As part of our topic we have been looking at traditional toys. Primary 2 created their own kites using paper and art straws. We had the perfect windy day to test them out.
This was an excellent opportunity to practise essential cutting skills.
STEM lesson
Mrs Reid gave Primary 2 a challenge to help Rapunzel escape the tower.
Pupils had to work within a group to find a solution. They had a variety of materials to use and they had to evaluate the best solutions.
Activities like this really require a growth mindset as sometimes the first strategy doesn’t work and they have to find another solution.
There was great conversation in the class about the benefits and limits of the materials.
New Topic – Space!
The blog is back up and running again. I was having issues with uploading photographs from my iPad so apologies for the delay in uploads!
We have now completed out Weather topic but as the Winter months are coming up we will continue to extend the learning through this! We are hoping it snows this year so we get to look at the properties of water and do lots of ice related science.
To begin our science topic, we read ‘Back to Earth with a Bump’. It is a Twinkl story the children adored! It is all about a boy whose bed turns into a rocket! He has a mission to explore space and try to find the Sun. On his search, he comes across lots of things in the Solar System. We did a lot of predicting about what comes next in the story.
It taught them about the Sun, the Moon and the stars. It also was good to recap our old learning about Day and Night and that when the sun is facing us it is day, and when it is not, it is night! There are some amazing graphics to demonstrate this inside the book.
We hope to go on our own Space adventure just like Hal did in the story, so we made Intergalactic Passports. We know that to fly somewhere on Earth we need a passport so that the people in the airport know that it is us. So in order to go to space, we need a passport!
Inside we drew a portrait, wrote our names, age, what we look like and some of us said what our favourite planet was! Here is an example.
The children really love learning about the planets and already have their favourites. We learn them through these songs and videos which they enjoy. Feel free to use the links below to listen to them at home!
The planets and their properties
We had the chance to order the planets and look at their properties.
Some of the children were able to share some of the knowledge they already had about space with the rest of the class.
Mohammed Almeer blew us away with some of his facts about how Jupiter is so big that it could fit all of the planets inside it. He also told us Neptune is super cold on the outside but actually really hot on the inside of the planet!
Jack’s amazing fact was that the Sun could fit 1 million Earth’s inside it is so big!
Neil loves planets, especially Mars. He told us that Mars, the red planet has volcanoes on it!
Learning all about this, the children then wanted to create their own solar systems and look at scale!
From this learning we now can identify some of the planets from their properties.
Kieva – ‘The smallest planet is mercury and it is grey.’
Shay – ‘The biggest planet is Jupiter, it is in the middle.’
Charlie – ‘We live on Earth.’
Zara – ‘Earth is the only planet that has life and water on it.’
Milan – ‘The planets closest to the sun is the hottest.’
We also learned that stars are super big but they are so far away that we see them as little dots twinkling in the sky. So some boys and girls included some twinkly stars in their art work.
Writing
We then started packing a suitcase for our journey to space. We spoke about what an astronaut might take with them to Space. Obviously there are no shops so we can not just go and buy things. There is no water or food in space so we had to talk about what might be important to bring!
We had lots of great discussion from this – lots of children were very practical and thought they should talk a space suit, a space helmet and some oxygen tanks. Some chose to take a telephone so they could phone home because they would be away for a long time – how lovely! There was lots of health food choices too which you will all be very pleased of!
We looked at astronauts and had a discussion about their suit, which then led us to explore gravity and the lack of oxygen in space! We got to explore the past as well as we watched some clips from Apollo 11- the first men on the Moon!
Here is what Jack will be taking to Space! Very wise.
All about the moon
The story book ‘Back to Earth with a Bump’ mentioned craters that were formed on the moon. We now know that meteors (rocks that zoom through the sky) bump into the Moon and create those craters or holes in the moons surface.
We had a go at making our own craters by crashing marbles into sand. We know that the harder we throw them the bigger and deeper the crater is.
Shay told us that meteors have fire, and that is right! I asked the boys and girls why the meteors might have fire and Jack said that it is because it is going so fast its burning! Super knowledge.
We used tin foil and grey paint to dap paint into a circle to create the same bubbly texture of the moon.
Lorena created a full moon and a half moon! We had a discussion about the phases of the moon and that we can only see the moon or parts of the moon when the sun is shining on it. Well done Lorena for remembering this.
STEM
Next week the boys and girls will hopefully be creating their own space ships out of junk modelling materials, LEGO or KNEX (so please if you have any cardboard boxes, tubes, bottles, yoghurt tubs, anything at home bring it in for us to utilise!)
Charlie challenged himself during his play time to create a UFO. It is on display in the classroom for the boys and girls to admire.
Amazing creators
In Primary 1 there are lots of opportunities for the children to show how creative and imaginative they are. Here are some of the amazing creations.
Joey, Shay & Laughlin made a castle! The boys then went on to make the castle bigger than them. They got lots of their friends over to see if they were bigger or smaller than the castle. A great way to practise their measurement skills.
Mohammed Almeer worked really hard to create a tunnel! He could fit things inside his tunnel without it falling.
Laughlin made a L- that is the first letter of his name!
Joey was hammering some wood to help make a tower with his friends!
Zara was trying to create a tall tower and a house out of the blocks.
Neil created a bridge. He was trying to balance a piece of wood on the round block. He had to make sure it was sitting in the middle so the block didn’t fall. Great thinking!
Jack loves to make letters with the connecting blocks. This week he made one of our sight words ‘I’ and afterwards went on to create ‘H’, ‘J’, ‘L’ and ‘T’.
During Maths Week we challenged the boys and girls to make cars or something with wheels with KNEX. This was the first time we had used KNEX in class. It is quite tricky and they managed to make some amazing things. Here is Lorena, Lilja and Thalia with their creations.
Neil then went on to create a virus catcher.
Jack created a ‘H’.
We all had so much fun playing with KNEX.
We have been exploring 3D shapes, there are available for the children during maths time to play with. Here is Ivy with a tower made up of cubes, cuboid and a cone! Zara was trying to make one bigger than Ivy’s tower.
Corey and Alfie tried to make a super long snake. They made it half way across the classroom. It was HUGE. They then went on to make smaller snakes to compare sizes to see which one was bigger.
