The biggies used their practical skills, communication, working together and a little maths to make a large windball.
It was quite tricky to follow the apttern and get the ball into shape, but as you can see the bigges did a great job.
Windball
Category: Skills
The Banton Beasties
Today we opened to the public the Banton Beasties a web site where the content is created by the Biggies. The site consites of posts describing different animals that we have seen in Banton. The children research different creatures, find photos they are allow to use and design the page using WordPress (Glow Blogs).
This allows us to improve and practise our reading and writing information texts. We also think about attribution and giving credit. We also learn about animals, their lifecycles & classification. We are learning ict skills that are used in the real world.
This week we worked on some of the insects we have seen in the playground and Dow’s wood recently. We also shared some of the information about mini beasts with Primary 1-2-3.
The Beasties site is a work in progress, we can fix mistakes, add information ans more in the future.
Fairly Tasty Pancakes
We had a fair trade focus day on Friday. We have been learning about the Fairtrade story of bananas & chocolate this week.
We had a fair trade focus day on Friday. We have been learning about the Fairtrade story of bananas & chocolate this week.
On Friday we started the day by making banana pancakes. These are really simple, just banana, flour & milk along with a little baking powder, no sugar!1
As well as thinking about Fair Trade we practiced our Food Technology, linked to hygiene and some maths measuring. Following a recipe uses our literacy skills too. Cooking is also good fun and over half the class thought the result was tasty. Banana seems to be fruit marmite.
Fairtrade information
In our literacy lesson Miss Baxter work with us to create wrappers for imaginary Fairtrade chocolate wrappers. We were surprised as to how few chocolate bars are Fairtrade. We had to write in two genre, giving information about Fairtrade on the inside and designing a persuasive outside.
At the end of the day, the whole school gathered for an assembly, where we had a Fairtrade quiz and found out about the other classes about their activities: Fairtrade Friday! – Banton Bairns & Fairtrade Fruity Fun & Fitness for Fairtrade Friday.
At the start of the day I asked the pupils to let us knowwhat fairtrade was in a paragraph, here are some responses:
Fair trade is like a organisation that helps the farmers in the poor countries. Fair trade means the poor farmers can get paid a good amount for their hard work. Fair trade is an amazing thing that helps thousands of farmers that deserve a fair pay.
Tony
Fair trade is an organisation that makes sure that farmers get a fair price for their products that they are selling. You get fair trade bananas, chocolate, coffee and other stuff.
Juliet
FairTrade, it’s a wonderful thing, it has 2 ways it supports farmers, Fairtrade minimum and Fairtrade premium. Fairtrade minimum has a limit to how low the price for cocoa in any Fairtrade product can go with coco. Fairtrade premium gives money to the community for every ton of cocoa sold.
Robert
Fairtrade is an organisation designed to help farmers who grow our food. The price is increased a bit on some of the food we buy that the farmers produce. The extra money all goes to the farmers, not where you are buying it.
Gene
- A different group of The Biggies bake as part of their maths program each week, nearly always involving a little sugar ↩︎
MakerSpace Christmas Challenge
For the last few weeks the Biggies have been spending their time in the MakerSpace tackling a Christmas Challenge.
- Design & construct a Christmas Model 🌶
- Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part 🌶 🌶
- Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part & a simple electrical circuit. 🌶 🌶 🌶
- Design & construct a Christmas Model that includes a moving part, a simple electrical circuit, & a programmable element. 🌶 🌶 🌶 🌶
We started off by making plans:
We talked a bit about the skills needed for carrying out or plans and the design cycle.
He results show not only our pupils imagination but a range of skills.
For the last few weeks we made some Christmas models in the Makerspace. We could make anything we wanted, as long as it is Christmas themed. I decided to make a Christmas tree! I was the only one who made a Christmas tree.
There was a lot of problems we had. Here are some of the problems I had:
- The motor didn’t work
- The tree was moving when the motor was on
- The motor was falling of a bit
Here are the solutions I had for the problems
Robert
- Check and re-wire the electronics
- Add some weights to the tree
- Tape it on a bit
I made a train with a carriage carrying presents. I thinked about connecting both the locomotive and the carriage together. So I used pipe cleaners to hook them together. The final product was a success. I liked how I added presents to the carriage.
Problems & Solutions
I used wood to make the presents but they were too tiny so I used Lego to make the presents. I wrapped some wooden circles in tin foil to make some presents.
Xander
I used lots of my skills but I used five main skills. 1. I used planning and organising because I had a plan on what to do. 2. I used ICT for my micro:bit. 3. Numeracy for measuring things. 4. Problem solving for my short and tall stuff. 5. Creative thinking to add details.
Tony
For the maker space Christmas challenge I made a sleigh pulled by a rain deer. It had a light collar and a micro bit in the sleigh. It also moved. We had to make it max 30cm wide, long and tall.
A few problems I had were I didn’t have enough space to make two reindeer like on my plan so I had to move the micro bit to my sleigh. Another problem I had was that my reindeer was to heavy causing my sleigh to tip forwards so I had to pup my rubber in the back until I got the wires and batteries in which held it down.
Some skills I used were planning and organising, ICT, creative thinking and practical skills.
Juliet
First I made a net. Then I hot glued the net together to make a square then I made a roll for the front. Then I added 2 light bulbs and with then I wrote Santas express on it. Lastly I added an spoiler and an antenna and that was me finished
I used my practical skills and my ICT. My problem was the clips would not connect to the light bulb. My idea totally changed at one point because my original plan was a slay that you pull Back against an elastic band.
Noah
Cardboard Constructors
Yesterday we had a cardboard construction challenge as a MakerSpace warm up.
The challenge was to make something out of pieces of cardboard. The target was to make the tallest or most artistic creation. The limitation was only pieces of cardboard could be used and the biggest size you could use was 10cm.
No Glue, No Tape: Just Cardboard
We had a lot of fun, some successes, and some problems. All the pupils kept working until the end. The results were varied!
Some of the class aimed for height, some for art, some worked to their own criteria (Alex managed a miniature).
Christmas Challenge
Primary 5-06-7 had a STEM challenge yesterday. The children had to create a sledge to carry a small assortment of sweets down a ramp. We were looking for the one that could go furthest without losing its cargo and the best looking on.
The Biggies are getting really good with their practical skills in the makerspace. The manages the whole thing In a couple of hours. Some beautiful solutions. Lots of problem solving, creativity and communication on display.
Makerspace Robot Roundup
We have been working hard in our Makerspace on our Robots challenge.
The Challenge is to create a model Robot with elements of, Movement, Electricity & Coding.
The class has done an amazing job with lots of fun and failure. I’ve been especially impressed how the groups worked together and adapted their ideas as the went along.
Bobara
Duck
Robot Mike
ECCO Finished product
A.D.A.M
I gathered quite a lot of quotes from the class and have added some below in their unedited glory.
General Comments
- His back there is a skewer that you twist so that tightens the rope to make the flaps go up and loosen it to go down
- It is a micro bit that plays a song by another micro bit sending it messages to start and stop
- We had to change the song a few thousand times but we got there in the end.
- We argued about the wheels and some designs but we didn’t argue much. The wheels worked out well and the coding component is working well too.
- Yes when we were cutting our blocks of wood to hold up a big platform. The blocks where slanted so we had to make new ones and measure it correctly so it was in a straight line.
- We didn’t think of how the weight of the head was going to affect the motor. This was because the head was too large. Also we painted some of it and changed a lot of the outer design and make the packages more realistic by putting things in them.
- It’s moving part is the spinning brush on the front, a motor is hooked up to a battery pack and a switch using wires, when the switch is clicked the motor turns a piece of glue tack spins and the brush is attached to it.
- My robot is a large Aztec sort of style robot called A.D.A.M. A.D.A.M stands for Ancient Dispenser of Aztec Mummies. As the name suggests it dispenses drawings of mummies.
- It is called Adam it is like a box and it has wheels dispense mummies
Enjoyed
- I enjoyed working with others and learning how different things work.
- I really enjoyed be able to express my creativity
- Being partners with the people I was and painting and talking to them.
- I enjoyed creative work and doing fun things with saws and hot glue guns
- I enjoyed making a lot of the things we made and I think I work well in most of the groups I was put in.
- I enjoyed working with the micro bits and coding elements.
- I enjoyed using different equipment like hot glue guns.
Didn’t enjoy
- I didn’t enjoy the we had a problem with the electronics
- I didn’t enjoy all the arguing but then again it was mostly needed because of voting.
- I didn’t enjoy the problem with the wheels and trying to fix that because it took a while to find a solution.
- I enjoyed everything about the makerspace, and didn’t dislike anything.
Learned
- I learned that it’s sometimes people need to learn to try help each other more then we should.
- I learned how to put the movie into keynote and I learned how to do wiring.
- I learned how to work with others better and how to make different things, I feel like I’m better at arts and crafts as well.
- I learned that wires were very complicated and annoying and that you may not be friends with your partners but you can get along in some ways.
- I learned how to use glue guns, what materials are better and not just look better and how to find good solutions to problems but still keep close to the original design.
- I learned how to use micro bits to control motors.
- I learned how to use a saw correctly and I learned how to use a hot glue gun.
- How to have fun and work at the same time while being in my zone.
- How to make a iMovie video with voice over music and effects and to work in a team to create a machine with electronic components.
- I learned that you can make anything out of quite a lot of materials and I learned that using iMovie is quite easy.
Automata Finished
This week the pupils all finished their Automata. There are a few photos in the video before footage of the machines in action:
Today we presented to the parents & guests about our STEM (or STEAM) learning, including a section on the automata Project. The children did a brilliant job of writing scripts, creating presentations and talking to an audience.
Highlights of the week, seismographs & science
We have had a busy week this week. Highlights for me included our work on Earthquakes. The children did some research to find out the basic facts and yesterday made some model seismographs to explore how these instruments works.
Learning about Earthquakes
We used our research skills to find how about earthquakes.
States of Matter
Mr Wevling started a new science topic, looking at the different states of matter.
Banton Biggies Podcast Episode 7
One on our podcast the class has just posted a new episode. The first this session.
The class worked really hard and independently on creating this.
From scripting when we hard a brilliant literacy session, class showed iron concentration, talking, listening and editing for flow. Working on expression and talking for an audience.
And recording.
to making musical ‘stings’ and editing the audio.
And finally Publishing.
