St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

What happens once in a lifetime, twice in a moment, but never in one hundred years?

Fizzy Rainbow Easter ‘Egg-speriment’

(Credit: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/baking-soda-and-vinegar-rainbow-easter-eggs/)

Question: What happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar?

Predict: What do you think will happen?

You will need:

• Small plastic Easter eggs or real empty egg shells that have been washed out
• Empty egg carton
• Baking soda
• Vinegar or lemon juice
• Food colouring (optional)
• Tray

Investigation:

1. Place the tray on the table and put the egg carton on the tray. If you don’t have a tray, you could put some newspaper or paper towels on the table. Put your eggs into the carton.
2. If you have food colouring, measure 1 drop into each egg.
3. Measure 1 spoonful of baking soda into each egg.
4. Squeeze some vinegar on top of the baking soda and observe what happens.

Analyse: What happens when the baking soda and vinegar mix? Why do you think this happened?

The vinegar and lemon are both acids and the baking soda is a base. When the acid and the base are mixed together, a chemical reaction occurs and a gas (fizzing bubbling action) called carbon dioxide is made. Liquid, solids and gas are called states of matter. All three states of matter are present in this experiment, vinegar (liquid), baking soda (solid) and carbon dioxide (gas).

Think about: What STEM skills did you use in this activity? (Clue: Look at the words in bold black writing)

STEM Challenge:

Can you make a rubber egg that will bounce using a real egg and vinegar?

I would love to see pictures of your STEM activities. You can post them here on the blog, send them to your teacher on class dojo or send them to the school mobile.

Have fun!

Ms. Whyte

Big Cat Collins Readers (levelled readers)

• We have sets of these books in the school. They are suitable from Level 1 to about level 25/26. There are also resources attached for each book. It reads the books to the children too!
• Go to Collins Connect and click on the Teacher portal 
• Username: parents@harpercollins.co.uk
• Password: Parents20! 
• Click Login
• Click Big Cat and choose a band level (Remember to start with books that you can read easily)
• Click on the book you want to read

Reading Websites

Oxford Reading Tree (levelled readers)

• We use sets of these books in the school also. The books on the website range from about 3-11 years of age. Please start with books at a younger age level to improve fluency and work your way up. There is an option to turn on the audio for when books become a little harder. Always try to read the book without the audio after you have listened to it.
• Click https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/
• Click login – Username: stpetersbray@gmail.com  Password: Stpetersbray
• Click on ‘all ages’ and select an age group.
• Click on the book that you want to read and click read ebook

Vooks (picture books for juniors brought to life through animations)

• Click on https://www.vooks.com/
• Username: stpetersbray@gmail.com
• Password: stpetersbray

Epic (brilliant digital library of well-known books for children 12 and under)

• You can join this free as a parent for 30 days https://www.getepic.com/promo

World Books Online

• https://www.scoilnet.ie/scoilnet-services/world-book/ This contains a variety of books for children of all ages. It contains lots of non-fiction.

Read Theory (Online reading comprehension activities for senior classes)

• Website: https://readtheory.org/
• Username: stpetersbray@gmail.com 
• Password: stpetersbray1 (all lowercase)
• You begin with a preliminary test set at grade 3 level (3^rd class). It’s important that you do not get help doing this test as your score will determine what level you will start on.

As Dr. Seuss once famously said, ‘‘’the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go’’. We are so proud of how much you all have improved in reading since the start of the year. It is really important that you continue to improve during this time at home. Try to read a variety of reading material: levelled readers (like the readers we have in school), novels and books of interest, comics, magazines, newspapers, recipes and books that you have written yourself. Above all else, enjoy it!

When choosing a levelled reader, start at a lower level than where you think you should be. In other words, the books that you start with should be really easy for you to read. Reading easy books will help improve your fluency and intonation (changing your voice as you read). It’s really important that you notice and practice the following:

• full stops (.) – Stop and take a breath
• commas (,) – Pause for a second
• exclamation marks (!) – Change your voice to make the sentence sound dramatic
• question marks (?) – Your voice usually goes up at the end of the question
• speech marks (‘‘  ’’) – Change your voice to show that somebody is speaking

Hearing and recording sounds are an important part of reading too. It would really help if you tried to write a few sentences each day on any topic that you like. Try copying one of the sentences on to a strip of paper and cut the words up. An older brother or sister could help you to do this either. Mix up the words and reassemble the sentence. Try to arrange the sentence in phrases, a bit like the way you would say it in a conversation. The important thing is that you listen to the sounds carefully in each word before you write it. Often when we rush our writing, we leave out important sounds. Taking your time will improve your spelling too. Don’t forget neat writing! Check out the post ‘Reading Websites’ for some books

What word is spelled wrong in the dictionary?

I hope you like tonight’s story. I’m sure you’ll all like the title “Don’t eat the teacher.” Please leave a comment or answer the questions I ask at the end of the story. To view it click on the link BELOW the picture.

Where can you find cities, towns, shops, and streets but no people?

Tonight’s story is ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Don’t forget to leave a comment!