Tag Archives: Topic

Group Presentations

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P5/6 have spent many weeks researching an area from our Biodiversity topic and have been preparing a PowerPoint presentation to share their learning.  It was wonderful to finally see their presentations this week and give each other feedback as to what we thought went well and what could be done to make it even better.  Each group looked at the importance of plants and how they benefit society in different ways.

Well done P5/6!

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Leaves all around us

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As part of our Biodiversity topic we have been classifying living things, including ourselves!  We made classfication keys about our class members and more recently looked at a range of different types of leaves from our nature garden and Mrs Henderson’s garden!  We sorted them into groups according to texture, size, scent, number of leaves, edges etc,  Then we tried to see if we could identify the tree they came from, just by their leaves.  Some were very obvious, but some were quite tricky to identify.

 

Biodiversity Bingo

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We had a super afternoon exploring our school grounds, searching for a variety of living things.  Everyone had a bingo board with a range of living things to find.  It was great fun taking a closer look for signs of life in the trees, under stones, pieces of wood and in the long grass.

After our bingo game, we had time for a quick game of hide and seek in the “forest”!  The trees are growing so well that it was very hard to find people!!

We ended our session with a visit to the nature garden and pond.  We patiently sat and waited to see if there were any frogs and we were not disappointed!  It was very exciting to see them hopping about in the heather.

Electricity

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Today we looked at the next aspect of our topic  – electricity.  It was great fun exploring the electricity boxes and trying to make an electrical circuit to light the bulbs!  Lots of exciting discoveries were made  and I’m sure the hilarity could be heard throughout the school as we tried to create a complete circuit with our bodies!

 

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!

STEM

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This term we are looking at renewable energy so we invited Emma Chittick into our class to work on a few STEM projects linked to our learning. In week 1, the children were challenged to build a wind turbine using Lego. When their structures were ready, everyone had a trial run and were given time to make any necessary alterations to their design. It was very exciting waiting to see if it would turn with the wind from the fan! We measured how much electricity was produced from each design.

In week 2 the class were asked to build a structure with solar panels that would capture natural light and artificial light. This meant that they had to design a structure that could change the angle of the solar panel. Again, they were given a trial run, then a fair test with the same conditions for each group. During our testing, we quickly realised one disadvantage when relying on solar energy. The position of the sun moved as we were testing at our classroom windowsill, resulting in less direct natural sunlight for some of the tests.

Keep a look out for the final challenge next week!

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!

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.