This years Science Week theme was 'Change and Adapt'. Throughout the school scientific enquiry, investigation and activities could be seen.

Cherry class looked at changes to the pond discovered frog sawn and collected a sample to observe close up. Within a week it had changed dramatically form a series of little jelly pops filled with black spots to wriggling tadpoles!

Working in collaboration Cherry Class Holly Class and Hawthorn Class spent an afternoon doing a range of different and diverse activities to highlight change and adaptation. These included-

-making rockets to fly to the moon,

-hunting for camouflaged caterpillars, discussing the most effective ones.

-making wormeries to gain an understanding of the basic needs of an earthworm, and what it needs to survive. At the same time gaining an awareness of how it supports plants.

In Holly Class our first activity for science week was called ‘Changing liquids’. We poured equal amounts of washing up liquid, vinegar, water, orange juice, golden syrup and oil into an ice lolly mould and put them in the freezer for a day. We were surprised that they had all frozen! Many of us had predicted that the oil and the golden syrup wouldn’t freeze. We then left them at room temperature for another day to see them change from a solid back to a liquid.

Our second activity was called ‘Changing environments’. We thought about how our local area is changing, with new houses and roads being built. We drew pictures of what we thought a new area should look like but included things for people as well as things for wildlife such as bird tables, trees and bushes. We also made seed bombs which we are going to plant outside so that there will be plenty of wildflowers for the bees and butterflies.

On Wednesday afternoon we enjoyed a range of science activities. We made our own wormery and put a real worm in it. We have taken them home to see if the worms tunnel down! We also made rockets and attempted to see if we could make them reach the moon, but unfortunately we weren’t able to. Finally, we went out on the field to look for camouflaged caterpillars and found that the green and brown caterpillars were the most camouflaged and therefore hardest to find.

Our final activity was called ‘Amazing animal feet’. We learnt about how some animal’s feet can help them to survive. Webbed feet help frogs to swim and moles have long sharp claws so they can dig underground. We matched up the animals to their feet.

Hawthorn Class have had an exciting Science Week learning how things “Change and Adapt” to survive or be successful.

On Wednesday we took part in a variety of activities including rocket making, caterpillar camouflage and making wormeries.  Mrs Blench taught us how far it was from the Earth to the moon and we made rockets to try and travel between a model of them.  At first our rockets wouldn’t fly so we had to assess our design and adapt it so that it would fly further. 

Miss Gibbons taught us about camouflage and how animals adapt to protect themselves from predators.  Can you find the animal in this photo?  We searched the field for “caterpillars” in a variety of colours and discussed why it was easier to find some than others. 

From Mrs Baldwin we learned about habitats and how animals adapt to their habitats.  Worms eat leaves and other natural waste so we also investigated how many different leaves we could find, named the parts of a leaf and used them in our maths learning; measuring them and comparing length.  We used leaves as well as sand and soil to make wormeries and discussed how worms help us grow plants by changing the soil.

We have also taken part in a number of other activities in class including a chromatography investigation looking at how colours are made up in paint and ink, investigating which tomatoes can be most successful grown in our class and building bug hotels out of recycled materials and natural resources.

Year 4 had an exciting Science Week filled with discovery and hands-on learning! We explored the different parts of the ear and even made our own models to understand how we hear sounds. We also learned about the invention of the telephone and the life of Alexander Graham Bell. The highlight of the week was our visit to Sandwich Technology School, where we took part in fascinating experiments led by Year 10 pupils and science teachers. It was a fantastic opportunity to see science in action and inspire our budding scientists!

Changing Colours in Year 5

Fizz Balloons-Year 5

Science Workshops St Edmunds

Sycamore Class had great fun taking part in lots of different and exciting Science activities during Science Week. We completed activities such as: learning about animals’ characteristics and traits, and how they have adapted and evolved to suit their respective environments; we also completed some science investigations- looking at the best materials to use as filters to stop microplastics from entering our seas and oceans.

On Friday, we visited The Archbishop’s School in Canterbury and took part in a fun and interesting session- where we used Bunsen Burners to heat up water (and recorded the temperatures at various times). The children also created their own sparklers, by using iron filings and the Bunsen Burners. The trip was great fun and everyone really enjoyed themselves. Well done Sycamore Class.