Class Prize Today!

It was a perfect afternoon for our class prize!  On this wet and windy day, everyone was warm and snug wearing their pjs – including Mrs Henderson!

It was great to  see all of the much loved cuddly toys coming into school this morning.  They were the perfect companions for our film this afternoon!

After a vote, it was narrowed down to 2 films.  We decided to make use of both the classroom and the ICT room so that both films could be played at the same time.  This allowed for the children to have more choice over what they watched. Both groups were so engaged in the films shown and it was so lovely to celebrate the wonderful first term we have had together!  We all enjoyed a little snack whilst watching the film too!

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I wonder…

Today we  got into groups to decide on our focus for our own dissolving investigations.  We spoke about making it a fair test, ensuring that we only change one thing so that we can see if that change had an impact.

One thing that every group chose to keep the same in their investigation was to use the same amount of water in each jar.   We had to make sure we measured it very carefully.

Some groups were keen to  find out what would happen if we mixed soluble substances and insoluble substances together in the water.  Most found that the flour just made the water cloudy so it was difficult to see if the salt or sugar dissolved.

Others wanted to find out if the water temperature would have an affect on the speed at which the substance dissolved.  One group tried to dissolve sugar in cold, warm and hot water.

I wonder if you can guess which jar contained the hot water…?

A couple of groups were keen to see if they could separate sugar and salt from the water once it had dissolved and how long this would take.   We won’t know the results of these investigations yet, but will keep you posted!

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Dissolving

Our science focus this week has been investigating substances that will dissolve in water.  We had 4 substances to test – sugar, flour, salt and sand.

First, we made our predictions, then it was time to test!  We set up a fair test using the same amount of water for each jar, the same amount of each substance and we stirred each jar the same number of times.

We made some interesting discoveries and are already thinking about what we want to change about the investigation next week.

Some pupils want to see if the water temperature will affect how quickly a substance will dissolve.  Others want to try adding different amounts of water and some spoke about stirring the water for longer.

We are excited to test out our ideas next week!

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Chuck Close Portraits

It’s taken us a while but sometimes you can’t rush a good job!  The children have all created beautiful self portraits in the style of a famous artist  that we found out about.  They were shown his work and we talked about how we could recreate it.  The children were given the choice of working with larger squares or smaller squares in true Chuck Close style.  We talked about drawing 2D shapes within each small square or taking the opportunity to make each small picture more personal to them and some chose to do a mixture.  We talked about the use of shading to make certain parts of their picture stand out and used black pen to make each portrait more visible than the shapes and squares.  When the pictures were complete, we looked at the colours used and they picked backing colours to help display them to their best advantage!  They will be displayed in our ICT Suite so please look out for them when you next visit.

Below are three examples from our P6 pupils.

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Wonderful Water!

It has been a busy week of science in The Draatsi Class!  We have begun to explore our new Water Topic and it has been lovely to see the class working in co-operative groups to take turns, share resources and support each other in their new learning.  A great start to the year!

First we tried some floating and sinking experiments in small groups.  We made our predictions, tested the items and shared our results.  We spent time asking questions and making suggestions as to why certain items floated and others sank.  Some children thought that if the item was light, it would float and if it was big and heavy it would sink.  The apple caused some confusion as it was big and heavy, but it floated!

The next day we investigated different liquids and if they would mix if we put them in the same jar, one at a time.  We used syrup, water (with purple food dye added to make it easier to see), vegetable oil and milk.  We discovered that some liquids sank to the bottom of the jar and some sat on top of other liquids, without mixing.  The class suggested that some liquids were heavier than others. and that is why they sank.  This was when we learned about DENSITY and how this differs from items simply being heavy or light.   Some of the floating and sinking items were then added to the jars to see if they were more or less dense than the liquids in the jar.

We also had great fun making paper boats speed off in a tray of water using only washing up liquid to make it move!  I wonder if someone in the Draatsis can explain to you why the boats moved when we added some washing up liquid…?

Wednesday afternoon was spent working with a partner to design a tinfoil boat that would be strong enough to hold as many coins as possible.  Mrs Henderson hadn’t anticipated how strong the boats would be and we had to find some more pennies from the office!  Then it was time to design boat number two, based on the results of the first test.  Some pupils are still to test their second design, so next week we will be prepared with LOTS of spare change as i’m sure these new designs will be even more successful!

Great team work everyone!

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Curricular Overview for Block 1

Please see below our learning overview from now until Christmas.  This can be subject to change depending on interest but hopefully, you’ll be able to get a ‘feel’ for what is going to be going on in the Draatsi classroom over the coming terms.

One exciting project that has not been included on the emailed copy is that our class have an amazing opportunity to work along with the Children’s Parliament and staff from the Alan Turing Institute finding out about Children’s Rights and Artificial Intelligence.  You will be receiving more information about this soon.  😊

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