Category Archives: Science
We finished S.T.E.M fortnight by taking part in five, fun S.T.E.M activities. We enjoyed our afternoon working together, learning and having fun!
The activities we did were:
3D Shapes – we used matchsticks and play dough to make some 3D shapes like cubes and cuboids.
Lego – we had to make our names using Lego.
Floating Ball – using a straw and a piece of paper we had to create something that would make a tin foil ball float! This was tricky.
Making Bridges – our challenge here was to create bridges for our teddy bears to cross using cups and lollipop sticks. How many teddies will our bridge support?
Marble run – We had to work together and use the pipes and try and get the marbles from one side of the sand pit to the other!
We will get a chance this week to try challenges we haven’t done yet.
Easter Egg Competition
Dear Parents/Carers,
On 29th March 2018 we will be hosting our third House Challenge. The Challenge was decided by House and Vice Captains and will involve children designing a hard-boiled egg in keeping with the theme chosen for their house.
Children should wear an accessory of their house colour on the day but remain in full school uniform for the Easter service.
The chosen themes by house and vice captains are:
- Oak: Film Stars
- Cedar: Book Characters
- Poplar: Superheroes
- Beech: TV Stars (Cartoons, reality, presenters etc…)
- Maple: Pop Stars/ Musicians
Eggs should be designed at home, by children for homework throughout the week of 26th March 2018 and brought into school on 29th March for the House Challenge. Eggs will be shown within the class and children will have the opportunity to discuss their design process. There will be one winner selected from each house, per stage. A winner will be selected per house for both nursery am and pm children. All winners from this round will earn 5 points for their house and a special treat!
These winning designs will then be looked at more closely by our judges who will decide on an overall first, second, third, fourth and fifth place house who will win 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10 points respectively. Our judging process and revealing of the winners will be live-tweeted so that pupils can watch from their classrooms, nursery am children can watch from home and parents can find out the results all at the same time!
This challenge should be a lot of fun and we cannot wait to see all of the designs!
Happy egg-decorating!
Miss Thomson & Miss Barr
(House Coordinators)
Homework
This week’s homework is a whole school activity to celebrate STEM fortnight. Please ask your child to comment on how the photographs and statement make them feel and what changes could they make to help planet earth.
STEM fortnight
We enjoyed visits from the SSPCA and the opticians as part of STEM fortnight.
Forces – pushing and pulling
We had fun learning about forces by pushing and pulling toys around the classroom. Can you find some things that you push and pull at home?
Rescuing the frozen dinosaurs!
The dinosaurs were trapped in ice castles and we had to think carefully about how to release them. We suggested that we could, hold it, blow on it, put it in warm water, put salt on it and move it around. The warm water worked best. We then poured on a little salt and too much salt. Too much salt makes the ice become colder.
We then discussed how we have used our science know.edge at home. Some children had salted their path. Some children had shuffled in the snow, creating energy and melting the snow.
The Space Station
“What could we add to our room?” We asked the children.
“A rocket !” Replied the vast majority. What can we say? It was a challenge!
We made our first space station and it was a great success, with
lots of “astronauts” visiting and recording things in the log book.
Then, a new piece of furniture arrived. ” Let’s add it to the space station! ” we thought. A great success was born. It has lead us in many different directions. We now have space discussions and can tell you all about the moon and gravity. Amazing!
Hallowe’en Science Fun
We had lots of science fun at Hallowe’en. We looked at static electricity and gave everyone “frightened hair” by rubbing balloons on our hair; we did chemical reactions with bicarbonate soda and vinegar to make the pumpkin ” throw up”; we had a sensory pumpkin and gloop to feel. We put our hands in the frozen green jelly and touched the ice hands. Lots of laughter ensued. At the end, some P6 children came to sing us their Hallowe’en songs. They were very good.
Testing Materials For Warmth
We tested different materials to see which would be the best to keep us warm. We used warm and cold water in vials and different materials to wrap them up in. We tested them for heat with the thermochromic paper. If it went blue, it was too cold. It it turned red or orange it was warm. We then held the paper to see if we were warm or cold. Some people had cold “blue” noses!
