Year 3
In Science, the children have been learning about light sources and their necessity in our everyday lives. They have completed many investigations including classification of light sources and reflective materials. They also investigated patterns in shadows when manipulating the light source and then with their shadow theatres. The children also thought about the reflection of light rays in plane, convex and concave mirrors and observed the changes in the image dependent upon the type of mirror.
Year 4
During Autumn 1, the children studied changing states of matter and experimented with reversible and irreversible changes. They then applied this to understanding the process of the water cycle and created a poster describing this.
For the second half of the Autumn term, the children have been looking at how we can hear sound and have learnt how to label lots of the different parts of the ear. We thoroughly enjoyed trying out the different experiments to discover that sound is made by a series of vibrations. The children’s favourite experiment was using the tuning fork in the water (even if the vibrations from the tuning fork did make the water splash a little) and creating their own ‘sound sandwich’ to explore the effect of vibrations on pitch.
Year 5
During the autumn 1, Year 5 have looked at Earth and Space. This focused on describing the movement of Earth, and other planets relative to the sun in our solar system, understanding why we have night and day as well as looking at the different moon phases. When working scientifically, the children planned an experiment to show the spinning of the Earth. The children were able to clearly write a prediction, as well as a conclusion.
During autumn 2, the children learnt about the properties and changes of materials. The children used a Carroll diagram to compare and group materials, studied soluble materials, separated mixed materials – using filter paper, sieve, magnet and heat. The children enjoyed working scientifically and learnt many skills such as managing variables (controlled and independent) to keep tests fair and reliable.
Year 6
We started year 6 by learning about animals, including humans. We learnt about the circulatory and digestive systems and carried out an investigation into how exercise affects our heart rate. We found that after 2 minutes continuous exercise our heart rates speeds up to help oxygen reach our organs more quickly. We also learnt about how to live a healthy lifestyle, including diet and exercise. Over the course of a week, we did regular exercise each morning to see if this helped us to be more alert during our lessons. Most of us found that we did find it easier to concentrate in our morning lessons after five minute jog or continuous exercise.
In the second half of the term, we have been learning about light. We have carried out lots of practical investigations to explore refraction, reflection and the spectrum.
