Category : Science
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Foundation Stage look forward to their Forest School Tuesday’s! And today we had great fun making our own perfumes…
We have been noticing the weather changing this week as the seasons begin to change and the world around us starts to grow again, the flowers, the bee’s, the tree’s! It’s all coming to life, the buds appearing and the shoots in the ground beginning to bloom. It’s the little things that you notice when you stop and take time to watch and listen… but these little things make a big picture of what’s happening in the world all around us.
We decided to go on a nature walk around school, looking for things that we could use to make our own perfumes and scents of spring. We talked about different flowers and weeds and collected bits from the ground and around us, using our senses…touch and smell. We talked about textures and scent and made observations of everything we saw.
We collected our findings and brought them back to our Forest School kitchen where we got stuck-in cutting, pulling, mixing, chopping, squashing, picking, stirring, pouring and sieving our very own Spring scents! We added a touch of colour, a splash of glittery magic and a lot of care and love into our recipes!
We compared scents with our friends, some smelt very strong! We discussed what we could smell and which ones we preferred…
What a fantastic day Foundation Stage had becoming scientists and taking part in our very own Science experiments!
In the morning we had a visit from Sublime Science, this was lots of fun and we got to take part in lots of different experiments learning all about chemicals mixing to create reactions and how different elements, like H20, react in different situations!
In the afternoon we carried on the Science fun with some of our parents! We had a carousel of experiments to explore!
We read the ‘Gingerbread Man’ together and the decided to look at what would actually happen if a gingerbread man hit the water? We decided to dunk our gingerbread men and count how many dunks it took before something happened! We estimated the number of dunks we thought it might take and recorded these on a tally chart. We then carefully observed and watched!
We loved planting beans together with our parents! We thought about what beans and seeds need to grow and what would happen if one of these things was substituted. We decided to take away the soil and just give our beans light and water. We placed them in a bag with some wet kitchen towel and stuck them to our classroom windows. We made our predictions and can’t wait to observe them over the next few weeks!
Our favourite experiment of all, was probably making rainbows! This involved a lot of Skittles, so we loved eating some of the rainbow! we placed them next to each other on a plate and added water. We loved seeing the colours run and mix together! We watched very closely as the ‘S’ on the Skittles slowly faded! We thought about what would happen if the water we added was colder or hotter and if this would effect our experiment!
Our Y3 focus this term in our Healthy Me! unit of Jigsaw has allowed us to consider that the calories we get from the foods we eat provide us with the energy we need to work, grow and exercise. We also discussed the importance of exercise to stay healthy and understand that for our bodies to be in balance (healthy) we need to take in the right amount of energy and do the right amount of activity. In addition, we further discussed the benefit of exercise on our heart and lungs and recognise that the more we exercise that our heart and lungs work harder and become stronger.
FACT…Did you know that children should exercise for at least 1 hour a day? We investigated this fact and calculated that if we walk, cycle or travel on scooter to and from school and be active at both play, lunchtimes and after school that we already exceed this recommended time!
We then undertook an investigation to find out the amount of calories, fats and sugar content in various food items by taking notice of the Traffic Light labelling on packaging…
We then played the ‘How Much Sugar?’ game whereby the children had to match the identified sugar content in grammes to the correct food item before the answers were revealed…This activity evoked some great discussion and difference of opinions between our Year 3 children.
When the answers were revealed the children were quite surprised…
An energy drink…35g of sugar
A blueberry muffin…30g of sugar
A bowl of chocolate ice-cream…22g of sugar
A packet of sweets 20g of sugar
A flavoured yoghurt…17g of sugar
A chocolate bar…15g of sugar
A chocolate biscuit/cookie…14g of sugar
A bowl of chocolate cereal…11g of sugar
A plain biscuit/cookie…8g of sugar
As an extra activity, the children were provided with the actual physical representation of the amounts of sugar, which they had to weigh on the digital scales and match to the food items in the activity….
From this activity, some of our Y3 children have raised that we do not often think of the calories, fats or sugar content within the foods that we eat and that they are now considering taking more notice of the Traffic Light recordings on food labels and packaging.
To kick start science week, the whole school had a visit from Sublime Science.
All children throughout the school had the opportunity to participate in fun and interactive workshops hosted by a great scientist called Harry. He was amazing and carried out some brilliant experiments like putting a skewer through a balloon which didn’t pop!!! He showed us how to defy gravity and swung a bucket of water around his head and it didn’t spill!
We all had such a great time and it made us want to continue learning about science! Some of us said that we would definitely be carrying out a science activity at home for our #ScienceSelfie competition!
So Mr Moy wanted to know, which temperature of tea is the best for dunking biscuits? Today, we invited the parents and children of Year Four to carry out an investigation to help him find out!
We made our predictions based on our previous experiences.
We carried out a fair test and measured the temperature of the drinks.
We recorded our results in a variety of ways and analysed the data.
We drew conclusions as to why the coldest tea allowed us to make the greatest number of dunks! We were able to help Mr Moy and now he can happily dunk away each break time thanks to the Year Four Scientists.
Following on from the last enquiry, where we learned how our digestive system works, today we looked at the function of our teeth.
We explored the indentations left after we bit into an apple and how they varied within the class. Using the mirrors, we described the size, shape and position of our teeth.
Did you know that children have 20 teeth yet when we grow our adult set we have 32! We discovered the incisor teeth help us bite, the canines help us to tear and the molars chew and grind our food into smaller pieces that are easier to swallow. 
Grinding the carrot between lego was a great way to model the function of these large teeth and it really helped us to remember it!
Today, Year 2 enjoyed their parent workshop as part of British Science Week.
We were investigating how to make a strong bridge out of a piece of paper.
We made a prediction then tested our theories with the help of our extra adults. We discovered that folding the paper into a channel shape allowed us to put lots of weight on the bridge before it collapsed.
We repeated the investigation with tin foil and predicted which material would be stronger.
Finally, we did a whole class investigation with a large sheet of paper to see if that would hold the same weight as a small piece. We found out that it could only hold 3 coins before collapsing! Enes said he thought it was because we’d made the bridge too wide!
Lots of great science and engineering ideas were explored.