Science: Blog items
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 6:24pm
Today, as part of Science day we learnt about a number of different astronauts including Neil Armstrong. We watched a video which explored Neil Armstrongs life and the key events that led up to what he is famous for! We learnt that Neil Armstrong was born in 1930 and his first time in a plane was when he was just 5 years old. We placed key events in his life onto a timeline, including 1969 when he became the first man to walk on the moon!
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:20pm
Today, alongside the whole school we celebrated Science Day with our theme of Space and year two were tasked with learning about the sun. We begun the day by watching videos about the sun and learnt lots of facts including: it would take 20 years to fly to the sun from Earth, the sun is the centre of the solar system, Earth orbits the sun and completes 1 full orbit every year and the sun is actually a star made up of gases. We recorded our information on strips of card and stuck them down as sun rays beaming out of our big sun in the middle. Next, we used our new knowledge of obitting to model how the Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits the Earth and learnt it takes 28 days for the moon to orbit the Earth- our models also helped us imagine the size difference between the sun, moon and Earth. The excitement continued as we visited the space wonder dome exploring stars, the sun, the moon and all the other planets which we named. We also were fully immersed and amazed by exploring what it would look like and feel like in space. During the afternoon, we got more creative listening to two pieces of space themed music- the final countdown as well as Holst Venus and appraised them. We also thought about the similarities and differences between the two pieces of music. Lastly, we ended our exciting day by creating our own sun art using different techniques including pointilism to complete our paintings.
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 4:05pm
Year 5 have had a fantastic day learning about the 1969 Moon landing, as part of National Science Day 2023. Pupils watch actual footage of the Moon landing, watched documentary footage and read newspaper articles about the event. We had an amazing oportunity to visit the Wonder Dome, where we were taken on a guided tour of the Milky Way, and beyond, which the children loved. The children then created a space picture, using a variety of techniques including pencil sketches and a watercolour wash.
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 3:52pm
As part of Science Day, all classes had a 20 minute session in the space dome. We learned about stars and glaxaxies, along with the planets of the Milky Way and space missions to the moon. It was an incredible expereince and all children (and staff) had a brilliant time.
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 3:37pm
What a day! Today we celebrated Science day with a focus on space. We were lucky enough to have the brilliant Wonderdome visit our school for an amazing space experience. The children absolutely loved it. Throughout the day each year had their own focus from astronauts to constellations. Not only did we learn many scientific facts, we also created beautiful art, pieces of writing and listened to space themed music.
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 2:07pm
Wow! What a great Science Day! First thing this morning we were treated to a visit in the Wonderdome. We had an amazing Solar System experience where we found out lots about our planets, moons and stars. We couldn't believe the size of some of the planets and super stars compared to Earth. It really was mindblowing. Then in the afternoon we did some planet Art with oil pastels.
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 11:25am
Our focus for this year's science day was space. We recapped on everything we knew about planets from our lessons in Year 5, before moving on to learn about constellations. We listened to space themed music including the Planets by Holst and Space Odessy by David Bowie. Finally, we created constellation art work. A great day!
Date: 10th Mar 2023 @ 10:21am
Science day ! First we listened to Gustav Holst- The Planets, Full Suite. We thought about how the song was structure and what ‘personality’ it gave us of the planets. Then we listened to Muse- Starlight.
Date: 9th Mar 2023 @ 9:26am
We have been readig the story "Dear Zoo" and have enjoyed exploring all the animals from the story. The children have investigated farm animals and zoo animals and sorted them in to two groups and they have made up stories about zoo animals using the zoo small world. The children have painted some wonderful pictures of zoo animals and made some swirly snakes. Outside they built cages for animals using magnetic shapes, made playdough zoo animals and created some food for the animals.
Date: 8th Mar 2023 @ 5:17pm
This half-term, Year 5 have been studying forces. We have learned about gravity and friction and how they affect the world around us. This week the children were asked to investigate air resistance. They worked together to plan an investigation into the affect of air resistance on falling objects. Pupils decided to create 'helicopters' and see how they fell to the ground. Following a class discussion, we suggested a number of variables which would affect the rate of descent, and decided to investigate the size of the spinner - all of the other variables were kept the same. Following the investigation pupils identified that the larger the spinner, the slower the rate of descent. We concluded that this was because a larger surface area created more air resistance.
Date: 27th Feb 2023 @ 9:23pm
As part of our Science unit 'Classification of Living Things', we learned about micro-organisms and the three types: bacteria, virus and fungus. In order to carry out an investigaiton into the growth of fungus, we set up an experiment to increase the rate of mould growth on bread. We discovered that mould grows quicker in warm and damp conditions.
Reception- A Winter Wonderland!
Date: 20th Jan 2023 @ 10:01am
What a surprise! We woke up Tuesday morning to find everywhere had turned white- it had been snowing!
The children could not wait to go outside and explore the garden, mark making in the snow and making snow angels.
" It looks different- it's all white- snow is white!" Halliegh.
"Snow is cold... slippy..wet!" Kian.
"The sun is coming out ...the snow will melt and be water again because it is hot" William.
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YEAR 5 - Animals (including Humans): Gestation Vs Lifespan
Date: 19th Jan 2023 @ 3:01pm
In our last Science lesson, we found out the meaning of the words 'gestation' and 'lifespan'. Pupils then drew a scatter-graph of several mammals to show their gestation length against their lifespan. Pupils correctly identified that, generally, the longer an animal's gestation, the longer its lifespan, and also that the animals with the longest lifespan were large mammals, such as elephants and whales. The only animal that did not fit this generalisation was humans - we hypothesised that this is because humans have knowledge of medicine and how to stay healthy, which helps us to live longer.
Nursery Enjoyed the Snowy Weather
Date: 19th Jan 2023 @ 10:48am
Nursery didn't let a little bit of snow and ice stop them from having fun! The children went outside and explored the icy conditions by touching the ice and discussing what it feels like. We used words like cold, spikey, hard and melt to describe the ice. The children were very excitied to find that the water in the mud kitchen had frozen and some bowls had been frozen under the ice!
Date: 16th Jan 2023 @ 3:46pm
Today we had to draw circuits. We realised that it would be too difficult to draw the actual components (parts) of the circuit all the time and it would take too long. So we learned that components of a circuit have symbols. This made it much easier to draw a working circuit. We then explored using components such as light bulbs, wires, buzzers, batteries and cells to make different circuits. We found out that a battery (such as a car battery) has multiple cells, whereas a AA battery is actually a cell because it is singular. This made a lot of sense to us because a car battery needs more power and voltage to allow a car to work compared to a remote control which usually just needs one or two cells.
Nursery - Why Did Your Snowman Melt?
Date: 12th Jan 2023 @ 4:57pm
Nursery have been talking about winter and what it looks and feels like. We thought about the different types of weather you can get during the winter and of course we started talking about snow. We talked about it being really cold when it snows and when it starts to get warmer the snow will melt. This led us on nicely to an activity where the children created a melted snowman using shaving foam and PVA glue. They then had to think carefully about why their snowman melted. Here are some of the children's ideas; My snowman melted becasue "of the sun" "he had a warm bath" "i put him near the fire". Why did your snowman melt?
Date: 12th Jan 2023 @ 7:51am
Today we learnt that animals come in all shapes and sizes and that we can describe them by looking at their body parts. We discovered that some body parts are common to all animals whereas some body parts are only found on particular animals. We began the lesson by listening to a number of clues and using our prior knowledge about animals to try and guess the animal.
‘I have six legs, I can fly, I am red with black spots…What am I?
We then looked at a number of different animals from each animal classification and identified their key features. We asked and answered questions about why certain animals need these parts, where they live, what animals we could think of that were similar and how many different types of each animal we could name. We then used this knowledge to investigate a range of animals and match the correct labels to each.
We also drew and labeled the key features of our favourite animal.
'My favourite animal is a frog - it has long hind legs so it can jump!'
'My favourite animal is a shark - it has fins and gills to help it swim and breathe under the water'
Reception - Here Comes Jack Frost
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 9:28pm
The story, 'Here Comes Jack Frost' is full of Wintery magic! One cold morning, a lonely boy wishes for something to do. Then someone comes to play that knows what Winter is all about! The striking colours and simple illustrations were copied byt the children in Reception. They created their own picture from the story, using white paint, drizzled with PVA glue and then a sprinkling of glitter.
"The frost was everywhere because it is very cold" Alfie.
"They went sledging on the ice" Dolly- Anne.
"Jack Frost turned everything white- the frost is white" Clio.
"The frost went when the weather got warmer and a flower grew- it melted because it is warm" Halleigh.
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 9:02pm
The children in Reception have been learning about the season Winter. They have been observing changes in the weather, discussing the type of clothes they wear and learning about animals that hibernate during this time of year. We then painted a Winter tree.
They also painted a Winter tree and talked about how trees look different in Winter.
"It is cold in Winter...it might snow or be frosty" William.
"The trees are bare because the leaves have all died and there are none left on the branches" Lennox.
"It is cold that is why we wear a hat, scarf, gloves and boots- to keep warm".Harper.
"Bears and hedgehogs hibernate in Winter- they go to sleep for a long time" Sheera.
Date: 9th Jan 2023 @ 4:07pm
This week, we were introduced to our Electricity unit. We explored lots of electrical vocabulary and tried to answer questions together as a class. We discovered that for electricity to flow there needs to be a complete circuit – whether that be by battery or mains. We discussed that electricity from the mains doesn’t just come magically, but it comes from substations and power stations. We found out that electricity is created by generators which can be powered by gas, coal, oil, wind or solar. We discussed lots of examples of battery powered and mains powered appliances. We decided that from electricity we can get light, heat (toaster), movement (a fan) and sound.
Reception- One Cold and Frosty Morning ...
Date: 12th Dec 2022 @ 10:00pm
The children in Reception were very excited to explore the outside area where they found ice in the most unusual places!
Water left in buckets, trays, and bowls had frozen over night as the temperatures fell. They chatted together about how the ice had formed, why it was wet, slippy and turning into water.
"It is very cold and the water in the bucket turned to ice" Clio.
"It feels wet and slippy" Phoebe.
"Look! Water...the ice is melting and turning into water" Miley.
"The sun is melting it because it is hot" Lennox.
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Date: 8th Dec 2022 @ 7:13pm
This week Year 1 have been very interested in the seasonal changes taking place. As the weather has got much colder we have enjoyed spending some time outside observing what is happening to the trees, making patterns in the frost and exploring ice!
Date: 5th Dec 2022 @ 9:05pm
To finish our Animals including Humans Science unit this half term we looked at food chains. We mainly focused on looking at producers, prey and predators. We knew that predators were at the top of the chain, but we soon discovered that some predators are really at THE top and are no other animal's prey. These are called apex predators.
Year 5 - Aspirational Scientists
Date: 5th Dec 2022 @ 4:21pm
As part of our learning journey in science, we have learned about Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in Space when she was part of the Challenger Shuttle crew in 1983. Pupils found out about her life, before using their literacy skills to write a biography about this amazing person. As a child, Sally Ride was a star pupil and outstanding tennis player. She has degrees in physics and English, and helped design the Challenger Shuttle's 'arm' which was used in space. After working for NASA, Sally was a professor at the University of California, wrote children's books about science, and started a school program to encourage children, especially girls, to become scientists. After her death in 2012, Sally's sister revelled that she had been in a same-sex relationship with a fellow scientist, and had sadly felt that she needed to keep it a secret for 27 years to protect her career.
Date: 2nd Dec 2022 @ 4:38pm
Today in Science, we continued our materials unit with another experiment. This week we had to find the best material for a boat so we decided we should conduct a float or sink experiment. We tested a range of materials by placing them and dropping them into the water before recording our results. We found that some materials float and others sank.
