Yogart
Yoga and art- the newest craze to hit year 3! Whilst improving our flexibility and strength alongside our mindfulness, we also practised sketching in PE. Our aim is to build a bank of our favourite yoga poses.
Having been inspired by Cosmic Kids Yoga, we will use our sketches to create our own yoga story to retell to the class.
Merging our big topic Life Forces and our yogart, we will create weird and wonderful yoga stories about the world around us for us to increase our balance and inner peace.
Watch this space…
Investigating insulation
Insulation is cool! Or is it hot? Actually, it’s both! An insulator is a property of material that prevents heat from moving, keeping cold things cold and hot things hot!
Tyler Fish – a polar explorer – set us a challenge to find the best material for their new kit. The Arctic is extremely cold and temperatures can drop as low as -50 degrees Celsius so the material would have to keep them warm. We chose our materials and set up our equipment…
…three cups containing the same amount of warm water, which we wrapped in bubble wrap, felt and cotton, for example.
We made predictions about which material would be the best insulator. Carefully and with precision, we measured the starting temperature.
After 20 minutes, we measured the temperature again.
Working out the difference in temperature, we were able to work out the best material. Challenge your child to fill in the blanks:
The smaller the ___________, the better the ___________.
Each group was able to recommend their chosen material to Tyler for him to order new Arctic kit. Success!
Polar launch day
We were very excited to welcome a visitor – our polar ambassador Terry Kirk!
First, we had to find the Arctic before we could dive in.
But who really sits at the top of the food chain? We worked in groups to discuss the right order.
It turns out it’s a lot more complex than it seems! A more accurate term is food web. We were tasked with creating a food web mobile to demonstrate the pecking order. This required teamwork and problem solving. It was really tricky at first but we were extremely proud of our results!
Challenge question- what would happen to the animals that eat fish, if the fish were poisoned?
To get inspired by Boaty McBoatface and find upcoming events and activities, visit STEM Learning.
Chick Cam 3!
We’ve now got seven chicks! We’ll start moving them to the breeder box today.
Chick Cam 2!
The streams on YouTube only last for 8 hours, so here’s the next one!
It’s 17:10 and we now have three chicks with one more arriving very soon! Once hatched, the chicks need to stay in the incubator for about 24 hours to ‘fluff up’ before they are moved to the breeder box.
Chick Cam!
Good morning. Click on the following link to watch the chicks in our incubator. Two chicks have hatched already and there should be more hatching today and tomorrow! Stay tuned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSUKPotLzS4&feature=youtu.be
What would happen if…?
- “What would happen if we used Coke instead of water?”
- “What would happen if we used card instead of kitchen roll?”
- “What would happen if we used cold hot chocolate instead of water?”
- “What would happen if we used lemonade?”
- “What would happen if we used melted chocolate?”
- “What would happen if we put our cups in a line?”
LO: To make predictions and perform a test.
Firstly, we predicted what would happen giving reasons to justify our opinion. For example:
- “I think the kitchen roll will disappear and dissolve because Coke is fizzy.” – Phoebe
- “I think the kitchen roll will go brown because the cold hot chocolate is brown.” – Emma
- “I think the water won’t go into the other cup because card is heavier than kitchen roll.” – Noah
We took safe risks as we had no idea what would happen.
Next, we set up our experiments according to our plans and by remembering whose role was whose.
It was important to be responsible and work well within our teams.
We had to be ready to record observations at certain points in the day.
There was progress in some…
… but less so in others!
Either way, we reflected on our experiments at the end of the day by describing what went well and what we would change for next time.
Have you ever heard of walking water?
Happy new year and a warm welcome back!
To get our brains back into gear, we’ve started this week with Science.
We were posed with the challenge of moving water from one cup to another – without touching the water or the cup, using only the following equipment:
A pipe cleaner, a square of kitchen roll, a plastic glove, packing peanuts, string, an elastic band and a newspaper.
Do you think you could crack the case?
After lots of (mostly failed) attempts, the answer was finally revealed…
It was the kitchen roll all along!
The walking water absorbed by the kitchen roll created this lovely rainbow effect which is so easy to recreate at home!
This got our scientific juices flowing, and we started to ask “What would happen if…?” to help us plan our own version of the experiment!
Here are some we came up with:
Watch this space, as we launch our own investigations in the coming week!
Living and Learning
- Drug, alcohol and tobacco education (DATE)
- Keeping safe and managing risk
Here are the weekly Living and Learning statements, for this half term, to support this learning.
- I don’t interrupt (with my mouth or my hand).
- I can make things better.
- I know what a drug is.
- I am aware of risks.
- I make safe choices.
- I stay safe online.
Be mindful
At this busy time of year, mindfulness can help children to take control of their emotions.
During our recent themed week, all children took part in mindfulness workshops to learn a variety of techniques to use at school and at home. Here’s a reminder of a few of them that might be useful for over the holidays. A mindfulness newsletter/parent guide will be sent out in the new year.
Breathing hug
Start with both arms in the air. Put one hand across your tummy and the other on your shoulder. Breath slowly in and out.
Breathing tree
In a standing position, raise your arms as you breath in and release your arms back down as you breath out.
‘Ok’ breathing
Make an ‘o’ sign on your tummy button to represent that it is ok to feel different emotions. Slowly breath in and out.
Mindfulness bottle
This is a bit like a snow globe. Shake it up and watch it. Simply watch the disturbance as it begins to settle – as does our mind.
Take a bottle, add glitter and food colouring and seal tightly.
