Reception - Planting Runner Bean Seeds

After reading 2 books in our literacy and topic sessions this week - 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle and 'A Seed in Need' by Sam Godwin, we have planted our own runner bean seeds to care for over the coming weeks!
We have learned all about how seeds need warmth, water and nutrients to grow well. We have planted them in pots with compost and given them water. We used trowels to fill the pots carefully and a watering can to water them with. We will be checking on them each day and we will keep you updated each week about how their seeds are growing and progressing! 🌱
 

Spaceship Earth STEM Live Link

Year 4 enjoyed a live link with #spaceshipearth through the STEM hub. They learned about launching satellites into space. 

Year 2 STEM Workshop 

Water Workshop

The whole school had an assembly all about water from United Utilities. We learned about how much water we might use in a day and we got some tips on how to use less water. The children were very shocked about how much water we could be using daily! 
Year 4 and Year 6 were lucky enough to take part in a workshop which taught them even more about where our water comes from and how we can conserve water. This linked to our science learning about the water cycle and it also linked to our local geography map work. 

Invertebrate Hunt - Year 4

As part of our learning about ‘living things’, year 4 went to search our school grounds for invertebrates. We used classification keys to help us identify the invertebrates. 

Pet Encounter Visit

The whole school got a visit from pet encounter to experience the animals up close and personal! We learned a lot about the different animals including their natural habitats, what they eat and dangers they might face in the wild. 

Reception - Snow! 

As part of our work on winter, we read a non fiction book all about snow. We learned that snow is frozen rain and that snowflakes are actually tiny drops of ice which are formed in the freezing cold clouds and fall to earth!
The children learned about other things related to snow too including - what snowdrifts and blizzards are, how snow ploughs clear the roads during snowy weather, what we should wear in the snow and all about animals and people who live in the snow all year round near the North and South poles! We learned how a mode of transport used there is a snow mobile - we all thought we would like a go on one!
Please chat to your child and see what they can tell you that they have learned about snow!
During exploring time, the children all then got to explore our fake snow! They loved it! The talked about what it felt, looked, smelled and sounded like. They also experimented with different patterns and marks that could be made in it and how it could be moved and manipulated!

Reception - Local Area Winter Walk

We have been on a little winter walk around the edge of our school grounds looking for signs that we are in the season of winter both in our school grounds and the local area we could see, using information we have learned from the books we have been reading. Evidence we found…
* We could feel the cold air.
* The wind was freezing.
* We had to wear lots of layers to keep warm.
* The trees had no leaves as they had lost them in autumn and they’ve not yet grown back because it is too chilly.
* Some buds were starting to appear on the trees preparing for the new leaves to grow when the springtime months come around.
* There was water on the grass, but it hasn’t rained. We learned that this was from frost and ice that had been there this morning and had since melted and turned back to a liquid in the winter sun.
* Some thistles still had frost on them - we thought they looked like snowflakes!
* Some branches had been blown off the trees trees during the stormy winter weather.
* We found catkins grinning on one tree, we learned some birds like to eat these in winter.
* In a garden of a house next to school, we could see some evergreen trees and plants/bushes (we learned these are plants and trees that don’t lose their leaves).

EY Picture News - World Environment Day

This week’s news story is all about World Environment Day, which is celebrated every year on 5th June. On this day, everyone is encouraged to think about how we can protect (look after) our environment.

We discussed: What is our environment! What do you think we are trying to protect?

Our environment is everything around us including plants and animals, rivers, mountains, beaches and even the air we breathe.

We discussed: How do you think we can help protect our environment? E.g. How do we help keep our beaches clean and tidy? How can we protect wild animals that live in the woods? What do you think could happen to some wild animals, if litter is left lying around?

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who set up World Environment Day, thinks we can do a lot to stop the huge levels of plastic being thrown away.

We looked at map to see where this weeks story looks at events related to: Côte d’lvoire (World Environment Day host)

We looked and some pictures of plastic items that we use once and then throw away.

We discussed: Do you think we need to use all these plastic things? What could we use instead? Would it be a good idea to buy a bottle of water everyday before you come to school? What could you do instead? If everyone stopped using plastic things that get thrown away after using only once, do you think we could make a difference? How would it help our environment and our world?

Year 4 Science - Pan Pipes

Year 4 made pan pies in science as part of their topic about sound. They learned that sound is produced by the vibration of an air stream blowing across an open hole at the end of the tube. The air moves through the straw, vibrating along the way and out to the end. They investigated how the length of the straws affected the pitch of the sound. 

Year 4 Science - String Telephones

As part of out learning about sound, year 4 made string telephones. This showed the children how sounds can travel through solids, liquids and gases and they investigated how sounds can travel through different mediums. We found out that sounds travel better through solids (the string) because the vibrations are travelling through particles that are closer together. 

Reception Bean Planting and Care! 

Yesterday the children took their bean plants home which they planted on the first day back after February half term.
They have looked after them well, taking turns on a rota to water them! We started our topic by reading ‘The Tiny Seed’ by Eric Carle and the things the children learned from the book that seeds need to grow, we’re actually really the things they needed! These were light, warmth and water (moisture). The way our beanstalks have grown over this half term have shown this! 
Each week, one of our maths lessons has been measuring how much our beanstalks have grown using multi link. Take a look at the progress over the weeks in the photos below. We used a different colour to show each week’s growth! We have been comparing the height of the beanstalks with vocabulary such as tall, taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest. In small groups yesterday we made group bar charts with our multi link towers to compare the heights of the beanstalks with our friends!
The overall tallest beanstalk was Daisy’s which was 43 cubes! Poppy’s was in second place at 42 cubes and Lily Jo’s in third at 40 cubes high!

Year 5 - Dissolving Experiment

The children looked at different materials to see which were soluble or insoluble in water. They made predictions before the experiment and compared them to the results. Some materials did dissolve, forming new solutions, others did not dissolve. The children thoroughly enjoyed this experiment. 

Year 6- Components of Blood- A Blood Smoothie!

Year 6- Evolution and Inheritance- Biscuit Cladograms

Year 6 BrightSparks- Electricity Workshop

Year 4 Science - Invertebrate Hunt

As part of our science topic, All Living Things, Year 4 have been learning about invertebrates. They used a classification key to identify invertebrates found in our local environment. We didn't find as many invertebrates as we expected and we hypothesised that this may have been due to the unusually cold weather we'd had. 

Observational Drawings

The children have been learning about plants. As part of this learning they created observational drawings of the plants around school.

Planting - Year 2

The children have been learning about what a seed or bulb needs to grow. They have made cress heads using seeds and planted a range of bulbs. They are now going to monitor what happens next. 

Green Houses

The children completed an investigation based on green houses and if seeds and bulbs grow better in these types of surroundings. They made a green house to grow seeds in and compared this to seeds that were not in in a green house.