Why do we have senses?

In science we have been looking at the human body. We could identify our different body parts and understand why they are important. This week, we looked at and explored our 5 senses. We started with touch. We passed round the circle a soft teddy bear, sand paper, cotton wool and playdough. The children described the objects as: “rough”, “sticky”, “fluffy” and “scratchy”. We now understand that we don’t just use our hands and fingers to touch as we can feel things with many parts of our bodies.

We then explored our sense of smell. We smelt garlic, rosemary, lavender and coffee. We agreed that they smelt very different. Some were strong and some smelt sweet!

We then explored our taste buds! We discussed how everyone has different taste buds which means we all do not like the same things. We then did a comparative test with the question does our sense of taste get stronger when we close our eyes? The majority of the children agreed it did! We used salt and sugar which we all agreed were very different. Their favourite was the sugar!

We finally explored our sense of sight and hearing by playing different sounds and identifying what was making that noise. We then turned our classroom lights on and off, exploring seeing in the light and dark! Overall, we had a lot of fun exploring our 5 senses!

Y6 Pig heart dissection

For our science experiment this term, year 6 were extremely excited to take part in a pig heart dissection!

We have been working hard learning about the circulatory system and the importance of the heart. This was a great opportunity to explore the 4 different chambers and arteries as we carefully examined the inside of the heart.

Also, within our guided reading lessons, we have been studying the book ‘Pig Heart Boy’ by Malorie Blackman and the main character, Cameron, is due to receive a pig heart transplant.

We could even gently insert our fingers into the vena cava and the pulmonary veins to see which chambers the blood would flow into!