Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

British Science Week

British Science Week was the launch of a whole school project to improve Biodiversity in an area of our school.  Each class will undertake a mini project to encourage ‘living things’ to the wasteland area at the back of the playground, to make it a fun learning space for all the children.

We thought about how we could encourage wildlife to the wasteland at the back of the playground and make it an exciting and learning environment for the children.  The assembly by Mrs Levy left everyone excited to take on the challenge and each year group started to plan what they are going to do, how they are going to plan it and ideas about implementation.

 

We also enjoyed workshops led by Hands on Science where children learnt more about biodiversity, camouflage, adaptation and natural selection.

Nursery enjoyed taking part in their Hands on Science Workshop on camouflage they learnt what this is and created their own paper butterflies seeing if they could camouflage them in the sky.  During this week they also explored different ways that they could melt ice, using salt water, ordinary water and putting it outside.

 

Reception also enjoyed taking part in their science workshop on camouflage.  They took part on a variety of hands on experiences during this week.  They particularly enjoyed making their camouflage paper butterflies.  They created their own potions and worked on measuring out different liquids and looking at their quantities.

 

Year 1 created their own waterfall during the week to investigate, how they could make water go up as well as down?  The children loved the hands on experience with making their own ramps and investigating the water.  For the garden the children have created their own water catchers by making different size water catches and putting them in the garden and seeing how much water they catch.

 

Year 2 participated in a Science Workshop focusing on hibernation. This was inorder to celebrate Science Week. As part of this lesson the children had the opportunity to look closely at different materials such as leaves, raindrops and the wing of a fly. We spoke about their appearance, texture and what we thought it could be. To follow this the children then looked at different environments and had to carefully find the insect/ creature. Year two loved talking about how insects can camouflage and hide from their prey. Following this the children then designed their own butterfly and made a background to hide their design.  The children were really well behaved and participated well.  
 

Year 3 enjoyed their Hands on Science Workshop where they learnt about the habitats within our school grounds.  Our focus is on worms and keeping them safe as they are good for our soil and earth. The more they move, the more they move the soil around. The children will be making a wormfarm for the wasteland area.

 

Year 4 enjoyed a session with the Hands on Workshop, where they went out to the wasteland area to consider the environment there. The children conducted an experiment whereby they had to hunt for different ‘coloured worms’ on the ground and grass. The conclusion was that the brightly coloured worms became extinct and the green and brown worms would survive as they have adapted to their environment. Year 4 need to think about this when designing materials and colours for our ‘Bug Hotel’ as they want our insects and bugs to keep safe from predators.

They designed and made our soundproofed rooms following our learning about materials which could muffle sound. Year 4 found materials at home which were good for soundproofing. For example, they used bubble wrap, newspaper, cotton wool, cardboard, tin foil and even some carpet! Year 4 then covered the walls, ceiling and floor in the materials which were the best for soundproofing. They also made objects to go inside the room including beds, tables and TVs!