Science – Page 2 – P5.17 Blog 2023/24

First Day Back

We had a brilliant first day back after Lockdown. We were all so happy to see each other and the day was spent playing and socialising and feeling happy again. We built Lego creations, read books, did craft, coloured and created 3D structures. We also did a bit of phonics and maths. But the highlight of the day was playing in the field for the afternoon. we climbed trees, made a pretend campfire, walked about with enormous branches, balanced on branches and discovered a whole world of minibeasts. So much learning outdoors in the lovely sunshine.

Unfortunately, Mrs Arbuckle didn’t take any photos! So unlike her! She was too busy enjoying being back with the children and playing alongside them. : )

Designing Stamps for Thank You Cards

We learned about how Rowland Hill was the first person to invent and design stamps. Pigeons used to carry messages and later they were taken by mail coach, pulled by horses.

We used vege gelatine and mixed it with water and then painted it on paper. Mrs. Arbuckle cut the stamps out and we designed them.

We then wrote thank you cards to our families to thank them for the things that they do for us. We stuck our stamps on the envelopes.

Mathematician Of The Day

We learned about Katherine Johnson, who worked for NASA. She was a mathematician who devolved a calculation that enabled Apollo 11 to orbit the earth and land on the moon. This was made even more difficult for her as she was a black woman. She was amazing.

We made our rockets and modified the straws to enable them to fly. It was quite tricky. We took them outside to test them.

The Unexpected – Child Led Learning

Sometimes lessons appear out of nowhere. The children lead the learning and Mrs Arbuckle thinks of a good lesson to allow us to understand about something new.

Last week, one child brought in a piece of lava rock. We looked at it under the digital microscope. This led to discussions about volcanoes (live and extinct) and why they erupt. Mrs Arbuckle made a chemical reaction bicarbonate soda, Fairy Liquid (it adds to the effect) and vinegar. As the vinegar reacts with the bicarb, it causes a reaction and it all pour up and out like a volcano. It didn’t smell too good, though- just like real volcanoes. We watched clips of volcanoes erupting and watched how the lava travels at great speed.

Inventor Of The Day – Paul Cornu

Paul Cornu invented the first flying helicopter. It didn’t travel very far and it was very dangerous. In 1939, Igor Sikorsky developed the helicopter and his design was used in WW2.

We were very excited to make our own helicopters and we flew them first in class, then we flew them from the balcony in the Street. they flew really well. A helicopter template is on Google Classroom for the children to make and fly at home.

Clean Hands

We had the ultraviolet lightbox in class today to see how clean our hands are. we had just washed them with soap, but we could still see the white marks on our skin and nails to show where the germs still were.

Tuesday Science

Last term, we had lots of fun learning Science with Mrs. Short on a Tuesday morning.

We learned about materials and their properties. We designed and created mini umbrellas, which we then tested by pouring water over them. We were very happy to discover that most of them worked really well and came up with ideas of how to improve the ones that didn’t work.

We also learned about living and non-living things. We are able to describe the features of living things are and sort them into different categories and explain our decision.

We have also looked at the examples of forces (pushing, pulling and twisting) in the classroom and in the playground, predicting how applying more or less force would change the speed and direction at which objects moves.

Scientist Of The Day – Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a wonderful conservationist and her close observation of chimpanzees is world-renowned. We watched a clip of her releasing a chimpanzee back into the wild and we were really moved when the chimpanzee gave her a goodbye hug before going off into the wild.

We then did our own observations of gorillas in Africa on a live webcam. They were amazing as they licked each other to wash and ate the shrubbery. We were even more amazed when the gorillas went away and three giraffes wandered into the picture!

John MacAdam – Scientist Of The Day

John MacAdam invented tarmac. He discovered that small stones and lime chippings were much smoother to travel on and when heated, it became a smooth surface – tarmac.

We road-tested our vehicles on different road surfaces. We discussed which was the best road surface material and what problems were faced with the other materials.

Arthur Fry – Scientist of The Day

We looked at the brilliant work of Arthur Fry. He accidentally invented the Post It note. His special glue meant that paper could be stuck down and lifted off without using any marks.

We made our own glue to see if we could use our own ingredients to stick two pieces of paper together, We used flour, cornflour, sugar, salt, liquid soap, detergent and water. We could use some of the ingredients or all of them. We were remarkably successful!