Category Archives: IDL

Rainforest Maths

This week we have been learning all about the layers of the rainforest so we decided to get outdoors and do some rainforest maths. With a metre stick we had to measure the height of the tallest trees found in the emergent layer and plot out this measurement in chalk on the playground. So that was 50-60m! Next we had to draw our canopy layer at the halfway point. Next we were given some creatures and a measurement as to where they were found on our tree. We had to plot these on our tall tree. We also learned about circumferences and had to use a measuring tape to measure the circumferences of trees in the school grounds. Finally we used 5 tapes to create the circumference of a tree that may be found in a rainforest so we could get an idea of how enormous it could be. A tree with a circumference of 5m must be very very tall!

results of our mummy experiment – 2 weeks on

This week our apples were looking really shrivelled! The salt had become really hard and we had to crack it with a spoon to scoop the apple out! It looked like there was very little moisture left in the apple and the skin was extremely bumpy and wrinkled. There was absolutely no smell. There was no mould. We will look at our apple one last time next week.

Salt is a desiccant. A desiccants removes  water from any material it comes into contact with. Bacteria that cause rotting and decay need water to survive. Salt and baking soda remove the water from the apple, which makes it hard for bacteria to survive and cause decay.
Ancient Egyptians use a similar method to preserve human bodies after death. They used natron, a naturally occurring dessicant, to mummify bodies

New Skills in ICT

Today we used our research to write a factfile using Word. We learned how to open Word, select a font and a font size, use the bold and the underline  then practised our keyboard skills. Mrs Oglesby showed us how to have two or three windows open on our screen so we could work between our document and websites. This was useful when copying and pasting images and checking our facts. We then named and saved our work for next time.