2 years ago
Posted on 15th Mar 2024 by Dr. Roberts

Science Farm LIVE!

As part of British Science Week, children in Housman and Dutton classes took part in Science Farm LIVE with hundreds of other schools via a live stream. We were able to answer questions and post our own questions during the session.

We learnt about A Day in the Life of a Farm Vet, starting with how the vet checks the health of a cow, including measuring its heart rate, taking its temperature and assessing how hydrated it is. Children had a go at measuring their own heart rates by taking their pulses.

We also learned about a piece of technology that cows can swallow that constantly monitors their health and tells the farmer whether the cow’s digestion is working properly, if it’s drinking enough and even if it is pregnant – a very clever bit of kit!

We were lucky enough to see a calf being born on the live stream and watched how the mother cleaned it and checked that it was alright. Being prey animals, cows instinctively want to get their calves up and moving as soon as possible.

We finished with the other end of the digestive system by looking at cow poo and finding out how many insects can be found in it (over 1,000 insects in one cow pat!). We also discovered that dung beetles are beneficial to the health of cows whilst getting food from the cow’s poo!

Hopefully the session will inspire some of our children to consider future careers in farming or as a farm vet.

2 years ago
Posted on 23rd Feb 2024 by Dr. Roberts

Poster competition for British Science Week

British Science Week is coming up soon (8th to 7th March 2024) and children are invited to enter a poster competition for this year’s theme of ‘Time’.

Pupils could create a poster showing how a certain type of technology has changed over time or how time-telling technology itself has advanced (from sundials to pendulum clocks to digital clocks). Children could also show how they think the world might look in years to come or perhaps look at nature – lifecycles, lifespans, evolution or hibernation. They might consider showing how the Earth’s movements produces seasons and different time zones or demonstrating how stars and planets in our universe are lightyears away (the distance light travels over a year). There are lots of options – as long as the poster shows a link between science and time!

The top 5 posters from Stoke-on-Tern school will be entered into the British Science Week competition and the judges will be looking for a creative approach, content and effective communication. There are lots of amazing sciencey prizes up for grabs so please get creative!

Children can enter the competition as individuals or in small groups. The poster can either be on A4 or A3 paper and can use pop-up pictures, pull out tabs or materials such as pencils, paints, crayons and craft materials.

Deadline for entries is Thursday 21st March.

I have attached the winning posters from last year’s competition (the theme of ‘Connections’) for each age group (EYFS, KS1 and KS2).

Happy poster-making; I’m really looking forward to seeing what the children come up with!

Dr. Roberts

2 years ago
Posted on 08th Dec 2023 by Dr. Roberts

Housman Update 8/12/23

We’ve had another busy week in Housman Class, including a geography day on Wednesday. Children learned about the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn and the features of a tropical climate. They then carried out their own research using the internet and atlases to find the names of countries in North and South America and labelled them on a map. Finally, children compared typical weather conditions in countries in North and South America. The children worked hard and enjoyed learning about a new topic.

In science, children continued the ‘Sound’ topic and learned about how we hear sounds. Here’s a link to one of the videos we watched, including the ‘ossicles, ossicles, ossicles’ song!

How we hear

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Housman Teaching Team

2 years ago
Posted on 24th Nov 2023 by Dr. Roberts

Housman Update 24/11/23

What a busy week we’ve had in Housman Class! The children have completed the last of their assessments and have impressed us with their hard work and positive attitude.

In English, children have done an excellent job at writing a diary entry as Tom (the main character in our book, ‘Winter’s Child’) and have been using a number of their writing skills, including past tense, fronted adverbials, conjunctions and noun phrases.

As promised, here’s a song to support our work in maths about multiples and factors.

Multiples and factors song

In science, we have been exploring how sounds are made and have used a variety of instruments to investigate how sounds can be changed The children used their recorders as part of this investigation so Housman Class was a little noisy at times!

Have a super weekend everyone!

Housman Teaching Team

2 years ago
Posted on 13th Oct 2023 by Dr. Roberts

Housman Update 13/10/23

Another week comes to an end, with the children working hard in all subjects.

MATHS

In maths, the children have been improving their confidence with column subtraction using 4-digit and 5-digit numbers.

ENGLISH

In english, we continue to focus on organising ideas into paragraphs. We are also having a huge focus on handwriting and ensuring the children join their letters correctly. We are already seeing a huge improvement in the presentation of work.

Reading remains a priority in class and there are still some children who are not reading at home. Ideally, it would be most beneficial if a child was able to read to an adult each day ( at least 5 times a week- ‘STRIVE FOR FIVE’). However, we also understand that life can be hectic and we are putting the emphasis on the children taking responsibility for their own reading at home. We do ask that an adult does sign and date when their child has read ( maybe asking them about what they have just read would ensure that they are actually reading!). We have made a conscious decision to limit the amount of homework given so that more time can be spent on reading at home throughout the week.

If you are finding that your child is reluctant to read then we are more than happy to support with different ideas, book suggestions and other ways to promote and encourage reading at home.

Have a super weekend everyone!

Housman Teaching Team

2 years ago
Posted on 29th Sep 2023 by Dr. Roberts

Science update

In science, Darwin Class are studying the Circulatory System as their project this term. Last week, children explored the structure of the heart through a sheep heart dissection. They identified the major blood vessels going into and coming out of the heart, located the four chambers of the heart and compared the thickness of the muscular walls on the left and right side of the heart (considering where the blood was pumped to from each side). The children were amazed by the strength of the heart strings (inside the heart) and really impressed me with their enthusiasm for this activity.

We will be going on to learn about the different blood vessels that form part of the circulatory system, as well as making a representation of a blood sample.

Dr. Roberts

3 years ago
Posted on 28th Jun 2023 by Dr. Roberts

Science Club with Dr Roberts

During our Science Club sessions, we have been tackling a number of challenges, mainly using everyday items as part of our investigations.

We found out which substances are best at cleaning dirty pennies (including tomato ketchup, diet cola, lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda). We also discussed whether the cleaning ability has anything to do with how acidic the substances are (by using red cabbage indicator).

We also made lava lamps using everyday materials and discussed how they work, then made and flew balloon rotocopters.

In the final session, we investigated the ‘power of gas’ by launching alka seltzer rockets, adding mentos to diet coke and making elephant’s toothpaste. We made plenty of mess and had lots of fun!!