It’s all about the rocks in Y3

This half term our focus in Science is Rocks. Year 3 have been working collaboratively to explore the appearance and properties of a range of rock samples.

After making detailed and systematic observations and using their every growing scientific vocabulary to describe the samples, the first experiment involved making a prediction about which rock would be the hardest. Year 3 discussed how they would find this out and decided that a fair test would be necessary.

Please talk to Year 3 to find out more about a fair test and also the results of their enquiry. Next week Year 3 will be performing the water test with their rock samples.

 

Wibble, Wobble, Jelly on a plate!

We have had a very exciting week this week in Year 2.

We have been super scientists and exploring what happens when something dissolves, dilutes or freezes.

First we made jelly where we watched the jelly cubes dissovle into the water. We knew they hadn’t disappeared because we they turned the water red! Next we diluted the mixture by adding water. Then we put them in the fridge to set over night. DSC05372 DSC05386 DSC05387 DSC05388 DSC05389 DSC05373

The next day, we made something tasty to go with our jelly – ice cream!

We put lots of ice into a big bag and added salt. When the ice melted the salt dissolved into the liquid which made it colder. Then we put milk and sugar into a smaller bag. We put the small bag into the ice and gave it a good shake! The cold from the ice made our milk mixture freeze into delicious ice cream.

Then we ate our lovely treats!

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Forest School

We have really enjoyed the sunshine this week.

The area has been busy at lunchtimes with children making bracelets, making animal homes and hunting for insects.  We found an ants nest.  We watched the ants crawling around and disappearing back down the holes to their nest.

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Some Year 3 and some Year 4 children have been out with me in the afternoon.  They have been learning how to keep safe during Forest School sessions.  We have to remember to walk around the fire circle and stay within the grass area at all times.  On Wednesday afternoon we were joined by a small bird.  We think it was a Greenfinch.  The children enjoyed watching it fly from branch to branch and one child commented that they had never been so close to a bird.

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This week we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

The children have really enjoyed the book and have become very good at retelling the story themselves.

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“he ate a nice leaf then he was a fat caterpillar”

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We also found a real caterpillar outside which the children were very interested in.

 

We have still been busy in all other areas.  Here the children had been talking about people living in caves.  We searched for examples of cave paintings on the internet then the children reproduced their own.

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Autumn is here!

In Year 1, we have been exploring the season change into Autumn. The children have been interested in collecting natural objects found outside that show us that it is Autumn.  A challenge was put into the science area for the children to complete. The children had the chance to sort natural and manmade objects.  They are fantastic in noticing the differences between the two!

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s a parachute!

In Year 5 we have been looking at forces and parachutes.  We had to plan an investigation to look at the effectiveness of parachutes.  Using the question;

What could we change to make parachutes different?

Different groups planned to change one variable only to keep the tests fair.  One group changed the size of their parachute, another group changed the material, another group change the thickness and another group used paper.  We timed how long each parachute took to fall to the ground and recorded the results. Then, we discussed them.

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Mental Maths Monday

Every Monday, we carry out mental maths lessons and learn new strategies to help solve calculations. This week we were looking at strategies to apply when finding missing numbers. We have been looking at the value of the digits we know, to work out combinations. We worked collaboratively to solve the calculations.DSC05099

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