Science Blog

Last few weeks of term! (Mrs Stratton)

Well, we've nearly made it to the end of another terrific term: the Christmas Tree is up in class; the Newton Orchestra is rehearsing well for playing in the Carol Concert on the last afternoon of school before we break up for the festive season; and we've been flying around the world with the MAF Advent Calendar. You can do this at home too if you'd like. https://gb.mafadvent.org/ The user name is ChrishallAdvent and the pass word is Advent.

Experience Outcome

Thank you to every who joined is for the first part of our experience outcome this term. It was great to see so many come along to our artefact exhibition last week. The Kingdom of Benin has been a new learing area for us at Chrishall and has real engaged the children in its cultural, historical and political facets.

Next week, we'll be starting the second half of our experince outcome to write an animal creation picture for the children's YR and Y1 buddies. Excited is a bit of an understatement. Mrs Crooks and Mrs Stratton are really looking forward to reading these too!

Santa Fun-Fit Camp

Thank to our four sports leaders for organising a morning of fun and fitness activties for the whole school. They invented theyir own games, orgniases the resources needed and lead some great sessions for all the classes. Well done girls. Ten children also went to Lord Butler Leisure Centre to compete in the next round of the Dodgeball Tournament.Mrs Hill fedback on their sporting behaviour and honesty in the face of some tough competition.

Science: Light

Last week in science, we learned that light travels in straight lines. We deduced that this must be physics as it was about how thing travel (or don't travel). This week we looked out how we can "bend" light using two mirrors and build our own periscopes. Some children also got to crerate their own optical illusion spinners by creating coloured discs and a double thread to spin them as farst as possible. Handly, the spinners also double up a great tree baubles too! Here is an experiment to try at home if you have a mirror and a reasonable powerful torch with a narrow beam to explore rays of incidence and rays of reflection. The protractor is optional. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-4CIqORQs. We couldn't get the class room dark enough to do this successfully this week.

Lowry Class Autumn 1 2022 (Ms Christie)

This week in Science the children have continued to explore sound. The children undertook some experiments to test how sound vibrations travel.

Lowry Class (Ms Christie)

This week in Lowry Class the children have been exploring magnets. They used magnets to test a variety of small shiny objects to see if they were magnetic. The focus of the learning was observing and recording.

Following on from magnets, Class Lowry have been conducting experiments on forces. They have been investigating friction on smooth and rough surfaces.

Friday 18th March (Mrs Dyer)

We have all been enjoying science week!

We all took part in a whole scool investigation to see if the person with the biggest foot could jump the furthest. Our science skill focus was on recording data but as always there were so many skills on show with our super scientists: great measuring, great predictions and super collaborations!

Everyone was sent home with a sunflower seed to plant this week too. I can't wait to see how tall they can grow! Where will you put yours to give it the winning chance?

Lowry Class (Ms Christie)

In Lowry Class the children have been testing the hardness and permeability of rock.

Spring Term 2022: Weeks 1 and 2 (Mrs Stratton)

Great to all be back in the room Class Newton.

The beginning of term has been chance to draw a conclusion to our science work on Forces and our History- based experience outcome to build and complete a diorama of an Anderson shelter and garden.

In science, the children carried out tow different investigiations into physical processes. First the children explored streamlining and streamlined shapes, uing small lumps of clay adn leasuring the time it took them to sink to the bottom of a measuring cylinder. The children had to calcute the mean average and explain what they observed. Then, using this knowledge, they had to make a boat and observe how well (or not) it travelled across a stretch of water.

Next stop was friction. The class were very excited to see the balance bikes in the classroom and a bit intrigued as to why they were there. All was revealed as they carried out in another investigation, this time looking at what makes a good set of brakes.

Finally, bringing our History leanring from last term to a conclusion, the children finished their dioramas and Anderson shelters as part of a mini Challenge Time. Super impressed by the quality of the products made using DT skills, the originality of the ideas and the authenticity of the details using history knowledge.

Our new experience outcome is writing a story set in a Maya civilisation and our BIG QUESTION is "What do you need to know to write an adventure story?" We are taking inspiration from the book The Explorer by Katherine Rundell and have already read the fist few chapters. The children will be entering thieir sotories into a writing competion at the end of the term organised by the Historical Association. You can view our SMSC map and Experience overview here https://chrishall.essex.sch.uk/essex/primary/chrishall/arenas/newton/wiki/pages/learningoutcomes/spring2022 and we will be adding resources to this over the term. Our new science unit is "Spherical Bodies" and began with some interplanetary speed dating as the children gathered knowledge about our solar system to create a poster.

Friday 15th January (Mrs Dyer)

I have just been exploring the resources on the Cambridge Science Centre http://www.cambridgesciencecentre.org/

You will need to register to see all the resources, but registration is free! There are so many cool activities here, I found it hard to drag myself away to tell you all about it.

I am heading back now to find out more about weird animals from the deep!

Science Experiments to do at home ... (Mrs Bratley)

Here's some great science experiments to try at home. Next to each of the pictures are instructions for each of the experiments. Click on the link to find more experiments, along with videos showing you how to do each of the experiments - https://www.rigb.org/families/experimental?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsY-VmKTo6AIVgbHtCh2B4wHhEAAYASAAEgI2qvD_BwE

Have fun and let us know how you get on ....

Rubber Bands Canons

/essex/primary/chrishall/arenas/science/web/rubberbandscannons.pdf