Science Week- Jack and the Beanstalk! 15.3.19

Science week- Jack and the beanstalk! 15.3.19

Giant class have enjoyed our science week! We have been reading the traditional tale Jack and the beanstalk. We have been learning lots about things that grow.

On Monday we had our first science week challenge… “Can we build a beanstalk as tall as the ceiling?” We thought carefully about the different materials to use and how to attach them together. We worked as a team, each helping to build or stick a different part- then covering it with green tissue paper/shiny paper to look like a real beanstalk! 

We read the story ‘Mouse finds a seed’ and thought about the lifecycle of a sunflower seed. We found that when the flower dies, the seeds blow away and find a new piece of soil to grow in. We made our own lifecycle pictures. We also wrote a list of the different things a plant needs to grow, putting our thinking into a sentence. We have planted our own crazy cress heads and beans ‘in a bag’ and have been watching them closely to see them sprouting!

Later in the week we had another science week STEM challenge! “Make a parachute to help Jack land safely”. We designed our parachutes carefully, thinking about which materials would help it to ‘float’ and fall slowly in the sky allowing Jack to land gently. We tested out our parachutes with a lego-man version of Jack! It was lots of fun!

We also had a visit from the children’s author, Lois Davis! She told us lots about the characters in her stories and read us some of her newest book. It was an exciting adventure story about Great Grandma and her crazy cat friend Mincemeat! If you’d like to read more about her and her stories, visit her website http://kindiscool.co.uk.

We finished our science week with an exciting visit from the Science Dome! When we were inside we could see lots of different pictures of the earth, especially countries in the Arctic and polar circle. We saw icebergs and thought about the polar bears and other animals that live there. We also watched a video of the Northern Lights, it looked like dancing green lights in the sky!

The picture then changed as the sun went down and we were able to explore the different stars and constellations in the sky. We could see pictures of the different animals different countries see in the night sky. In Norway they see the ‘big dipper’ as a ‘Caribou’ reindeer! We then learnt a little about the scientist and explorer Charles Darwin. We listened to a video talking about his 5 yearlong exploration on a large ship! We heard about the different animals and species he discovered on his travels.  

It’s been an exciting week full of lots of learning about the world around us. We have had great fun being scientists!! 

Miss Stephens