Science Week 2021

26th May 2021
Science week 2021- what a lot of exciting lessons!
 
 
 
 

Early Years

In the Early Years classes we enjoyed looking closely at bones and fossils from the Sedgwick Museum to support our learning about dinosaurs. We talked about how palaeontologists find bones and fossils and how they can give us clues about the past. The children were amazed that there are no photographs of dinosaurs and that the pictures we see of dinosaurs today are all artistic representations created by the research of scientists. They had a go at making their own fossils using salt dough and enjoyed uncovering pretend bones and fossils in our dinosaur dig areas.

Year 1

Year 1 have been thinking about plants for Science Week. We have explored the outside area and put hoops down to investigate what plants we could find in the different areas.  We have put white carnations in coloured water to find out what happens. We have dissected flowers! We cut them down into their parts (stem, petals and leaves), used magnifying glasses to look at the parts carefully and then stuck them back together again on paper. 

Year 2

This week Year 2 have been enjoying lots of Science activities! First we identified and observed a range of creatures living in the forest area and our bug hotel! We have been visiting our bug hotel every season to see what has changed. We have also completed an investigation into the needs of plants and have compared the results when bean plants have been kept in different conditions e.g. no light but have water. Finally we investigated whether certain materials could be changed by stretching, twisting, bending and squashing!

 

Year 3

In Year 3 we had a science day! We decided to revisit our lockdown topic of rocks. We undertook three different experiments on a set of 12 different rocks. Firstly, we used our observational skills to sort the rocks into a Carroll diagram based on their appearance; were they light or dark in colour and were they rough or smooth? Next, we tested the rocks for hardness by using the end of a paper clip to scratch them. We decided whether the rocks were very soft, soft, hard or very hard. Lastly, we placed droplets of water on each rock using a pipette to test for permeability – does water soak into the rock or not? We completed our science day by creating information posters and presenting them to the class. What an exciting and busy day! It rocked!

 

Year 4

Year 4 designed Buzzer games during Science Week. This followed on from our topic on electricity. We made a circuit and had to work out how to break and connect the circuit using the handle. We used our knowledge of insulators to help disconnect the circuit. We had great fun playing them although it did get a bit noisy!

 

Year 5

In year 5, we had our own Science Days! For those days, we recapped over the Earth and Space unit. For our morning session, we looked at the relative size of planets using fruit and objects to represent them. We then thought about the relative distance the planets were from the Sun and how they orbited it. At the end of the session, we used the Google Expeditions app on the iPads to bring the Solar System to life in the classroom to find out more about each planet.

For our mid-morning session, we learnt about spherical bodies and the evidence which proves that Earth is a sphere. We wrote letters to Beowulf (a Viking King who we’re learning about in English) to make him aware that the Earth is a spherical shape as Vikings believed it was flat.

In the afternoon, we collected items from the forest area and took photos of them using a microscope as part of a competition. Our pictures look amazing! It’s fascinating how items change in appearance when looking at them more closely.

 

Year 6

During Science Week, Year 6 had their very own Science Day! Throughout the day, we looked at classification and how different living things are classified into groups according to their different characteristics.

Looking at a selection of animals, the children had to arrange them into groups based on their similarities. Using their existing knowledge of animals, the children were able to classify them with ease! Later on in the morning, the children were introduced to the famous Greek Philosopher, Aristotle and his findings linked to classification. The children discussed his thinking of ‘hierarchy’ and were able to understand why many scientists today classify animals and plants into five groups called Kingdoms. Check out the children’s information posters on the five different kingdoms.

In the afternoon, the children explored the concept of a branching database – a way of classifying a group of objects. For this activity, the children looked at a selection of flowers and discussed their similarities and differences. Using this knowledge, the children were able to develop suitable questions to use within their very own branching database.

We had a great day learning all about classification in Year 6!