In Science we have been learning about forces. During Science Week, we looked at push and pull forces.

This week, we learned that Gravity is a force that pulls things to the ground. To explore Gravity, some of us made gravity art by dropping paint onto paper. We tried to defy gravity by trying to keep balloons in the air and we played with parachutes. We tried the parachutes in the class, outside in the playground and most fun of all, we dropped them off the balcony, up beside the office.

After our gravity investigations, we learned about what makes things move fast or slow. We had to design an experiment to make a toy car move fast and another to make it go slow. We were not allowed to put a push or pull force on the car.

In groups, we worked out that using a cardboard ramp would make the car move. A steep ramp made it go fast and a shallow ramp made it move slowly. We were then asked what we could change about the car only, to make it go faster. We were not allowed to change the ramp.

We worked out that if the car came from higher up, gravity would give it a help. Some of us thought about friction and said that if the wheels were wet, the car would go faster because there would be less friction. At the end, just before we finished, some us realised that if we made the car heavier, that would also make it go faster.

Over the course of this term, we have used the engineers planning routine of: Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve, Present, Reflect, to make the set for a Stop Motion animation film and then to actually make the film.

We used cardboard attachment techniques to create the set for the film. The ones we used were: flange; hole punch & string; slot and slot & tab.

One of the P2 skills we’ve been working on, involves working well in a group and taking account of the needs and strengths of others. Last week, in Science Week, we spent a whole day shooting our films. (we’d practised lots of little Stop Motion skills over the weeks and done a lot of planning, leading up to this.) This week, we watched all our films and reflected on what went well and what we’d do differently next time. Mrs Cameron is bursting with pride over how well we worked together and what we managed to achieve. Once we’d watched the films, we were all really proud of ourselves too!

Using the cardboard attachment techniques, we had a little follow-up challenge where we had to try and build a tower that was taller than a school ruler, could stand alone and could hold a bowl of pennies on the top. We didn’t actually have much time for that bit, but 2 groups did manage. Next week, we’ll do more of that.

Well, it’s only Tuesday but already we have been finding out some interesting Science facts.

What makes things move? We found out that forces make things move. We played with different toys, thinking about whether we needed to use a push force, a pull force or both, to make them move. That was on Monday.

On Tuesday, we thought about what makes things stop? We asked the question, which surface would let a toy car go faster? The choices were, a normal table; a piece of velvet; a piece of carpet; corrugated cardboard or bubble wrap. Everyone made a prediction and then we carried out an experiment, where we pushed cars on the different surfaces. We tried to keep the push force the same each time. It turned out the smoothest surface let the car go fastest and the bumpiest surface slowed the car down and made it stop. We learned the word for the force that stopped the cars is called, ‘friction’. We also had a good look at the bottom of our shoes and realised that the ‘grips’ on shoes are just there to create friction to keep us safe from slipping over. Some of us have suffered from a lack of friction when we have slipped on water, soap or ice.

Tomorrow, we’re going to learn about the force that makes things fall to the ground.

This year everyone brought in their favourite book. They retold the story in their book to a friend and then drew out a Storymap of the book, a short summary with pictures. The Storymaps were swapped around and people got to read a little of other people’s. Now more people have ideas of books they’d like to read themselves.

We all wrote our own little book about Shaun the Sheep and Bitzer and illustrated it too?

In the little bits of time that we had between other things, we did some drama about books and a quiz where we had to guess the book from a description of the story.

At the end of the day, Iyla read us all a story. Now more than half the class has brought in a book of their choice and read it to their friends. Our reading is really coming along brilliantly.

All in all we had an excellent day, celebrating how amazing books are and how they enrich our lives!