What do plants need to survive?

Today we set up experiments to prove what plants need to grow. 

In class Mrs Waller helped us to work out six variables that plants need:

Water

Air

Soil

Heat

Light

Space

We discussed how to prove that these variables were essential for growth and decided to plant three carrot seedlings for each variable, giving each seedling differing amounts of that variable. For instance, the group that was testing for the necessity for water would plant one seedling with no water, one with a little water to keep the soil moist and one with lots of water.

We measured the height of the seedlings at the beginning of the experiment and labelled each one to show the variable we were measuring and the height in centimetres.

Here we are preparing the pots:

We will report back at the end of this half term with our findings.

The perimeter of a paper bag (Thursday April 27th 2017)

We have been looking at the difference between area and perimeter this week and today we put our learning into practice by making a paper bag with a perimeter of 1m. This means that the side of the bag had to measure a total of 1 metre all the way around the edges.

Here are some examples to inspire us...

Here we are, work in progress...this challenge was trickier than it seemed at first!

Here are some completed bags. But did the perimeter measure 1m?

What worked best - trial and error or careful planning? Have a go and see what you think!

Experiments with Ultra Violet Light

Before the Easter holiday we set up some experiments to see how sunlight would affect paper. The children cut out shapes and placed them on card or sugar paper. They then put the paper/card on the window ledge and left them for 3 weeks.

Here are the results:

You can see the outlines of the black shapes really clearly on the sugar paper; in fact the part of the paper that was exposed to the sunlight was almost bleached white and looks as though it has shadows on it where the shapes were dislodged a little. The red colour of the sugar paper was protected by the shape and a strong colour remained underneath it. 

The orange card didn't fade quite as well as the sugar paper but you can still see the shapes if you look really carefully. 

Some shapes were moved off the paper/card during the experiment so there was no outline to see.

Jake suggested that the shapes were acting like sun cream on our skin, preventing the sunlight from reaching the paper or card underneath.

There was no doubt that the sunlight affected the paper/card.

Summer Science: Living Things (Tuesday April 25th)

Today we started our new science project and thought about what we would like to discover during our investigations. Our questions included...

Why are bees attracted to flowers?

Do plants grow below the ground?

What is a bulb?

How tall do plants grow - maybe we should try growing sunflowers! 

This term we will be learning about pollination, fertilisation and germination.

Welcome back my hearties!

This term we will be writing adventure stories so we began by having a pirate day to get us in the mood with lots of pirate activities including painting pirate portraits, making treasure maps and singing sea shanties. We were very lucky to have the company of Mrs Andrew in the afternoon.

Mrs Waller began reading 'Treasure lsland' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here are some shots from the day...

Although they look a blood thirsty lot, the children in Barn Owls are really lovely, honestly!

Here we are working out map coordinates in maths:

Tip of the day: always remember to go along the corridor first (x axis) and then up the stairs (y axis)!