Christmas Craft Reminder

Just a reminder that we’re having a Christmas Craft afternoon from 2pm – 3pm on Wednesday 3rd December.  Feel free to come along and join us to help out with our crafting!    

Soluble and Insoluble

This week we have been learning about soluble and insoluble materials.  We have been investigating which materials are soluble and which are insoluble.  We tested out some materials and added them to water to see what happened.  Some of them made a solution and some of them didn’t dissolve at all.  It was interesting and gave us a good understanding of what soluble and insoluble mean. 

We then carried out an investigation to find out if the temperature of the water made a difference to whether a material dissolved or not and the answer is yes, it definitely does!  Some of the materials didn’t dissolve in the cold water but when we put them in hot water they made a solution.  It was good fun – especially when we tested jelly! 

Children In Need

Last week we took on a big challenge – organising the fundraising for Children in Need at SPS.  We had to decide what was going to happen in school and make sure everyone was in the know about what was happening.  We presented an assembly on Monday to give everyone the information they needed about what to bring and more importantly, what to dress up as! 

Throughout the week we spent some time organising our stalls and rehearsing for our ‘Best.Assembly.Ever’.  Here are a few pictures of our preparations! 

 

 

On Friday we had a great day!  There were lots of different Superheroes in school!  We started with our Best.Assembly.Ever where we entertained the school with some gymnastics, comedy acts and dancing (with a few familiar faces!) and also gave them information about the history of the charity Children In Need and also how it helps people.

After assembly we put the finishing touches to our plans and got everything set up for the afternoon fundraising.  A big thanks to everyone who provided baking for our stall  - it all looked delicious and was a big hit with the school – there was hardly any left!  The P7’s set up some stalls that we had organised in their classroom and P6 set up a photobooth with some superhero props!  P1 had a Penny Pudsey outline which got filled up with lots of copper coins.  Thanks to all the classes for helping us with these things.  There was a ‘Hero Hoedown’ in the hall where we all danced our socks off! We finished the day with a whole school 'Cha Cha Slide' and celebrated the effort that everyone put in during the day. 

We raised a staggering £570.22 - an amazing amount for a school our size!  Thank you very much to everyone who helped out and donated money.  It will go to help children around the United Kingdom who need a bit of extra support. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racing Liquids

Today we had a ‘liquid race’!  We experimented with different liquids to see which ones were fast and which ones were slow.  We had to make a ‘hypothesis’ before we started and guess which ones we thought would be fast and which would be slow.  We also had to think about how to make it a ‘fair’ experiment and so decided that we would keep the board at the same angle every time and use the same amount of liquid dropped at the same place.  This was quite difficult so Miss Shearer dropped it down the board for us. 

The results were interesting! 

The water was the quickest – it took less than one second to reach the bottom of the board!  Mr MacLeod could hardly get the stopwatch clicked in the right time!  Of course we didn’t manage to get any photos of the water – it was too fast.

We also tested vegetable oil which only took 5 seconds to reach the bottom.  Most of us thought that these two liquids would be the quickest. 

Next up was golden syrup.  Quite a lot of us thought this would be a slow moving liquid but were very surprised that it only took around 2 minutes to reach the bottom of the board.  Quite a few of us were interested in taste testing it as well!

The spoonful of shampoo took a record 10 minutes to reach the bottom of the board – we had to watch it very closely to ensure it was moving.

Finally we tested the tomato sauce and as predicted it took a very long time to reach the bottom of the board! So long in fact we had to go to a Pantomime Practice.  Around 40 minutes later it had reached the bottom of the board in one big blob! 

This was a great experiment and it was interesting to look back at our hypothesis and what would thought would happen at the beginning.  We then wrote up our experiment in a scientific way using technical vocabulary and headings. 

We took a few photos but we were too involved in the experiment to remember to be photographers! 

Investigating Changing Materials

Last week we investigated the difference between solids, liquids and gasses.  We did this by filling a balloon with water to represent ‘liquid’.  When the balloon was filled with liquid it felt squashy and you could poke it and it would bounce back.  It was quite tricky filling the balloons with water!

Then we filled balloons with 'gas'!  We blew them up and filled them with carbon dioxide.  When the balloon was filled with gas it was only a little bit squashy and you had to be careful not to burst it as the skin of the balloon was quite tight as the particles are trying to escape!

To see a solid in a balloon Miss Shearer had filled some with water and put them in the freezer so they were filled with ice.  These balloons were very interesting!  They were very hard and you could only move them by picking them up. 

It was good to see the comparisons between solids, liquids and gasses in the balloons and it gave us a good understanding of what they are like.  We have left the balloons as they are and are going to observe the changes which take place over the next few weeks.

Liquid and Gas filled balloons.

 

 

 



Solid Balloons

Countdown Calculations

This week in maths we have been doing calculations using the 4 operations.  The link to the countdown game below is a great way for us to practice these skills.  Choose big or small numbers and create a target number – just like the real thing!  A great way to sharpen up on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division!

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/countdown/countdown.swf

P5 Particles

This week we have been learning about changing materials and in particular solids, liquids and gasses.  We learned that all ‘matter’ is made up of particles and that these particles behave differently in solids, liquids and gasses.  We turned ourselves into P5 Particles and moved around the classroom as if we were a solid, liquid or a gas! 

In a solid, the particles are very close together and can’t move.  That’s what makes something a ‘solid’!  We had to stand very close together and be very still.

Miss Shearer 'heated' us a little bit and we turned into a liquid!  In a liquid the particles are a little bit further apart and so the liquid can be any shape and can move quite freely.  This time we could move away from each other a little and we moved around together.

Finally Miss Shearer heated us even more and we turned into a gas!  In a gas, the particles spread out and move far away from each other, taking up all the space of the container they are in.  We had to move away from each other and take up all the space in the classroom!  It was great fun and we showed a good understanding of this topic.