Year 1 have been scientists. We investigated the properties of materials to discover which would be best for making umbrellas. We discovered that some materials were waterproof but some were absorbent. We concluded that tinfoil and plastic were waterproof materials but tinfoil would not be strong enough to be an umbrella.
Class 4 took a trip down to the Secret Garden today to release our butterflies.
The children have been observing the changes from tiny caterpillar to chrysalis and then to butterfly over the past few weeks.
Year 1 had fun at Kirkley Hall Zoological Gardens this week. They had a tour of the zoo looking at all of the different animals, watch the meerkats at feeding time, got to touch a bearded dragon and a cockroach!
Class 3 enjoyed exploring the parts of a plant as part of our Science lesson. We took them apart, looked carefully at them and then reassembled them before labelling the main parts of the plant.
We have also been looking at length in our maths lesson so compared the lengths of the stem with our partner.
Year 1’s British Science week task took them down to the Secret Garden this afternoon to search for worms. The children were all surprised to learn that there are three kinds of worms and tried hard to identify the ones we found. They used string to measure the worms. Two groups measured the same worm and were astounded to find it had stretched itself from 16 cms to 23 cms!!! The children were also intrigued to watch one wonderful working worm do a poo!
The children came across the word “blubber”
During our work on Arctic animals we carried out an experiment to see how a seal’s blubber can protect it from the icy Arctic seas.
We first explored how long we could keep our hand in ice cold water – which was not long at all!
Then we used plastic bags to simulate the animal skins and lard to be blubber and tested again how long we could keep our hands in the water.
The children were amazed that they could no longer feel the coldness at all! We found that the icy water didn’t feel quite so cold when our hand was surrounded by a layer of fat.
Year 1 spent this afternoon exploring how to keep snow!
The children were given a selection of materials to test after collecting snow from the playground.
They made their predictions and checked every ten minutes for changes.
The children were surprised that cotton will turned out to be the best insulator while tin foil was the least effective. Mrs Sloanes was equally shocked. We talked about how the tin foil conducts the heat and so will have sped up the melting process.
In science Class 4’s topic is to find out if Red Riding Hood would like to visit our school grounds.
We know Red Riding Hood likes to spend time in the woods, so we went outside to investigate what kind of trees are around our school.
We were amazed by how tall some of the trees were and how big the crowns were. The boys were so excited to find some exposed roots.
We all looked very closely at the leaves and tried to match them to our identification sheet.
Class 3 had a lovely afternoon birdwatching today!
As part of our science lessons, we’ve been looking at the birds, plants and trees that Little Red Riding Hood might find in our school grounds.
Today we spotted a sparrow, some blackbirds, some magpies, a blue tit, and lots of seagulls and pigeons. We then recorded our findings and explained where we found each bird.
We had a great time exploring and observing.
On Tuesday 10th November we celebrated World Science Day at West Boldon! Every class looked at a famous scientist linked to their topic.
They created a fossil jar whereby jelly represented the soil and sweets represented the animal remains. Each day this week they will add a new layer of jelly to the jar representing how soil layers occur over time. They talked about how these fossils form and also made a zigzag book!
Year 6 looked at Charles Darwin to link to their topic on Evolution. They all created a factfile about him explaining why he is so important in his field.
What wonderful scientists we have at West Boldon!