Science Week Bubbles Experiment

As part of our Science week, we have been scientist and taken our learning outside. Seedlings class have been investigating bubbles and how to create the largest bubble. Children made different sized wands and used their Maths skills to measure the wand using cubes. We found that the largest wand made the biggest bubble. Can you make different sized bubbles?

British Science Week meets Dragons Den

The theme for British Science Week was ‘Exploration and Discovery’. We chose to investigate a project called “Squashed Tomatoes”. Farmers in Nepal have to transport their crops across mountains and rivers so they need a way to transport as many tomatoes as they can without them becoming squashed.

The children were put into teams and were set the task to develop, make, test and evaluate their own transportation system.

The children devised their own criteria for what their product should have  and were told of the challenges they had to face:..

• Mountain pass dash – a race across the playground without dropping the tomatoes
• Stepping stone challenge- can they hop across the tyres to get to the other side without dropping tomatoes..
• Capacity Challenge – how many tomatoes can their transportation system hold.

Then they were left to it.

In addition to this they had to market their product to our very own ‘dragons’ and say why their design was the best.

The children had lots of fun and  loved working as a team. Their bags were not only stylish but they managed to hold up to 75 cherry tomatoes. Well done children.

---

Can I practise my map reading skills?

Sunflower Class have been learning about directional language and how to read a map. Oliver H- I enjoyed finding all of the crayons using my map. Mollie- I liked learning how to read a map. Jamie- We've learnt about compass directions. Isla- I liked going outside to use the maps. Joshua- We found things using maps to help us.

Beast from the East

The Beast from the East brought lots of fun, exploration and investigations. What things can you make with the snow?

Can I use 8 point compass directions to give and follow instructions?

Last year we learnt about how directions can be given using compass directions. This year we have learnt to increase the accuracy of our directions by using 8 compass points.

We went outside and drew a large compass on the playground. Then we played games where we had to run to different parts of the playground following the compass directions given. After that we went inside and used this knowledge to find our way around a map of a town finding places of interest and giving directions of our own.

RSPB "Big School Birdwatch"

As part of the RSPB "Big School Birdwatch" Seedlings class went outside to the school’s nature area to observe all the different birds that were coming into our school grounds. We talked about the different types and colours of birds and recorded some birds we saw on our sheet. There were some nests and bird boxes, where birds might live and spotted some bird food on the table! Can you talk to a grown up about ways to help care for the birds?

Teddy Bears Picnic

It was a cold day so we wrapped up warm, took our woodland maps we had drawn and set off to the nature area for our teddy bears picnic. We sang songs, ate teddy bear biscuits and had a drink of milk. We took care of our teddy bears and made sure they had a little bite to eat too! Next we acted out the story ‘Were going on a bear hunt’ and squelched through the mud! Finally, we journeyed back to the classroom with our tired little teddy bears….

Can I work in role to support my understanding of the text “Ice Palace”?

In English we explored in depth the opening of the story “Ice Palace. We considered the contrast in feelings between the seasons and the reasons for this. We used freeze frames to show the difference between the villagers lives in summer and winter.

When we were happy with our freeze frame we used the stage to photograph our final freeze frame. Here they are:

Winter Birds

This week we have been taking care of the winter birds by making bird cakes. We used lard and seeds to make into Christmas shapes. We then went to place them in the nature area. Can you spot any winter birds outside? Can you name any winter birds?

Peace Poem

In Juniper Class we S all shared our poem Peace is around our 3/4 garden. As we said our line we placed our peace pebble around the edge. We had a few moments quiet reflection thinking about the importance of peace within our own lives, in the community, in the country and in the world.

Peace Pebbles

As part of a whole school project Seedlings class drew a peace symbol designs onto a white pebble. We laid the pebbles among the flowers whilst being quiet, peaceful and still. We shared thoughts of being peaceful and happy in our world, our homes and our school. Thank you to Mrs Brumfield and Mrs Wink who came along to support.

Gardening

During golden time some of us planted the rest of the pansies, planted garlic bulbs and watered our onion patch.

We think our Year 3 and 4 collaboration gardening project is going really well and our quad allotment is looking fantastic. We cant wait to see the onions and garlic grow.

We wonder what we will be planting next...

Autumn Walk

The sun was between the clouds as we put on our wellies and coats and set off in search of autumn animals. We looked in the trees and on the ground to find a spider, owl, squirrel, hedgehog, fox and a bat. Then, we all searched for autumn colours that were brown, yellow, orange and white in colour. Next, we worked in teams to sort the animal pictures to find their correct homes. After lunch we then looked for an autumn leaf before finally sitting down to look closely at our leaf to draw what we could see.

Parachute Games

Seedlings class have been outside creating lots of big and little waves with the parachute this week and especially enjoyed going under the parachute.

Beetroot

Harvesting our crop of beetroot that we planted last term.   Next tasks are to research recipes   and the weeding of course…

Planting Winter Flowers

Today the children have been busy planting winter flowers in the Seedlings outdoor area. They did lots of digging and looked at the roots on the plants too. We then drew pictures and made marks and letter shapes about what we did. Thank you to Mrs Wink who came to help us.

LQ: Can I recognise the main features of a river?

'We were excited to get out into the fresh air on our field trip to Laceby Beck yesterday. We were specifically looking for river features as part of our Geography learning.'

Jorja said: "I enjoyed the experience of learning about rivers."

Brandon commented: "I loved finding out all about river features and it was good to get out into the fresh air for the morning!"

Lovely weather for ducks!

This morning just before school a pair of Mallard Ducks were padding around on the school field. We put out a tray of water for them. They were clearly quite thirsty despite the wet weather. We have also seen a flock of around twenty swallows swooping around on the field, under and over the Oak tree. The pheasant has also been spotted recently.

Weeding, sowing, planting growing

Juniper class took it in turns to weed, plants seeds and plants and water our allotment area. We planted tomato plants, herbs, parsnip seeds, carrots, spring onions and beetroot. We can wait to see them grow.

Can I explain where, when and how strawberries are grown in the UK?

In science Year 3 explored our strawberry patch. We examined the flowers which would eventually turn into strawberries. We looked for the runners from the parent plant and how that is another way to grow new plants instead of using the seeds from the strawberries. Through our research we learnt that this was a quicker way than growing from seed and how the farmers tend to do it on UK strawberry farms. We estimated how many strawberries our patch would produce.

LQ: Can we work collaboratively to present ideas for our Nature area?

Juniper and Barley class have started their collaboration this term linked with Outdoor learning. Their challenge is to work in groups to create and then present a presentation on what they would like to see in our nature area- Dragon Den style! This afternoon they worked together to create their team name, logo and ideas of what they may like in this outdoor area.

Using Stanford Nature Area to Inspire our William Morris designs

William Morris didn’t like the mass produced art of the industrialised Victorian society. He began the Arts and Crafts movement which favoured a return to skilled workmanship and high quality goods. His work was heavily influenced by and featured designs based on nature. We studied his artwork and then collected different leaves from the nature area to inspire our own individual designs.

Mini Beasts in the Nature Area

Children from Seedlings worked together to find out about insects and living things. We explored the outdoor area to find worms, woodlouse, spiders and snails! Children identified the different habitats and features of each living thing they observed. Back in the classroom children recorded which insect they found, its habitat and how it moved.

Planting Tomatoes

As we head into springtime and the warmer weather, we decided to plant some tomatoes ready for the summer. We looked at the roots hiding in the soil before planting them into a growbag. Next we gave them a good drink of water. We will look at how they change and measure how much they grow throughout the term and hope to get lots of tomatoes too!

We Care about Our Environment

Litter picking teams give up time during playtimes and lunchtimes to ensure that our school is litter free

This how much litter they collected on one playtime!

Signs of Spring

As we had such lovely weather today we decided it was the best time to go for a walk around school to look for signs that spring. Before we went we had a discussion about the different seasons and what we should be looking for. We found lots of flowers, buds on the trees and could see where some leaves were starting to open up and grow

Gardening

We have been enjoying gardening activities whilst our friends have been at Kingswood.  We have tidied up the outdoor areas on the field and in the quad.