Science week

In Reception we have been exploring a variety of science activities:

Wax resist pictures

We drew a picture using wax crayons and then washed over it with water colour paints. We noticed that the paint did not stick to the wax crayon.

Shadow puppets

First we made a puppet, then we use the torch to make a shadow. We could see the shape of our puppet on the wall. Then we used the hole punch to make holes in the puppet and looked at the shadow again. We could see the holes that we made because the torch light shone through.

Building structures

We make houses for the Three Little Pigs using different resources. Then we tested whether The Big Bad Wolf (balloon pump) could blow it down.

We found out that Duplo was a better material than straws because it did not blow down.

Magnetic sensory bottles

We use the magnets to explore the bottles. This was a fun activity because we found lots of magnetic items hidden inside. We enjoyed seeing how many magnetic items would stick together each time. We noticed that not all the items stuck to the magnet, we realised that this was because they were not magnetic.

Exploring ice

We had to work together to free the monsters from the ice. We used pipettes to drop cold and warm water onto the blocks. We found out that dropping water onto the ice caused it to melt slowly but when we dropped warm water it made the ice melt faster.

Year 1 have been exploring the strength of different materials to help us to create a marble run. We conducted an experiment to test the materials with the question “Which Material is Strongest?” where we made a prediction and tested a variety of materials. We then chose the best materials (wood and cardboard) to create our marble runs. We used our STEM skills to sketch our marble runs and then used a glue gun to create it.

In teams the children then designed their marble runs, made them, tested them, altered them then played with them.  This used the knowledge the children had gained from our unit of work on Everyday materials.

After we tested our marble runs and evaluated them. We thought about how we could ‘innovate for the future’ and how we could make them better.

During Science Week, we made structures with spaghetti and marshmallows.  We looked at using bubble wands and innovated them to make different shapes.

During Science Week, we learned about life processes living things have in common using the acronym MRS GREN .

In Year 5 we’ve seen looking at flight and have made helicopters. First we investigated how paper falls to the ground and then made paper helicopters. After this, we investigated modifying our helicopters to see if we could make them stay in the air longer. Finally, we had a competition to see who made the best one!