Can you resist?

 The children have had loads of fun today, exploring the concept of air resistance. Now that they know about gravity, it’s the ideal point to learn about how air resistance acts against that force. They worked in groups to make different-sized parachutes and tested how rapidly they fell to Earth. The children had made predictions beforehand and they then looked to see whether these were accurate. We have also been working hard towards independent scientific experimental write-ups and the outcomes were really pleasing. It was particularly enjoyable to see the class having loads of fun in their learning as they worked together.

Fun with Reading

 The children have had lots of fun with their reading activities this week. We have been looking at the features of information text writing and working on the purpose of each feature. The children have been finding the features in library books and during guided reading. Next week, we will be writing our own information text on pigs and I feel confident that each feature will appear in their writing. We’ve already got bullet points sorted in class this week! We’ve also been working on reading and spelling words with a number of suffixes, so we’ll also be looking for those coming through in the writing next week.

Forces in Action - Gravity

 The children have been learning about the force of gravity, by working in groups to simulate the impact craters left behind following meteor impacts. The children used different objects, of differing mass but of a similar size and measured the diameter and depth of the crater left behind. They found that the mass of the object was important. The steel ball bearing left a far larger crater than the chick peas and glass marbles. 

We used Google Earth to find impact craters on our planet. There are plenty to be found, if you know where to look. Some of Canada’s finest lakes are in fact impact craters.