Science: Blog items
Year 1 Investigating Animal Poo!
Date: 21st Feb 2022 @ 6:41pm
As part of our WOW lesson today we examined and dissected animal poo! Using our prior knowledge about carnivores, omnivores and herbivores we identified which animal had left which poo behind. We also had a poo fact sheet to help us. We labeled which poo which animal had come from and whether each animal was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. Don't worry, it wasn't real poo!
Date: 21st Feb 2022 @ 2:30pm
In Year 6 today we have taken part in an activity to help us understand evolution. We discussed who Charles Darwin was and how he developed the theory of evolution by comparing finches on each of the Galapagos Islands. He found that there were differences in the birds' beaks depending on the food available. We have taken the role of these birds today by trying to pick up different 'seeds' using a range of different 'beaks'. We found that some beaks were better at picking up seeds than others and this helped us to understand why some finches developed different sized beaks.
Date: 20th Feb 2022 @ 4:35pm
Last half term Year 4 had weekly visits from Blackpool FC and had an amazing time on the Fit 2 Go initiative! Some fantastic games that were not only fun, but really raised our pulses and incorporated a lot of teamwork and problem solving. We also learned so much from our theory sessions which were all about how we can keep both our body and our minds healthy. A huge thank you to Blackpool FC, we had an amazing time and learned so much in the process!
Date: 9th Feb 2022 @ 9:27pm
Earlier in the week, Year Two had a very exciting set of visitors to our classes. Gemma from Little Zoo to You introduced us to some very interetsing animals; Michelle the African Land Snail, Clare the Madagscan Hissing Cockroach, Prince Charming the Australian White Tree Frog, Charlotte teh Mexican Red-Kneed Tarantula and Zeus the American Corn Snake. Gemma told us lots of interesting facts about each creature and how they survive in their natural habitats. We also got to handle some of the guests, which for some of us, took a lot of courage!
Date: 8th Feb 2022 @ 5:14pm
We love a good Tuff Tray activity in nursery! Tuff trays are great for setting up a range of activities and the great thing is that they cover so many areas of learning. This week we have made potions in one of our outdoor trays. This provided some great opportunites for the children including exploring colour mixing, capacity, counting, developing communication and langauge skills and fine motor skills. It was also great for social skills as the children had to negotiate and take turns with the equipment. As the activity was open eneded, the children explored things further by pouring their potions down some pipes. They loved to see what happened when the coloured water hit the tray at the bottom!
Year 5 Investigating water resistance
Date: 3rd Feb 2022 @ 11:33am
As part of our topic on forces, pupils were challenged to investigate the effect of water resistance on an object. We molded playdough into different shapes and dropped them into water to see how fast they would sink. We discovered that, thin shapes and ball shapes sank faster than large flat shapes. This is because the larger shapes created more water resistance! Water resistance is the force of the water pushing back against the force of gravity - which is trying to make the object sink.
Date: 2nd Feb 2022 @ 8:18pm
This week in Geography we have been learning all ab out how waves affect out coastlines. We have learned all about contructive and deconstructive waves and the impact they have on our coastlines. We had a conducted a great experiment using water and sand to recreate the two types of waves in our classroom!
Date: 25th Jan 2022 @ 5:14pm
Oh no! There's a problem! Some of the toys have been frozen in ice! How can we get them out?
The children were given blocks of ice with toys frozen inside and a choice of ways to set them free! They were given warm water, sponges and hammers! They worked hard to try and free the toys from the ice. They talked about how the ice was melting and knew that if they hit the ice it would slowly get smaller and the toys would be free! You'll be pleased to know that they did manage to free all of the toys - phew!
Date: 24th Jan 2022 @ 8:48pm
The children have been busy exploring ice in the outside area. The ice was simply placed on a tray and left for the children to make their own observations, use new vocabulary they had learned that week and show collaboration.
"It feels wet...cold...slippy" Alicja.
"It's melting...look there is water...the sun is melting it" Mercedes.
"When it is cold water freezes" Charlie
Date: 23rd Jan 2022 @ 11:15am
At the start of Spring 1, Year 5's Science Club was officially launched!
So far, we have had a go at the following experiments to investigate different areas of science:
Making giant fingerprints (DNA and what makes us different)
Making raisins dance (Buoyancy)
Making different sized paper rockets (Air resistance)
Writing messages with lemon juice (Oxidisation)
Magic milk (Surface tension)
Date: 23rd Jan 2022 @ 10:55am
This week, we had our half-termly No Pen Day! This is a day where nobody, including the teachers, can use any form of pen or pencil!! We have to get very creative to be able to continue with the journeys we are in for each of our lessons. This is how we did it this time...
During Maths, we used spaghetti sticks to work out multiplication sums. To do this, we researched the ancient Japanese stick method where you have to put the number of sticks down in a diamond shape to represent the numbers you want to multiply. Next, you have to count how many times the sticks cross over and that is your answer. It took us a while to work it out, but once we had the hang of it, a lot of children said they preferred this method!!
For Reading into Writing, we continued with our 'Persuasive Letters' journey. The children had to cut out a jumbled up letter and put it in the correct order. We then used the Chromebooks to research the benefits of having a support dog in school.
In the afternoon, we made three types of paper aeroplanes to see which one would travel the furthest. We talked about the different designs and how air resistance would have an impact. To finish the day off, we went outside to test them!
Date: 20th Jan 2022 @ 4:15pm
In Science today we started learning about the human skeleton. We moved around the room in a carousel, looking at a variety of xrays, building skeletons, labelling and sketching skeletons. We finished off the lesson singing a song about bones.
We loved this lesson and we learnt the name of many bones!
Year 2 Lighting the Way in Science Club!
Date: 19th Jan 2022 @ 11:45am
This week in the Year 2 Science Club, we have been experimenting with light. The children changed the colour of the light using sellotape and felt tip pens. They then created shadows. They learnt how each colour has a different wave length of light and how the colour we see in the colour that is not absorbed from the white light that hits the object. This is then reflected back as the colur of the object.
Addison: “We have learnt that red light has a longer light wave and that violet has a shorter light wave.”
Alena: “A shadow is made from the light being blocked, by an object, from the light source.”
Kyril: “ I like Science Club because I learn new things. I found out that the closer the torch the bigger the shadow.”
Reception Who will escape the quickest?
Date: 18th Jan 2022 @ 6:08pm
Today Recpetion took part in the whole school No Pen Day! Recpetion were faced with a bit of a challenge. Marshmellow the snow monster had used his magic powers to freeze Elsa, Ana, Kristoff and Sven. We have to work together to see which meduim would help them escape the quickest. We discussed which meduims we could use including washing up liquid, salt, warm water and a scrubby brushy. As a class we made and prediction and talk about why we thought that. The children had some fantastic discussions and made some superb observations about what was happening. They even learnt some new scientific words including melting, freezing, liquid, solid and temperature.
"The ice is melting becuase my hand are hot" Evelyn
"You need something warm to melt it like the sun" Isaac
"It doesn't melt in the freezer because the temperature is cold" Isobelle
"The ice is turning into water when it melts" James
"When it is cold water freezes" Maja
Date: 17th Jan 2022 @ 6:38pm
Today we took our Science lesson outdoors! In our lesson today we were introduced to microhabitats and the animals that live in these small habitats. We looked at some examples of different microhabitats that we might find in the local environment and learnt that microhabitats can be as small as a fallen branch or even the space under a stone! We then recapped on what a minibeast is and looked at some examples of the kinds of microhabitats these creatures might live in. It was then time to go outside into our outdoor areas and forest school space to find some examples of minibeasts and their microhabitats! We also collected our own natural resources to enable us to make our own microhabitats!
Nursery Why Did Your Snowman Melt?
Date: 13th Jan 2022 @ 9:20pm
We have explored winter a bit futher and have been looking at colours that remind us of the cold weather. We painted on tin foil using blues, purples, white and silver and discussed how these are cold colours. Paintng on tin foil was lots of fun and the children noticed how the paint brush slide across the foil! We also talked about how we can build a snowman when it snows and talked about whether the snowman would last forever! We decided that the snowman wouldn't last forever because it would melt. We then used a mixture of shaving foam and PVA glue to create a melted snowman picture. The children had to answer the question "Why did your snowman melt?" Here are some of the answers
"Because I left him by the fire!"
"Because the summer came!"
"I gave him a hot chocolate!"
Year 5 Use the force...vocabulary
Date: 13th Jan 2022 @ 4:47pm
This week we have started our new science unit: Forces, where we will be learning about the physics of movement on Earth and in space. This unit includes lots of new vocabulary and interesting theories that the pupils will need to learn. In the first lesson, pupils were given a list of words such as: gravity, friction and deceleration, and had to work collaboratively with their group to match the word to its definition.
Date: 13th Jan 2022 @ 4:14pm
Year Two have started their new Science learning about animals by finding out about animal offspring. We sorted adult animals with their offspring and we noticed that some offsrping look like their adults, whereas some offspring do not look like their adults. We then started to classify the animals and their offspring into mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and birds. Doing this made us notice that generally mammal offspring look like their adults and amphibian offspring do not look like their adults.
Date: 13th Jan 2022 @ 12:43pm
In Science club this week, KS1 made slime starting from marshmallows, oil and cornstarch. The children had great fun mkaing, stretching and playing with their slime. The highlight being Miss Stanbridge getting covered in corn starch.
“I really enjoyed making slime in Science Club. My favourite part was watching the marshmallows melt and grow at the same time.” (Rose)
“It was the best day EVER making slime!” (Jaz)
“I liked putting the marshmallows in the corn flour to help the marshmallows not be sticky anymore, and make it into slime.” (Albie)
Nursery What Does Winter Feel like?
Date: 11th Jan 2022 @ 9:33pm
It's been a little bit chilly this week in Nursery as we have been exploring winter. We have been talking about the things we know about winter and lots of the children said that it snows in the winter and we need to wear hats and scraves to keep us warm. We tried to recreate some snow by mixing baking soda and conditioner together - the result was quiet realistic! The chilren have also been exploring ice and have been painting some ice cubes! This initiated a great converstaion about ice melting as a pool of water began to appear in the tray!
Reception Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Date: 11th Jan 2022 @ 9:19am
This week we have been learning all about the season of winter. We have been talking about how the temperature is colder and the days are much shorter. We have been observing the changes in our outdoor area and discussing ourobservations with our friends.
"The temperature is cold" I need to wear my hat and gloves" Marleigh.
"All the leaves have fallen off. The trees are bare" Isobelle
"It is very dark in the morning" Evelyn.
Our classroom has also been transformed into a winter wonderland where we have been reading wintery stories, solving winter maths problems and doing some fantastic winter themed writing in the writng areas.
Date: 10th Jan 2022 @ 6:34pm
Todays Science lesson was a jam-packed one! We explored both local and world habitats and identified animals that live in each. We learnt that a habitat is a place where animals and plants live and we explored both local and world habitats within todays lesson. We started by looking at local habitats – urban, woodland, pond and coastal. We discussed and compared each habitat, before looking specifically at a coastal habitat and what animals/plants we might see there. We then explored world habitats – desert, artic, tropical rainforest and ocean. We then completed a world habitats animal sort, discussing how we thought each animal was adapted to its habitat and what it is like in each place.
Date: 9th Jan 2022 @ 11:13am
Today we began to learn about the life processes and characteristics of living things. We learnt that all living things do certain things to stay alive. We then spent some time exploring the different ways that animals, humans and plants carry out the life processes. We were then introduced to MRS GREN and explored each of the life processes to ensure we understood what they mean. Finally we sorted a number of objects into the headings never alive, living and dead. We tried hard to think about the seven life processes when sorting each object.
Date: 13th Dec 2021 @ 1:24pm
We finsihed our science unit on electricity by completing a Just Press Play activity. We were transported into a world where the power had gone off and had to solve various problems to ensure it was reconnected. We learned about renewable energy and just how much we all rely on electricity.
Date: 13th Dec 2021 @ 7:50am
This half term, Year 2 have been exploring materials and their properties. Last week, we planned and conducted two experiments to test different materials properties to see which is the best material for different uses and how suitable it is. First, we tested different materials absorbency to see which material is the best to be used to clean up spillages in the dinner hall. We found that cotton balls are the most absorbent but paper towels are more practical as they are bigger. We then tested materials to see if we could change thier shape. We tried to bend, squash, twist and stretch a selection of materials and recorded our results in a table.
