This week, the classroom has been full of excitement as the children began exploring our new science case study through practical, hands-on learning experiences.
Yesterday, the children worked collaboratively in their groups to make their own batches of play dough. Some mixtures were more successful than others, but every group had plenty of fun experimenting, problem-solving, and learning along the way. Today, we built on this by exploring how we can change the shape of our play dough, transforming it into a variety of different objects by twisting, rolling squashing and stretching.
Alongside this, we have been investigating a range of other materials. The children have really impressed me with how quickly they are picking up and confidently using scientific vocabulary to describe the properties of materials. Words such as hard, smooth, see-through, waterproof, bendy, and rough are already becoming part of their everyday discussions and they have been using these properties to group materials.
It has been wonderful to see their curiosity, teamwork, and growing confidence as young scientists as they explore, experiment, and ask thoughtful questions about the world around them.
This week, we discovered that for one of our case studies we are going to be scientists — and we wasted no time getting started!
Yesterday, the children took part in a materialscarousel, exploring a range of different materials. We focused on developing scientific vocabulary and identifying key properties such as hard, flexible, waterproof and smooth. The children handled each material carefully, talked about what they noticed and began to explain why different materials are suitable for different purposes.
Today, we applied that learning in a more practical way. Working together, the children explored a variety of different games, thinking carefully about what materials they were made from and why those materials had been chosen. There was lots of thoughtful discussion as children justified their ideas using the scientific vocabulary they had been learning.
Class Five don’t know it yet, but all of this research is going to play a really important role in our next expedition — and in shaping our final product. An exciting start to our scientific journey!
Today, our Year 2 children launched their new expedition, with an exciting, hands-on science afternoon.
We began with a story called The Little House Made of Everything, which helped children think about the different materials used in buildings and everyday objects. As we explored the house together, children discussed why walls are made from brick, why windows are made from glass, and what might happen if a house was made from just one material.
The children then took part in a Feel and Describe activity, where they explored a range of everyday materials including wood, plastic, metal, glass, rock and card. Using their sense of touch, they described how each material felt, using words such as hard, soft, smooth and rough.
Another activity challenged children to find out whether materials could change shape. They tested materials by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching them, and talked about which materials changed easily and which stayed the same.
One of the highlights was our Build a Job challenge. Children looked at real-life photos of houses, bridges, chairs and windows and decided which material would be best for each job. They shared their ideas confidently, explaining their choices using scientific language and clear reasoning.
To finish the afternoon, children explored their own classroom, identifying objects and naming the materials they were made from. This helped them connect their science learning to the place where they belong every day.
It was a fantastic start to our expedition — full of curiosity, thoughtful talk and hands-on learning. We’re excited to keep building on this as we continue to explore our community and the world around us.
Crew Goodyer enjoyed taking part in some fun crew sessions outdoors this week led by Mrs Jackson. We began by using our senses to explore and describe objects found out in our school grounds.
We then took part in the matchbox challenge to see which team could fit the most objects into a matchbox. Frankie and Eliza were excited to be named champions!
This week Nursery have began case study two of our expedition “ Who is hiding in the pages of this book?” We have been immersed in our new text The Gingerbread Man. To hook the children into their learning they were detectives on a hunt for character body parts in our outdoor area. When they found all of the characters parts the children put them back together again revealing what our key text of the week would be. They were very excited for it to be The Gingerbread Man!
We modelled role play of the Baker and the Gingerbread Man to the children. The Gingerbread Man was apologising for running away and asked if he could help to make more Gingerbread to show how sorry he was. But how would he do this? The children hot seated the Baker and were encouraged to think about the ingredients that the Gingerbread Man may need. The Baker explained that they would need follow a recipe and a method, showing this to the children.
The children have had lots of fun role playing with the masks themselves in provision.
We then of course baked Gingerbread Men, following the Bakers recipe and instructions. The children were encouraged to think about first, next and then sequencing whilst they were baking. They also learned about different forces which they were using to make the gingerbread men as they mixed, rolled and pulled the rolling pin through the dough or pressed their Gingerbread Man shapes out with the cutter. These are pushes and pulls!
Luckily none of our gingerbread men tried to make a run for it! Great work Nursery.
What a way to start our new case study! Exploring space in the WonderDome. We can’t wait to use what we have found out to help us answer our guiding question – where could your journey take you?
Nursery have had a wonderful time over the past week celebrating Easter. We began the week with a puppet show telling the traditional easter story of Jesus. The children listened carefully and were encouraged to ask questions after the show or explain their feelings or opinions about the story. Some of which were; “I think it’s sad because Jesus died” and “It was mean, because they made him carry that cross up the big hill”.
During their free play we captured some of the children creating their own puppet shows about Jesus, showing they were embedding their learning in their play.
The children baked and decorated their own easter themed biscuits, using flour, sugar, butter and an egg. They carefully took turns to weigh out ingredients with support and followed instructions to mix, beat, roll and cut out their dough. The children each chose their own easter time shape cutter and colour icing along with decorations to make their biscuits extra yummy!
We also had an egg-stra special visit from the Easter Bunny himself, who had heard about how hard we have been working and how kind we have all been, so decided to bring some of our treats early! He brought us an Easter Egg and we all had cuddles or high fives! There were some very excited children and grown ups….
At home we have been working hard and collaboratively with our parents to design and create a decorated boiled egg. Some entries were a single egg whilst others were a whole scene of egg themed characters. They were all absolutely amazing, so much effort and time had been spent working together. The winners of our EYFS competition in Nursery were chosen by the Reception children, who judged and voted for all of the entries (an extremely tough job). The winners were Willow from Am Nursery for her egg filled bonnet and Jenny from Pm Nursery for her Leonardo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Well done girls! However a huge thank you and well done to everyone, as all of the entries were outstanding, such beautiful work and the children were so proud. Here they are…
We finished our week with lots of fun in the sunshine including an Easter Egg Hunt, the children had lots of fun.
This week Nursery have been Scientists whilst investigating how humans grow and change, driven by our key text “When I Was a Baby” by Deborah Niland. We have been introduced to our new science characters, who will help us to navigate investigations. We have focused on “Predicting Pip”, helping the children to understand how to make predictions or reasonable guesses about what may happen before experimenting.
To activate our learning and hook the children into the week we played a game of “Guess the Baby?” Looking at photos of the children as babies and guessing which baby was each child. We then sorted activities or tasks that babies Can or Can’t do, explaining why – thinking about how undeveloped new babies are.
Our first practical experiment this week was “Growing Gummy Bears”. This linked to what humans need to grow. We investigated which of four different liquids; salt water, sugar water, white vinegar or plain water were the best conditions to grow the bear. The children made predictions of what they thought may happen to the bears as we dropped them into the ramekins.
We then observed how the bears changed and grew in the different solutions over 24 hours. The results revealed that the bear in the salt water turned white from absorbing the salt particles and stayed very small, the bear in the vinegar began to melt and fall to pieces (one of the children explained this process as “dissolved”), the bear in the sugar water grew bigger but was very sticky and slimy because of all of the sugar in the water. Finally the bear in the regular water grew the most and was perfectly in one piece, showing that clean water was essential to growing.
Salt water Sugar water Vinegar
Our second experiment linked to what we need to help us grow. The children had previously looked at what we needed to grow during our Tranquil Tuesday Crew, using picture prompts to help scaffold their understanding.
Then today Nursery observed how humans need oxygen to breathe, grow and survive. The children made predictions about the experiment from a diagram shown during our Wise Wednesday Crew. They thought about what would happen to the candle if a jar was placed over the top? Some of our answers included; “The glass will break”, “It will burn”, “It will go off fire”, “It will make a big light” and “It will run out of breath”.
They then observed as I modelled the experiment, fixing a candle into play dough, placing three sets of coins around a bowl and filling the base of the bowl with coloured water. Then I lit the candle and placed a jar over the top of the flame, resting on the coins. The children observed as the oxygen was used up in the jar and the flame was suffocated, causing the water to rise up the glass – taking the place of the oxygen. They watched in awe as the flame went out and listened carefully to the sound of the vacuum made by the water. One of the children likened the experiment to “When to go to bed and pull the covers over your head, if you stay like that, you could suffocate because there’s no air.”
We have had lots of fun and excitement in Nursery this week experimenting and are looking forward to the rest of the week. Great learning Nursery!
This week in our Wise Wednesday community meeting we reminded ourselves of our new Science characters that are going to help us to think scientifically.
Next, we had some Science riddles to try and solve – look at how many scientific superstars we had this morning!
I wonder if you can solve the riddles? Have a go …
1 – With my powerful lens you can look at the stars, and spot the planets like Venus and Mars.
2 – I’m a type of energy. You use me every day … for light, cooking, computers and the music that you play.
3 – I am a gas that is found in the air. Without me, there would be no life anywhere!
4 – I am a precious metal mined from deep underground. I’m yellow in colour. In jewellery, I’m found.
5 – I am part of your body, with a very important role. Your voice, sight and memory are some things I control.
6 – I can be sunshine, snow, wind or rain. I change every day … people often complain!
7 – Plant and animal cells too tiny to see are magnified when you look through me.
8 – I am a liquid. In rivers I flow When I freeze I am ice. I’m called H2O!
