Science: Blog items
Date: 5th Nov 2020 @ 4:11pm
Year Two had an exciting start to the new half term. As an introduction to our new Science topic, Everyday Materials, we were set a challenge to build a bridge out of paper. We experimented with folding paper and creating different shapes to see how many counters we could support. Our strongest bridge held over 100 counters, amazing for a single piece of paper!!
Date: 2nd Nov 2020 @ 5:23pm
It was great coming back to school after our week off and we kicked it off with our WOW lesson on Electricity.
We had four investigations to complete:
- Identifying symbols used to represent a bulb, buzzer, motor, cell (single), battery (2 cells), simple switch (open and closed), push switch and wires.
- Creating a simple circuit with a bulb, 2 wires, a battery, a buzzer and a motor.
- Investigating insulators and conductors with sever objects: ruler, rubber, pencil, sharpener, scissors, mirror, paper clip, tinfoil and split pin.
- Creating a switch - we used a piece of card, 2 split pins and a paper clip and created our own off/on switch, where we added it to our simple circuits.
During our different investigations we realised that conductors of electricity (lets electricity pass through easily) were all made from metal materials. Amazingly, we quickly realised that the lead of the pencil would conduct electricity, which we thought was really cool!
We can't wait to find out what our other science lessons on Electricity has in store for us!
Watch this space...
Date: 20th Oct 2020 @ 9:29pm
Everyone has been very busy weeding the raised beds and preparing the pots to plant bulbs in a few weeks time. The children worked together, sharing tools, digging and chatting about the different creatures they found living in the soil.
"Look! A worm! It's wriggling!" Amy.
"It's very long (worm)" Oscar.
Date: 7th Oct 2020 @ 8:46pm
In Science today we have learned all about refraction. Refraction is where light waves travel at a different speed when they go through other transparent materials, such as water or glass. This causes the rays of light to change direction and bend.
Refraction creates illusions. Because light bends when it travels between air and water or glass, objects seen through these materials look bent or distorted. Objects can look bigger or smaller. They can also look as if they have turned the opposite way or flipped upside down. We carried out several investigations to see refraction in action!
Date: 13th Sep 2020 @ 7:08pm
Welcome back to Year 3. Not only have we been busy learning about each other, but we've also been starting to learn about our new topics in Computing and Science. We looked at the vocabulary needed for Forces and Magnets and learnt how to use our new email accounts to login to the Chromebooks. We completed some self portraits in green and we talked about Year 3 expectations. We were all very smart and organised in our first week back and have lots of great things to learn and look forward to!
We're going on an animal hunt!
Date: 11th Mar 2020 @ 10:07pm
We're going on an animal hunt! The children looked for the animals hidden outside and when they'd found them they had to name them and then look at the patterns, colours, how many legs they have and such like.
"It's a kangaroo...they have their baby's in the pocket...they jump and have two big legs and little arms" Rosalie.
"It's a snake...green...little stripes...snakes don't have legs or arms" Freddie.
"Mine's a lion...it has a mane...a long tail" Chisom.
Date: 13th Mar 2020 @ 3:24pm
For our new science topic children have been learning all about light. Children have been setting up simple experiments, joined in with practical enquiries and created fair tests to discover that without light we cannot see. Children have recognised that light can be dangerous, darkness is the absence of light and light travels in straight lines.
Date: 12th Mar 2020 @ 9:16am
In Science, we have been learning all about electricity! We were able to explore the snap circuits and create our own circuits. We realised that there couldn't be any breaks in our circuits or they wouldn't work! We were able to make light bulbs glow, motors spin and we even made one circuit sing happy birthday! We had lots of fun experimenting with the circuits but we also learnt how to use them safely and how electricity works.
Date: 10th Mar 2020 @ 12:48pm
Today we learned what the word habitats mean. We looked at a range of habitats and thought about who might live in this habitat and how they may have needed to adapt to survive there. We drew pictures of animals to go with each habitat.
We then learnt what microhabitats are and went out and explored looking for microhabitats. We found lots of microhabitats around the school grounds housing worms, spiders and woodlouse.
Date: 5th Mar 2020 @ 7:49pm
When Year 4 returned to school they found out that their new subject was going to be called ' Oh I do like to be by the seaside'. This topic has a focus on Geography, Science and D&T. The children created ocean themed water colour washes onto their paper. They created different tones and shade to show light passing through the water. Once they were dry the children researched different ocean creatures and created silhouettes to add to their ocean landscapes. Children also started to investigate habitats and elements of living things.
Date: 5th Mar 2020 @ 12:07pm
Reception have been busy exploring in the garden looking for signs of Spring. The children noticed how the garden was changing and new plants, flowers and leaves were beginning to grow.
"Look! I can see a yellow flower...I think it's called a daffodil". Jaz.
"These are growing too... these are smaller pink and purple flowers" Alexander.
Date: 27th Feb 2020 @ 8:57am
On our first day back after half term, Year 2 had a great morning experimenting with electricity! We defied gravity by making a balloon stick to the wall and we even made salt and pepper jump from a bowl! We learnt that this was all down to static electricity. We had lots of fun making our hair stand up. We also used snap circuits to make fans and lights. We had a great morning and can't wait to learn more about electricity!
Date: 13th Feb 2020 @ 7:27pm
We have been exploring the properties of different materials in science and today we tested materials to discover which were waterproof and would make a good umbrella. We ensured we conducted a fair test by treating each material the same. We found that although glass was waterproof it would not make a good umbrella because it was fragile. We learned that paper was not waterproof, nor was fabric but plastic was.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!
Date: 7th Feb 2020 @ 8:55am
Year 2 had lovely day at Blackpool Zoo. We saw lots of interesting animals and we learnt lots of new facts! Did you know that elephants have 40,000 muscles in their trunk alone?!
During the day, we also had a lesson about habitats. We learnt how animals adapt to their surroundings to survive. We also got to touch a bearded dragon and elephant poo! We had a brilliant time and luckily the weather was perfect!
The One Where We Looked At Evolutionary Trees
Date: 6th Feb 2020 @ 12:42pm
What a fun Science lesson we had today! We learn that before humans evolved, early common ancestors with other mammals walked on all fours, but fossils that have been found tells us that early humans (australopithecines and homo species) ‘evolved’ to walk on two legs (anatomical evidence, but also bipedal footprint fossils). We now understand that we DID NOT evolve from primates but that we simply have common ancestors. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages of home species evolving to walk on two legs (bipedalism) and how they needed to evolve and adapt in order to survive. We learnt a crazy fact too - our closest living relative is a chimpanzee with around 97% identical DNA. Who knew that? Well, we do now! We then looked at how biscuits have evolved over time and what has changed to their characteristics each time. We ordered the biscuits in complexity and described how they have changed - this helped us to understand the evolution process of many living things; such as, cockroaches, ferns, primates and many more.
Date: 29th Jan 2020 @ 8:46pm
This week Year 2 have been learning about different types of animal classifications and explored how each one was unique. Children worked collaboratively and discussed many different animals and then made choices as to what classification they were, based on their individual features. Next we played guess who, where children had to describe the different features and the class had to guess which animal classification it was (E.g bird, fish, mammal, amphibians or reptiles). Afterwards children compared each of the classifications and discussed the similarities and differences between them.
Date: 21st Jan 2020 @ 4:58pm
Today, we had our second 'No Pen Day' of the academic year! Along with that, we had some of our parents come in to school and see their children learning. The parents enjoyed coming to learn some maths and watch the children tackle some challenging work - loop card games involving fractions, decimals and percentages and a square number problem where children had use patience, resilience and determination to find a solution. We also spent our morning looking at different ways on how we could practise our spelling without using pen and paper. We thoroughly enjoyed the 'Taboo' game where we had to describe a particular Year 5 and 6 spelling. In the afternoon, we learnt about adaptation and mutations - how plants and animals adapt in order the survive in a certain biome.
Date: 17th Jan 2020 @ 12:41pm
This week in Fit 2 Go Year 4 have been learning about the Eat Well Plate and the different food groups. They discussed the purpose of each food group and why a balanced diet is so important. Using this knowledge the children were able to plan a day of healthy meals and snack for themselves.
Date: 16th Jan 2020 @ 9:27am
Within Science this week children have been learning about Gases. We discussed different uses of Gases in everyday life and how they are important within our working world. The children observed what happened when we mixed vinegar and baking soda together. They were able to understand there was a chemical reaction which resulted in the creation of Carbon Dioxide. The children understood this was how the balloon was inflated. Then the children used their knowledge of Gases and how they behave to make predictions for our Mentos and Coke experiment They children were able to discuss what they learnt from the experiments.
Fit 2 Go Making Healthy Choices
Date: 16th Jan 2020 @ 9:16am
Every Friday this half term Blackpool FC will be working with Year 4 children and helping them learn about Healthy Lifestyles. In our first week of Fit 2 Go we have been learning about Healthy Choice sand what it means to lead a Healthy Lifestyle. We also enjoyed taking part in dance activities, which helped us to develop our rhythm and coordination.We are looking forward to week 2!
Date: 13th Jan 2020 @ 8:50pm
This week the children in Holly Class had some icy surprises! The challenge was to get the objets out of the blocks of ice as quickly as possible but what would melt the ice the fastest? They used washing up liquid, sand paper, salt and warm water. We made our predictions and then set to work! We discovered that warm water melted the ice the quickest, correctly predicted by Hanasa, and sand paper and washing up liquid took the longest. The salt melted the ice almost as quickly as the warm water. Connor said, after predicting the salt would be the quickest, " I knew it was fast but warm water was quicker because it's warm".
"The ice is wet because it's melting" Kiera.
"When water is very cold it turns to ice" Lucas.
"The sun is warm and will melt ice" Mia
"The water in the tray is because the ice has melted" Rosalie.
Date: 9th Jan 2020 @ 9:13am
This half term, we are looking at Animals including Humans in Science. We will be concentrating on our insides and how important it is to eat a healthy, nutritious and balanced diet. For our WOW we used salt dough and mirrors to recreate our own teeth! This was a sticky but fun activity which helped us understand the different types of teeth and their jobs. We also looked at pictures of animal skeletons and using art straws to recreate them on black card. It was so much fun to look at all the different bones!
Winter - Science, Phonics, Writing and PE!!!
Date: 27th Nov 2019 @ 10:11am
This week we have been learning about winter in Science. It is "one of the four seasons of the year". We know it is often "very cold in winter" so you "need to wear warm clothes". 'Sometimes it snows in winter and you can build a snowman". We used bicarbonate of soda and citric acid to create a snowstorm! We revisited, recapped and embedded our seasons learning and knowledge in PE by making seasonal tress in our warm up, writing about our winter experiment in writing and finding 'snow' words in phonics which contained different snowmen sounds.
Date: 22nd Nov 2019 @ 3:39pm
This morning, Year 4 made our way to Aspire Academy; it was a short but wet walk! We were travelling to take part in a science lesson in the Aspire laboratories. After watching a short video that showed Steve Backshall catching crocodiles, we were set the task of testing a range of circuits that would make a bulb glow at its brightest to help locate crocodiles in the dark.
Using a range of circuits that included 1 to 4 batteries in each, we introduced a switch and reading from a Volt meter and an Ammeter, we were to record the changes in readings as we increased the cumber of cells.
We concluded that the more cells within the circuit, the greater the readings on the Volt meter and Ammeter. The difference between 1 and 2 cells within the circuit was not particularly great but between 3 and 4 cells in a circuit the speed at which the electrons passed around the circuit and the brightness of the bulb was much different - taking more power and the bulb glowed so much that it popped! We recorded our findings in a table and discussed the results in our groups and then as a whole class.
We cannot wait to continue working with Aspire and to make our next trip to see them!
Date: 19th Nov 2019 @ 7:03pm
This week in Science the children had to design an investigation, which tested a range of materials. They had to identify which materials were insulators and conductors. The children were able to identify how to make this a fair test and record clear, accurate results. They work collaboratively with peers.
