Category Archives: Discover Primary Science and Maths

Art – Clay – Junior Room

This past fortnight we have been exploring the use of clay. After discussing how it feels and the many things we can do with it such as pinching, pulling, throwing, twisting….we moulded our little pinch pots. We discussed and predicted what might happen to the clay pots when left on the radiator over night. Some little scientists predicted that the clay material would change colour and become solid. Some of the children made connections with our Maths topic ‘weight’ and predicted that the pinch pots would be lighter when dry.  How very clever! Each child decorated their own pinch pot as they wished and we discovered in the end that the pinch pots were just like us. Unique and special!

Butterfly Goodbyes

We had great fun watching our little caterpillars transform into beautiful painted lady butterflies. Alas, it was time to say goodbye to Sky, Mary, Little flower, Missy and Frederick. We released them and waved goodbye, as we know they have such an important job to do now. Butterflies play a huge role in pollination, as do bees and wasps. So we need to look after them all, as best we can!
Our little friends will live for approximately 5 more weeks(max), laying their own little eggs elsewhere, for the cycle of life to start all over again.

Our first born BUTTERFLY

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Our very first Painted Lady Butterfly has emerged from its Chrysalis. It is just getting used to its habitat right now. It will stay here for 3 days before being released with its friends. In the mean time we will feed it nectar and leave fruit and flowers for it to explore.

Caterpillars – Our fuzzy friends!

It has been really interesting so far, observing the changes that have occurred in our caterpillars, in one week! They started off so tiny and look at them now. They have been feeding so well and alot of waste, called frass, is evident in the jars. They have shed their exoskeleton a few times also! Some of the caterpillars are making attempts to hang in their ‘j’ shape, which means that very soon they will have to be transferred to their butterfly habitat! Exciting! Before transferring, they will form a chrysalis and while in the butterfly habitat, the last stage of metamorphosis will occur over time , resulting in,fingers crossed, our beautiful painted lady butterfly’s emerging soon after! We will keep you posted!

MATHS -Time

Did you know on Mercury, a day is two years long? Imagine all you could do in one weekend!

Did you know
Because light takes time to reach us, everything we see is in the past. The sun you can see out of the window is 8 minutes and 20 seconds old. The light from our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4 years old.

Christmas Fun

Lots of fun was had today when the senior children came to our room. First of all, we had some shared reading . All our stories were about Christmas and it was lots of fun. We then had a quiz. The score was very tight, but in the end Santa’s Reindeer won by one point. After that, we had the Christmas tree challenge. The teams had to try to create a tree shape using the 6 foam cups, but without touching them with any hands. It was such good fun and an extremely difficult challenge. This was followed by a Christmas movie and treats. What a day!

Science

Yesterday Declan the scientist came to our school. He showed us some cool things: he rolled a can on the floor and it came back all the way back to him.

After we tried to guess what happened and nobody got it right.

Then he told us how he said there was a weight in the middle of the can and there was two elastic bands taped to the inside. The science behind it is when you rolled it the weight wants to stay in place and that winds the elastic bands up and when it stops the elastic bands lets out all the energy and makes it roll back words.

Then he came into our room and made a slingshot out of lollipop sticks. All of our class had a competition with 7 people v 7. The yellows went first then red and the yellows won. I was on the yellow team and the second round the reds won.

I enjoyed the day I hope Declan comes back again another day.

By Patrick

Yesterday we had a visitor come to our school.

His name was Declan. He is a scientist.

He comes to our school once every year to do some science and engineering with us.

The first experiment he did was the can that would that would always roll back to you.

 

 

The second one was the mirror that makes you look like you’re upside down.

My favourite experiment was the glasses that make you look purple.

After the show he came down to our classroom and made catapults with us.

 

 

That is my favourite part of him coming every year by far. I hope that he will come next year. He said before he left that he is hoping to make a phone that can turn into anything.

The end by Hannah

Yesterday we did science with Declan.

First he got a tin with a weight and elastic bands in it and anytime he rolled it it came back to him.

Then he got a can of diet coke and a container of water and he asked us ‘Will it float?’ and most people said ‘No’. Then we put it in and it floated! Then he got normal coke and asked if it would float and most people said yes and it floated! And then at last he had Pepsi and asked if it would float and most said yes and guess what, it didn’t! He asked why and lots of people had lots of ideas and then Ava said because there’s more sugar in Pepsi than Coke and it was right.

By John

Declan from Science Ireland

The last day we had a man called Declan come to our school. Declan is a scientist. He did lots of things with us.

He usually tricked us to believing one thing when it actual something else is happening. He showed us that there is more sugar in a can of Coke than Pepsi and Coke floats and Pepsi doesn’t.

He also rolled a tin cylinder and it came back to him like a boomerang, but more slowly. The trick was he had a weight in the middle with elastic bands wrapped around it. The bands wind up when you roll the can and the can rolls bac kas the elastic bands unwind.

After that we had a game of homemade catapults. The way you make them is you need eight lollipop sticks and elastic bands. The rules are you get a Velcro ball and fling it with your catapult and try hit the target. It was really fun and can’t wait to do it next year.

By Jack

 

 

 

Yesterday Declan the scientist came in to do science with us.

When he came all of the senior room went down to the junior room so we could do an expiriment together.

We did really fun things all together.

Then after our lunch break he came in to the senior room and we did catapults. They were really fun and I enjoyed them a lot.

The catapults were like a cross between the movie and game Angry Birds.

My favourite one was the robot one because he was really cool and it is a really smart robot. So I liked that a lot.

Declan was really good at science and was fun too.

By Róisín

Yesterday Declan the science guy came to our school he did some science  with us.

The first thing he did was he rolled a can on the ground and a it came back to him. He ask  us how did it come back? Some people kind of got it. After a while he told us the answer. It was how there was a weight in side of it with some rubber band tied around it.

Then he asked which would sink: a Diet Coke can, a regular can of Coke and  a PepsI. And he put the Diet Coke in to the water and it  didn’t sink. And then he put in  the Coke and that didn’t sink . Then he put in the Pepsi and that did sink because it has more sugar.

Then he stayed with the little ones for a while.

Then he came to us and played a fun game with us  you have a ball and shoot it on to  a little carped thing and it was fun.

By Kirsty

Yesterday Declan Holmes, the science guy, came to our school.He showed us lots of stuff to do with science.

First he rolled this can and asked us what was happening.Then he showed us Coke. Diet Coke and Pepsi cans he asked us which would float and which would sink. Only the Pepsi can sank because the amount of sugar in it.

Half an hour later he came to our room and we played a extremely fun game with catapults.They were not real ones though, but we could make them ourselves at home if we wanted.

Afterward, we asked thousands of questions! He was really funny and I enjoyed the day a lot.

The end

By Ava