The space station landed in 1.3 on Monday. We have been looking at space in class. Space is so cool and there is so much to learn. We looked at constellations and watched the clips of Chris Hadfield on the Space Station and all the cool experiments that he did on the International Space Station.
Primary 6’s told us all about meteorites and we got to touch them. It was amazing to think that we were holding something that had been in space. Some were also magnetic and we tested them with a magnet.
In class, during the week, Mrs Arbuckle had shown us a clip of a meteorite falling to Earth. We then pretended that a large bottle of paint was the meteor falling from Space and we landed it in the sandpit. It made giant craters, which is what happens with real meteors.
We are aways learning through play in 1.3. They conversations and discussions are amazing to hear. The children discover and learn so much through trying new activities or just being creative.
We made our caterpillar shadow puppets using circles and ” springs” and then decorated them. It was a bit tricky, but we got there! We also looked at the life of caterpillars. They were amazing as they walked about, munching on leaves and then spun their cocoons to come out as beautiful butterflies.
We have been learning about insects and the jobs that they have to do to help the environment. We looked at bees and discovered their amazing world. We watched a clip about them on TigTag Junior and learned about the hive and how bees collect pollen from flowers.
Bees are friendly little creatures. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝
Mr Tyler is a fantastic P6 teacher and is an expert scientist. He is utterly brilliant. He came in today to show us lots of science experiments and it was amazing.
We looked at static electricity,; magnetism; chemical reactions; Hydrogel; sound and infra red. We were very impressed. He makes science look easy and inspired us to try it at home. Mrs Arbuckle looks forward to hearing all about them. 😁
Our STEM Fortnight was launched on Friday at a whole school assembly, led by Mrs MacGregor, who has coordinated our events. Our guest speaker was Heather Reid MBE, (aka “Heather the Weather”) who was a BBC weather reporter and is a very clever meteorologist.
We have lots of STEM activities planned and lots of visitors coming in to our school. We also have a STEM Showcase evening on 21st March at 6pm – 7.30pm for pupils and parents, with lots of things to see and do.
Our activities will be on the blog. We are looking forward to it.
We had a visitor in class to watch how we teach science in Primary 1 at Mearns Primary. She was very impressed with our work.
We looked at the properties of ice and why it melts and we even made it colder with adding salt. We made snowmen, looking at how compact ice and snow becomes solid and takes more time to melt.
We had to find ways to rescue the giant paper clips from the ice castles and some of the children tested that out.
Mrs Arbuckle used the digital microscope to look at the snow. It looked tiny crystals.
We looked at animals in the snow and how they survive the cold. The answer was blubber! We used the margarine to make “blubber gloves” so that it was easier to pick up the ice cubes, as our fingers were insulated with the “blubber”. It was great fun.
Well! Throughout my entire career, I have never had a snow day until now! I decided to prepare for some topical science lessons for next week and have got some snow bricks ready and sitting in my freezer. We will look at the properties of snow. ( How can snow be “ the wrong type of snow”? I left outside a container to see what happened to different items in freezing conditions, but I can’t find it now as it has been buried under the snow! The ice castles are also in the freezer ready to discover how to rescue the items inside them.
Ther are lots of things you can do at home too- write stories about the snow and their adventures in the snow; draw pictures about the snow; build snowmen and discover what happens in powder snow; go on Sumdog and Education City. ( Sumdog diaries are in the front of the Diary); read stories with an adult; take photos of the snow and best of all….. have fun in the snow!
Remember to wear snow boots / wellies when we return and for the children to have gloves, hats and scarves on as we will go outside for some outdoor learning in the snow. We will change into our gym shoes in class and let our wet things dry.
I look forward to seeing your stories and pictures.
Some ideas:
Photo from my house.
Photo from upstairs. I love the snowflakes patterns on the window.
I 
View from my hall window. I have never seen this happen before.
