Over the past term the children have been studying all about Volcanoes. We have found out facts about them, how they are formed, where they are located and even been back in time to the town of Pompeii.
The children then made their own volcanoes, planning the steps they would take to build them, what they would need and finally spending lots of ‘messy’ time building them.
We began making them from an old bottle and a piece of cardboard. We then made papier-mâché and built all around the bottle making a cone shape. We then finished off the first design laying strips of paper and made the final structure.
The volcanoes then needed a coat of paint, or two, to make them more realistic adding an extra unique quality to each.
The final part of the design and technology project was to let the volcanoes erupt. Using vinegar and sodium chloride mixed with a little food colouring the children were able to go out and see their volcanoes erupt.
On Wednesday morning, as a school we visited Trinity Church and Reverend Tim for our Easter service. Year 4 led the service with the rest of the school singing.
The children were met by Goodwife Copper who showed them how people dressed, what they ate and how they lived in the Medieval times in Congleton. She told them that as workers in these times they wouldn’t be able to wear any bright colours such as red as that was only worn by lords and the king. Purple was reserved just for the king! Then they were shown the names of jobs the peasants would do to earn a penny a month.
During our science lesson this afternoon we have been investigating different materials to find out which are insulators and which are conductors. We decided to test a peg, a pencil, a ruler, a rubber, a paper clip, paper and our jumpers. We got testing and found out that the only conductor was a paper clip. We did discover that the pencil led was a conductor and so was the metal on the peg was too.
Across this week, the children have explored becoming scientists to celebrate British Science Week. All of the research we conducted was based on the topic of ‘growth’.
Day 1- The children were in for a big shock when they came into school this morning, as they discovered there had been a crash landing. ALIENS HAD CRASHED ONTO THE SCHOOL GROUNDS!!!
The aliens tried their best to communicate to us through a letter but we couldn’t understand it, so we used our problem solving skills to decipher the letter. After deciphering the letter, we found out the aliens were called Zap and Zog. They told us that they felt worried that nobody would like them coming to Earth and they were scared that everything was bigger than them. After hearing this, we decided to create presentations for Zap and Zop to tell them about what they can do, visit and eat whilst they’re on Earth. We then went out to investigate the crash landing and noticed that a spider had become humongous. One of the children said:
‘Maybe a radiation leak from the spaceship made the spider grow bigger’.
We later learned about making patterns with representations of 2D shape and created crop circles from those patterns.
Day 2- Today we experienced science outdoors. We went on a nature walk to the allotment and the forest. We used ‘leaf identification dials’ to find and identify what types of trees we have on the school grounds. The children really enjoyed comparing the different types of leaves. We discovered that we have Oak, Beech and Holly on the school grounds.
Back inside the classroom, we created ‘Astro Gardens’ using grid work to plot our fruit and vegetables. Then, we wrote questions about our garden for our partners to answer. After that, we made ‘Astro Gardens’ with plasticine.
Day 3- ‘THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND’
On Wednesday, we were lucky to have the chance to experience a planetarium in the school hall. We learned about the growth of the universe that we live in; our past adventures into space (The Apollo 11 Moon Landing), current astronauts living in the International Space Station (ISS) and our potential future endeavours to the moon.
Following from the visit to the planetarium, the children made their very own constellations and learned that a constellation is a group of stars in the night sky that make up a picture or pattern.
Day 4- Continuing our week on growth, the children investigated which materials are best for greenhouses to grow plants in. The children were placed in groups and were provided with different resources to build their greenhouses. To link with our year 2 topic of inventors, we took inspiration from Tim Smit’s Eden Project based in Cornwall. The children researched and produced a fact file on the Eden Project. The Eden Project is the largest indoor rainforest in the world that houses thousands of plant species such as fruiting banana plants, coffee, rubber, giant bamboo, olive and grape vines.
Day 5- This morning, we had a whole school assembly to celebrate, discuss and share our scientific journey. What a busy week!!!
I have been very proud of Year 2 for all of their hard work. By becoming scientists, they have learned to be resilient learners to find solutions, thinkers outside of the box and great supporters of each others processing.
Mr. Liew and year 2 would also like to say a huge thank you to both Mrs Isherwood and Mrs Daley for organising such an exciting Science week.
This week in school the children have been engaged in British Science Week. This years theme was all about growing.
Day 1: We had an exciting morning to find that there had been a crashed spaceship on the school grounds. A letter was found by the crash which we had to decipher. After exploring the crash site we found out more about our visitors from another world. We created presentations to explain about our planet to our new friends and we created new technology to help them with their stay. They seemed to like us so much that they have stayed around for the rest of the week.
Day 2: Today we explored science outdoors. After looking back at our work on volcanoes the children recreated experiments where pressure can move objects or create new things.
Day 3: After learning more about our new visitors we decided to look to the stars. We were lucky to have a planetarium in the school and we were able to sit under the stars and planets and learn more about them and the people who have made space history.
Day 4: We looked back at our work on volcanoes and how important they can be for growth. We have begun an experiment to see how soil infused with ash can help plants to grow bigger and stronger and why countries around the world where there are volcanoes see much larger and healthier crops.
We finished the week with an assembly with the whole school discussing and showing what wonders we have found.
WOW!! What a week.
Year 3 wanted to say a big a thank you to Mrs Isherwood and Mrs Daley for arranging all of our wonderful surprises.
Year 5 enjoyed science week. we were lucky enough to be visited by the Wonder Dome, a traveling planetarium! The children enjoyed the immersive view of the universe and a birds eye view of life as an astronaut. we also visited the alien crash site that appeared over night in the quad. the children imagined what the aliens would want on earth and how to welcome them. we also designed our own aliens.
