STEM News
We warmly welcome back all our students and their families! We hope you enjoyed some time together as a family, exploring our wonderful world!
Prep students are studying Chemical Science this term, which is where they learn about how everyday objects look and feel. The last 2 weeks they have explored smooth and rough objects, and hard and soft objects. Students used their Science Inquiry Skills to create a T-chart to sort objects into 2 categories. Ask your child about how everyday objects feel and what words they would use to describe them.
Grade 1 students are studying Physical Science this term, particularly about forces and how things move. In week 1 students explored push and pull in lots of different games and toys, like dominoes, bowling, playdough, toy cars, marbles and fishing. Students identified which force was required to effectively play each game.
Grade 2 students are studying Biological Science and started the term off by creating a timeline of the human life cycle. Students ordered baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult and elderly, and discussed the milestones and characteristics of each life stage. Throughout the term students will study the life cycles of different animals – some where the baby looks similar to the adult, like a chicken, and some where the baby looks very different to the adult, like a frog or a butterfly.
Grade 3 students are also studying Biological Science, and are identifying the characteristics of living, nonliving and once living things. In week 1 students created a table and sorted the pictures. This week students used a flow chart to help them sort vertebrates into the 5 vertebrate groups – mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian. You can use this flow chart below with your child. Tell them an animal, and have them use the flow chart to classify the animal!
Grade 4 students are learning about life cycles and food chains this term in Biological Science. In week 1 students drew the life cycle of a marsupial which is different to that of other mammals. This week students are labelling and ordering the life cycle of a flowering plant.
Grade 5 students are studying Chemical Science this term. In week 1 they created their own table and headings and sorted substances into solids, liquids and gases. Students also discussed the safety considerations for this investigation. This week students drew the particles that make up matter. These particles look and behave differently for solids, liquids and gases.
Students used an interactive website to simulate the changing states of matter.
https://www.primaryschoolscience.co.uk/Matter-Lab/materials-interactive-2.htm
Grade 6 students are learning about the factors that affect plant growth and the conditions that plants need to grow. Students are practising their science inquiry skills by using a grid over a photo to calculate how much mould has grown on pieces of bread. Students then tabled and graphed their results.
