This week in Primary, many of our year groups have been busy investigating various different Science experiments – from making rain gauges, to looking for living, non-living and never alive objects, to discovering chemical reactions and to exploring electrical circuits and creating their own buzz wire Britannica monsters.
Year 1 scientists have been busy making a rain gauge using materials they collected from home. Although, we haven’t had any rain yet they are looking forward to measuring the rainfall throughout the school year. In Art, they have begun a new topic entitled ‘Colour Chaos’; learning about Piet Mondrian and how he made abstract designs using primary colours. The children enjoyed cutting out various sized squares and rectangles to make their own Mondrian inspired art work.
Year 2 have begun a new unit in English with the exploration of nonsense limericks looking specifically at Edward Lear. The children have had great fun reading his beautiful work and are beginning to understand the structure of such poems. In Science, the children continued their investigation of life processes and habitats by exploring outside of the classroom in our own habitat to look for living, non-living and never alive objects.
After working hard on writing an exciting story about a pharaoh and a school boy or girl, Year 3 are in the process of making these into books. There has been much concentration as they use their best handwriting and set their work out neatly. In topic the children have mummified a pear to understand the process and will be recording the results in the coming weeks and checking these against their predictions.
Year 4 have been learning all about column subtraction in Maths this week. The students have been excited to take on the challenge of completing missing number questions and understanding where the exchange has happened. In topic, they have been creating presentations about famous leaders and in groups presenting their findings to the rest of their class.
Year 5 have also been busy scientists this week as they explored chemical reactions - all children saw first-hand what happens when milk is mixed with vinegar, and likewise what happens when bicarbonate soda is added too. They were amazed to discover that by mixing milk and vinegar together you can actually make plastic, whilst an extra interesting fact is that mixing vinegar with milk makes a very tasty salad dressing too!
Lastly, our Year 6 students have completed their first unit in Science: Electricity. Over the past few weeks, everyone has been hard at work learning about series and parallel circuits. They have deepened their understanding about different components and been introduced to circuit symbols, how to draw accurate circuit diagrams and the effects of resistance on a circuit. Both classes finished the unit by planning and building a buzz wire in the shape of a Britannica Monster. The students collaborated and contributed their electrical circuit knowledge to complete the mini-project successfully.
Katherine Mustoe
Vice-Principal and Head of Primary
