Science

Science

In Birch class we have been learning about plants.

We planted a seed and watched it grow each day. This was a great activity because we could see the seed split, watch the shoot appear, see the roots growing and then the stem grow. Take a look at our photos, we photographed each stage as it happened.

Water

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This half term we have been very lucky to have lessons from S4A. We have been learning about water and it’s importance in the world.

This is also linked to our Geography topic.

Week 1 - The Water Cycle

This week Emma, from S4A, set up a water cycle using a lamp as the sun, ice on the lid for cool air and water inside the box. Then we went outside to do some fun experiments using water.

After that we made our own water cycle. We used food bags, then we drew the water cycle onto the bag and filled it with blue water. We stuck these onto the window and watch the water cycle work.

Week 2 - Building a Dam

Where do we get water from?

Our challenge was to build a dam to hold water, with no leaks!

We had to think about which materials were best and how we would put our dam together to make it the strongest. We needed to make sure our materials were waterproof as this would have caused our dams to leak.

Week 3 - Experimenting with Water

Today we did lots of different experiments with water.

Liquids in a penny – How much of each liquid would fit on a penny?
Water to magnify – When you look through water it makes everything look bigger.
Water passing through materials – We looked at which materials are waterproof and which are not.
Building a boat – We had to build a boat to hold as many pennies as possible.

Week 4 - Transporting Water.

Our challenge this week was to transport water down a pipe which would then fill two cups. We had to find a method which filled the cups equally and did not leak.

Week 5 - Recycling Water

Which material or combination of materials cleans water best?

This week we had to find ways of using a range of different materials to filter water.

Electricity

In our topic this half term we have been learning about Electricity - focusing on safety knowledge of circuits. The children will be focusing on the following:

How to identify electrical and non-electrical appliances.
They will be able to explain, with support, how a circuit works.
Children will be able to name at least two electrical conductors and insulators.
They will be able to create a simple series circuit both with and without a switch.
They will be able to accurately record their findings in a table.

Animals, including Humans

This term in science we have been learning about ANIMALS, INCLUDING HUMANS - focusing on the digestive system and teeth. We want the children to know:

the names and the functions of the main parts of the digestive system;
how to construct and interpret food chains;
the differences between producers, predators and prey and know where they sit in food chains;
the names of different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions.

Teeth -

We had a wonderful time learning about keeping our teeth clean and healthy. We used plaque disclosing tablets to show how well we have been cleaning our teeth. A plaque disclosing tablet helps to identify areas of a child’s teeth that they’ve missed after completing their oral care routine. They contain a harmless dye that reacts with the plaque that may remain on areas of the teeth after cleaning. When a child sees the dyed areas, they can easily identify trouble spots to focus their brushing efforts. We used these as a tool to help the children learn where they are missing and show them how to improve their brushing skills long term.