Tag Archives: Practical activities

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

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

Remembrance Crosses

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This week we have been concentrating on Remembrance, discussing who and why we remember and why the poppy is used as a symbol for this.

After our class trip the pupils have taken note of some of the names of local people who lost their lives in WW1. Some pupils have also found members of their own family who were involved too – we hope to research this more in the future.

As part of the act of remembrance the class were introduced to the Remembrance Cross, where crosses are decorated with a poppy and dedicated to a particular soldier. We decided to use the  information from our trip to dedicated a cross to our own local hero.

Each member of the class was given two pieces of wood, some sandpaper and string to create their own cross. The pictures above show them sanding down the rough edges in preparation. They then decorated the cross with a poppy and dedicated their cross to a soldier they were either related to who had lost their life during the war or one that we had learnt about during our trip.

The pupils have taken their crosses home with them where they will either keep them to remember their soldier or leave it at a War Memorial this weekend.

Well done P5/6 the crosses look fabulous and you have all done a great job in understanding and respecting the meaning of Remembrance.

Outdoor Classroom Day – Tree planting

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On Thursday 17th May, Primary 5/6 had a great morning planting up a new area of the school grounds with the Woodlands Trust trees that we received last autumn. The grass was strimmed and John made planting holes to put the saplings into. After a quick demonstration  the children soon learnt how to bed the trees in and by break time we had a whole new forest planted up. We can’t wait to see how they grow.

 

 

 

Making Bread

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On Wednesday 25th April, while the Primary 6s were on a visit to TOTAL, the Primary 5s had fun learning about yeast and how it helps to make bread rise.

We made bread rolls and a loaf and the best thing was that we got to eat them – yum!

We also did an investigation to see how yeast produces carbon dioxide as it respires. It was fun to watch the balloons expand.

Terrific Scientific

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On Monday 16th April we started our next science investigation -Grow. We are looking at how growing conditions across the UK affect how well plants grow. We prepared and measured spring onions and will be recording their growth over 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks we will calculate the growth rate and upload data onto the University website.