Category Archives: Social Studies

Sciences, Social Studies

Our Strawberry Patch

Leave a comment

by Mrs Wilson

The strawberry plants that we planted in April have finished producing fruit so we have been very busy caring for our strawberry patch.

We have been weeding out some grass that has grown there and cutting off leaves that have turned brown.

We noticed that lots of runners have grown from our strawberry plants and we have been learning how to plant these using compost, pots, trowels, dibbers and watering cans, so that we can grow new strawberry plants.

 

One of the children thought it would be a good idea to make a new sign for our strawberry patch so we used some old wood and acrylic paint to make a new one. 

We have also been developing our awareness of how we can care for the environment by reusing and recycling different items.  We made our own plant food by cutting up banana skins, left over from snack,  into small pieces and adding them to old bottles filled with water.  After a few days, the banana water will be ready to use as plant food to help our strawberry runners to grow.  

   

 

Social Studies

Eco – Wormery

Leave a comment

The Orchard bubble had a great experience creating a wormery. They were involved in every step of the process. We started off by watching a video instructing us on how to start creating a wormery. It provided us with information on the benefits of having a wormery. The first thing we started doing was drilling lots of holes in our box which took quite a number of days. The children thought this was: ‘Hard work.’

After we had finished drilling the holes in the box it was then time to add our compost into the box to start creating a nice home for our worms. The children were developing their gross motor skills by helping to pour the heavy bag of compost into the box. The children thought that: “The worms are really going to love their new home.”

Miss Maclean had ordered special composting worms from the internet and they had arrived. The children couldn’t believe that you could order worms from the internet. We sat down at group time and looked at the worms and Miss Maclean explained why we needed to use composting worms. The children had even remembered that: “The wormery helps us recycle” and “they will help make compost.”

  

Now that the worms are in their new home the children love to care and look after them everyday. “We spray the worms to give them a drink.” “We need to give them our food waste.” The Orchard bubble are attached to their worms and want them moved into the next room we move to.

“Miss Maclean can we look at the worms again.”

Expressive Arts, Sciences, Social Studies, Technologies

Volcano Fun!

Leave a comment

Over the past few weeks, the children have been investigating dinosaurs and where they lived.

After using different reference books the children decided that the dinosaurs must have lived with a volcano.

We used the internet to investigate what makes volcanos erupt.

We decided to make our own volcano using a plastic bottle and paper mache. We used bicarbonate of soda, washing up liquid and vinegar to make lava.

“Can you make dinosaur land?” Sorley

“Look at the lava, it looks hot and dangerous.” Fraser

“The dinosaurs lived along time ago, they are now extinct.” Zachary

“Will it explode?” Scott “No it will erupt, because the lava gets very hot, you know.” Maria

    

Sciences, Social Studies

Young archaeologists and paleontologists

Leave a comment

We have been very interested in dinosaurs and this led us to find out about fossils and how paleontologists use fossils to explore plants and animals from the past.

We also discovered archaeologists find out about people in the past by exploring artifacts often found from archaeological digs.

We created our own fossils and hid artifacts in clay and carried out our own ‘dig’ in the sand tray. We used tools such as small chisels, rakes, brushes and small hammers as we worked.

- Pupils, Expressive Arts, Numeracy and Mathematics, Sciences, Social Studies, Technologies

Roads, runways, routes and ramps

Leave a comment

In the construction area we have been working together to develop the area. We used small construction resources to build vehicles and used the large blocks to create roads and ramps.  We added a runway for aeroplanes and have created more roads using tape.  As we play, we are exploring forces using ramps and gutters to create slopes and we are learning about direction using arrows.