This month in 4th Class we are learning about the topic of ‘Transport’. In celebration of Science Week, we started off the week using a K’nex STEM challenge to create a hot air balloon model!
We continued the week with another STEM activity and asked the question – ‘How do parachutes work?’ Parachutes need to be able to catch air inside them so we spent some time thinking of what materials we could use for our parachutes. Then we spent time designing our parachutes.
Each group received the same amount of materials and time to complete the activity. We only had one variable – the material used.
After constructing our designs, we really enjoyed testing our parachutes.
5th Class had great fun investigating, exploring and creating for Science Week 2020.
At the beginning of the week we used the Lego WeDo kits to create satellites, robots and windmills. We first had to create our Lego model. We then used Bluetooth to connect our creations to tablets. From there we could program our Lego creations. We could make them move, spin, change colour and make noises.
We have been learning all about Space. One child in the class cashed in their Dojo Points to teach the class a lesson. He chose to teach us about rockets and how they launch. He recorded a video of himself playing a rocket simulator and presented it to the class. We were all fascinated and loved his lesson!
We researched our own information about space using the tablets. Each child in the class researched a different planet. We created a short presentation based on this.
Later in the week we decided to make our own paper rockets. We created these using pencils, paper and masking tape. We measured how far they could fly by launching them via a straw. We had great fun trying to make them go as far as possible. We are planning to change something about our rockets this week and see does this change how far the rocket can fly.
We have just finished another exciting Science Week in St.
Peter’s. Junior Infants loved getting to grips with this week’s STEM lessons. Early
in the week we explored magnetism. We talked about what magnets are and watched
a short video on magnetism. We then investigated things that were magnetic by
testing our magnets out around the classroom and school. Finally we came back
and tried to predict which items from a group were magnetic and which were not
and tested these out.
Later in the week we ventured into early programming skills.
In small groups we got to play with Beebots. We tried to programme our robots
to move around the mat from one area to another or under tables and back using
simple steps and counting steps up to 5. Next time we will be working on left
and right!
We have our anti-bullying month in the school this month. Each child will be given a badge with the image above on it and will do lessons in relation to anti-bullying throughout the month. We also have a range of colourful canvas posters around the school with anti-bullying messages on them.
We had a great week celebrating Science Week in Ms. Kane’s class, one of our favourite celebrations of the year! We love taking part in STEM activities on a regular basis and were excited to try lots of new ideas this week. We listened to Professor Luke O’ Neill talking about coronavirus, watched David Attenborough’s new documentary ‘A Life on Our Planet’ and used Lego WeDo! to design our visions for the future.
We learned lots about coronavirus by listening to Professor Luke O’ Neill answering questions on RTÉ Junior. Professor O’ Neill is a scientist and explained very clearly how coronavirus is spread and reminded us to keep washing our hands. We also enjoyed learning about where the term ‘coronavirus’ comes from and whether or not we can spread it to our pets (we were glad to hear that we can’t).
Learning lots of information from Professor O’ Neill.
We also considered the science behind our baking this week. We made meringues and needed only egg whites and sugar to make them. It was a challenge separating the egg whites but thanks to Ms. Kelly we managed! We wondered how the egg whites looked like clouds or shaving foam when we whisked them? We learned that this is because the whisk creates a force through the egg whites which unfolds protein molecules. We know protein is also found in foods like chicken, fish and milk. The whisking also makes air bubbles that become trapped which make foam. Ms. Kelly even showed us the test to see if the eggs whites were whisked enough and turned the bowl upside down – they didn’t budge! There’s so much science involved in baking, we love learning about it!
Separating the egg whites!
Concentrating!
Creating our meringues.
Making sure they’re perfect!
We watched David Attenborough’s new documentary ‘A Life on Our Planet’ and loved it! It’s a really good example of the explanation genre, which we’re learning lots about, and it fits in perfectly with the theme of Science Week this year, ‘Choosing Our Future’. David Attenborough explained how the Earth is affected by how we, as humans live and gave us tips about how to improve the natural world. We had some great suggestions from pupils in our class that we’re sure David Attenborough would approve of, including using renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and trying to make small changes in our own lives, like continuing to recycle more and using less water at home, when brushing our teeth for example.
Programming.
Design discussions.
Following the steps.
Building takes patience and concentration.
Inspired by the documentary, we decided to create some of our own visions for the future, using Lego WeDo. This gave us a chance to use our imaginations and to consider what we think will be important in our futures. Lego WeDo is so much fun to use and everyone worked so well in teams. Using the Lego WeDo app on our tablets we selected designs and got to work building and programming them using simple codes. One of our pods made a wind turbine that they hope will become a more common source of energy in years to come. Another pod created a helicopter as they were concerned that if the planet continues to heat up, more natural disasters will occur and we’ll need helicopters to send to save people and deliver resources. The final pod made a machine that could be used by farmers to speed up harvesting their crops. Really innovative ideas, a huge well done to all!
Adding the final pieces.
Making sure it works!
The wind turbine was a great success, thumbs up for renewable energy!
We kicked off Science week in 2nd class by diving into the theme of ‘Space and Planets’! We learned all about the different planets, the ISS and rockets.
STEAM: We decided to get creative and make our very own planets! We researched planets, painted them, gave them names and constructed the posters!
We wrote and presented to the class what it would be like to live on these planets!
STEM Challenge: Launching an Asteroid
Our first challenge was to create a catapult which would allow us to launch our “asteroids”. We had a competition to see whose asteroid travelled the furthest!
STEM Challenge 2: Alien Parachutes
Our second challenge was making safe parachutes for our “aliens” to land. We had to be sure it was a safe landing and that they remained in the air for at least 2 seconds! It was tricky but we really enjoyed it.
We were learning all about pets in 1st class so we decided to make homes for some of the pets we had discussed in class.
Each group made a pet rock and we made a whole class brainstorm on what our pet rocks would need in their homes to survive. Take a look at our brainstorm:
After we discussed our pets needs, we started to plan for our homes, making sure we included the essentials! Have a look at some of our plans.
We finally got started on our designing and creating part of science week. Take a look at how our finishing products turned out… would you be happy for your pet to live here?
We have been very busy this month in Senior Infants!
We learned all about the hospital this month. We became patients, doctors, surgeons, nurses, paramedics and receptionists. We built hospitals using our blocks and practised making some tools that surgeons, doctors and nurses use. 👩🏼🔬🥼💉
We read ‘The Witch with an Itch’ by Helen Baugh and made our own magic potions. Here are some photos of us making our playdough potions! 🧙🏼♀️🧹
Here are our spooky Halloween Costumes!
Thank you so much Mr.Kinsella and Liz for helping us to make this yummy chocolate apples!
We have had a very busy month in Ms. Kane’s class. We’ve enjoyed celebrating Maths Week, taking part in STEM activities, baking and celebrating Hallowe’en!
Maths Week was a super opportunity for us to play some of our favourite problem solving games like draughts, Jenga and Frustration! We also took part in Place Value races in the hall and loved watching Maths TV.
Fractions!
Teamwork!
Problem solving!
A close game!
We loved taking part in a simple STEM challenge to see which team could build the longest paper chain. It sounds easy but we’d recommend lots of teamwork to make it work! We only used 1 sheet of a paper, a pair of scissors and a stapler to complete the challenge. We had a time limit of 12 minutes and we all successfully made a paper chain, with the longest chain measuring 180cm!
Our favourite weekly activity is baking and we got to create some of our favourite recipes this month! We made s’mores (back by popular demand!) and chocolate apples to celebrate Hallowe’en! We were happy our friends in 6th class could enjoy some s’mores with us!
Finally, we had a fantastic time celebrating Hallowe’en together! Everybody made such a fantastic effort with their costumes! We’re looking forward to seeing what next month brings!
We started off the month with some Autumn Art. We used autumnal paints for our colourful dot painting. They turned out so well and really brightened up the classroom!
We had great fun designing and carving a pumpkin this month for Halloween and learning about the stages in which a pumpkin grows.
We had a brilliant last day before the mid-term, dressing up and painting pumpkins!
