Tag Archives: Interdisciplinary learning

STEM – final challenge!

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Today was our last STEM session with Emma Chittick this year. The children were asked to use all of the knowledge and skills gained over the past couple of weeks to build something that would generate electricity. Everyone was raring to get started and it didn’t take long for their designs to take shape!

Some made wind turbines, some used solar cells, while some used both in the same structure. It was great to see the children interacting and problem solving together to try and achieve success. I was very proud to see everyone working so well as a team and providing support for each other. Well done P5/6!

Rocket launch day!!

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We’ve had a super morning today launching our bottle rockets at the sports pitch!

The pupils have been using our learning on forces – notably friction, air resistance and thrust – to try and adjust their own bottles to build the best rocket design possible. There have been some variations in style and we have all been looking forward to the day when we finally got to test them out…

We set a challenge to see which group could get their rocket to fly the furthest.

Becca and Hannah were the winners with a magnificent 24metres!

Once all of the groups had launched their rockets for distance the ones who struggled with coverage were given the chance to “take to the sky”.

It was a lovely, slightly chilly, morning and a fantastic way to extend our learning outside the classroom. I hope the pupils enjoyed the activity as much as I did – though they did work me hard with the hand pump and I did get a little wet a few times …

Engineers in the making

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This term we have been exploring forces. Using this knowledge and understanding we spent the morning designing and constructing our own bottle rockets.

The pupils were working in pairs to design a rocket that they thought would be aerodynamic and light, but withstand enough pressure to create optimum thrust (and distance) for launch day.

We are looking forward to finishing the project at the beginning of the next term and seeing who’s rocket performed the best on launch day!

French in the sunshine

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Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and used the multicourt to cement our recent French learning. The pupils competed in a game of dictation.

They had to run to the opposite side of the court to read a French phrase, try to memorise it and repeat to their awaiting team members – correct spelling and pronunciation was key as they later found when peer assessing their efforts in class.

The pupils really enjoyed the activity and are looking forward to playing it again in the future – next time some will focus on the attention to detail and not just the speed.

Balloon rockets

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This afternoon we have been building on our understanding of forces. We began the afternoon with discussions over what forces are and how they are used to propel rockets to space. We also looked at the impact friction, air and water resistance have on movement of objects.

These discussions then created more interest on rocket launches, with questions of how is a rocket launched and what happens when it goes wrong? We watched a few video clips to gain a better understanding.

After this, it was our chance to put some of this learning into action with investigations into how size and material (friction) impact on the distance a balloon rocket travels along a “track”.

This will form the foundations for further understanding and applications of our forces investigations.

 

 

Paper bridges

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This morning we worked in pairs to see how strong we could make a bridge using only paper …

We investigated how a simple activity of adding folds or additional support structures could greatly increase the mass that one piece of paper could support.

Some then explored how this differed if we used card instead of paper.

There was a clear buzz in the classroom during the activity and it was great to see so many groups working so well together.

Well done P5/6

P5/6 CLASS ASSEMBLY ON WW1

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Today was the big day for all of us in P5/6, time to share our learning with friends, family and the whole school. There were a few nerves building as the day progressed and much relief when it was all finished – also some pleasure in being able to reduce some parents and staff members to a tear at the end!

Isabel, Jay and Alex sharing details of how WW1 started.

Emma, Carla and Tory sharing details of women in WW1

Robbie, Ronan and Robert shared information about life in the trenches.

Kelsi, Mia and Evie talked about some key Shetlanders from WW1

Amy, Koll and Frankie spoke about the battle of the Somme, where Shetland suffered the biggest loss.

Hayden, Isaiah and Lucien shared some details of the weapons used in WW1.

Becca, Hannah and Daniel shared their thoughts on the end of the war and our learning.

Ellie, Evie, Hannah, Isabel and Robbie all shared information about their own connections to WW1. This was a lovely addition to the assembly and all of the pupils had found this information in their own time!


Quiz time (Abi, Ellie and Kayla): time to check if the audience had been paying enough attention to the assembly… Well done audience!

Getting ready to sing “Keep the Home Fires Burning” – we are blessed with such beautiful singers in P5/6

Soloists: Emma, Evie, Hannah, Tory, Kelsi, Abi, Becca and Carla.

Quartets: Robbie, Lucien, Hayden and Koll and Ellie, Kayla, Jay and Frankie.

I can honestly say that I could not have been more proud of all of the P5/6 pupils. They have put so much thought and effort into this. They have been very instrumental in deciding how we should do it, what should be included, all slides and scripts were prepared by themselves too.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the topic of WW1, both the pupils and myself, and I believe that was clear in the presentation of their assembly this afternoon.

Well done P5/6, you should all be super proud of yourselves – have a well deserved break over the weekend!

STEM Activities

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There has been much excitement this term for both myself and the P5/6 pupils as we have started  our 4 week block of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sessions with Emma Chittick, from Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

SDS are trying to encourage more pupils to consider future STEM careers by introducing them to ‘fun’ STEM activities through the latter years of primary school.

All pupils have been working really hard and enjoying the challenges set by Emma. So far we have used our coding skills to get our robots to orbit the Earth. Some of us were able to simulate a launch and change from a small orbit to a large orbit. This week we looked at “space junk” – we were able to programme the robots to orbit the Earth and divert around an obstacle to prevent dammage to our satellite.

 

 

I think the below comments from the pupils show how much they are enjoying this activity.

“STEM is really good” – Frankie

“STEM is really good because we get to learn with robots. I enjoy learning different things to do.” – Isabel and Kelsi.

“It’s good because it’s about robotics.” – Robert and Ronan

“We are enjoying it. It is fun” – Carla and Kayla

“It is quite hard at the moment but it’s fun.” – Robbie and Lucien

“It’s good, I love it, it’s my favourite thing to do.” – Amy

Achievement Talks 30.11.18

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Today it was the turn of those on Nerdy Nuggets (consisting of Alex, Becca, Carla, Evie, Hannah and Lucien) to share their achievements with the rest of the class.

Today Carla shared with us some work that she had been doing at home based on our WW1 topic. Using the learning that we have been doing in class Carla created a diary of a woman during the period of WW1. It contained information of life at home, stories she had heard from the trenches and the impact of the loss of family members too. Well done Carla!

The diary of a woman during WW1.

Hannah told us all about her Grade 2 piano exam she sat earlier in the week. Some of the tasks she had to achieve were – play 3 pieces of music, accurately read and play a new piece and demonstrate her ability to follow a beat. We look forward to hearing how successful she was in the coming weeks. Good luck Hannah!

Lucien and Alex talked us through their WW1 PowerPoint presentation they have been completing in class. We have been concentrating on a specific area of WW1 each week and the pupils have been updating this information onto a PowerPoint presentation. There is some really interesting information being shared here boys, well done!

WW1 power point before we leave school.

Well done Nerdy Nuggets. Again, there have been some great achievements shared this week. I am also enjoying hearing all of the information that the pupils have been finding out about their personal connections to WW1.

Keep  up the good work P5/6!