all, I hope you’ve been having lovely week and kept safe.
Go to this Sway

Looking forward to your answers.

Miss Maturana.

Creativity Challenge, Digital Citizenship, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Numeracy, Science

Learning Starters Grid 1

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Come on Methlick School – let’s start learning together online!

Enjoy challenging yourself to complete some activities from a choice of 3 grids.

Health and Wellbeing Grid 1

Literacy Grid 1

Numeracy Grid 1

We all believe that having a growth mindset is very important so the activities are organised into levels.

Mild 

Spicy

and Hot!

Where will you start Methlick School ?

Let’s push ourselves to make a GREAT effort!

The teachers are going to have a go as well!

Keep checking the blog and please leave COMMENTS so we can stay connected.

Thank you.

Mrs Fraser and the teachers!