STEM Challenge - Dancing Raisins

During our STEM week Primary 1 participated in a STEM challenge called 'Dancing Raisins'.  Here we learned some science vocab including: prediction, apparatus and conclusion.  We used our understanding of tally marks to record our predictions and worked as a team to carry out the experiment. 

 

The children decided that the fizzy liquid is what was making the raisins dance.

Lilly from 1a said "The bubbles in fizzy juice make the raisins dance"  

Ciara from Primary 1b had a great explanation as to why the raisins were dancing during our experiment.  Ciara said "The bubbles float down to the bottom of the glass and join onto the raisins.  Then the raisins rise up to the top of the glass"

All children were made aware of the safety rules of working in a science lab.  They also enjoyed having the opportunity to wear lab coats and goggles and use beakers for the first time.

Even Miss McKelvie and Miss Connolly joined in on the fun.

Safety First!

Saving Fairyland

Primary 1 have been so busy trying to save Fairyland. We have been learning all about the life cycle of a plant, and we learned how to plant and care for seeds and beans. We did this by planting our very own Beanstalks, which we will be taking home at Easter time. Hopefully you will have fun planting them somewhere outside.





As part of our many challenge areas the children have been constructing castles for the dragon and moving wagons to take Cinderella to the ball. They had to develop their fine motor skills by using screws and bolts.
 

We completed STEM challenges in relation to the three little pigs, and explored what material was strongest.
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An important part of construction challenges is to complete the design process. We have been completing a number of design challenges using a variety of media. Cinderella has had a number of ball gowns designed, and we even designed new ladders for Jack.


 At our writing station we have been creating lots of functional writing. We have created; Wanted posters, For Sale posters, Recipes and Instructions for planting. We are becoming really good at using our common words and word banks to help us become more independent writers.







Through our Small World and Role play stations we have been learning to act out scenes from our favourite Fairyland stories. One of our favourite stations has been the Farm shop learning to recognise and add money.

Bricks and Blocks - Generation Science

Primary 1 loved the opportunity to take part in the Bricks and Blocks session provided by Generation Science.  

The children were given the opportunity to develop their programming and construction skills.  

Primary 1 joined the robot sports training camp where the Generation Science Coaches put them through their paces. 

The boys and girls were given the challenge of working with a partner to build and programme a robot goalkeeper.  Once the children had done this it was time to test their skills in the robot world cup penalty shoot-out.

The children learned to:

• Describe what robots are and why they are useful

• Recognise that the order of instructions is very important

• Identify that a computer program is a set of instructions

• Create basic computer programs for robots to perform simple tasks

• Recall that a robot will only do what it is programmed to do

World book day

World Book day

On World Book day the boys and girls in Primary 1 enjoyed reading their favourite stories with their Primary 7 buddies. They loved dressing up as their favourite story characters. All of the children enjoyed participating in story themed activities throughout the day.

 Two boys in Primary One have loved Fairyland so much that they decided to dress up as Jack. We especially loved their home made Beanstalks!

 Our Spider men enjoyed reading action books with the Primary 7's.

The children enjoyed going to Faifley Library to explore books that they could act out. They also enjoyed reading a rhyming book with the Librarian who was dressed up as the worst witch.

The day the Dragon came...

Primary 1 had a huge surprise yesterday. Over lunch a very large Dragon came and stomped all over their desks, all up the walls, and through the corridor. He threw over their chairs and pencil tubs and made an awful mess!

As you can tell, we were VERY shocked.

The Dragon left us a letter, which he brought from Fairyland. He explained how all of Fairyland is being destroyed since children are no longer reading the famous Fairy Tales. Dragon has asked Primary 1 if they would help save Fairyland by exploring lots of traditional Fairy Tales and remembering to read books.
 

 In his letter the Dragon said in order to save Fairyland Primary 1 had to; read lots of Fairy Tales, and they had to create a Beanstalk, Jack and Daisy the cow. Can you guess what our focus story is?

It is hard work trying to save Fairyland!!

We will keep you updated with what the Dragon does next.