Science Newsletter Dec 19

Butlers Court School
SCIENCE NEWSLETTER, Autumn 2019
The MOON descends on the school and

causes excitement and mayhem

On Monday 2nd December 2019 the school received a delivery from The Science and Tech-
nology Facilities Council in Swindon for NASA lunar and meteorite samples. This was an ex-
citing opportunity for the children to experience ‘moon rock’ first hand and to be able to
handle these special artefacts. The children took part in activities involving the moon,
space rock and the earth. They were also given an insight into the ground breaking Apollo
moon landings of July 1969.
Year 2

The Year 2 children were fascinated by the moon rock and the meteorites!
Year 5
Here, the year 5 children were able to analyse both sand and flour and decide which mate-
rial would be most similar to the moon’s surface.

Year 5 casts a shadow during their Science lessons.

During a practical demonstration of the Earth, Sun and Moon, the children were able to
learn and appreciate the journey of the earth orbiting the sun and realising the moon
orbiting the earth. Furthermore they were able to appreciate the size and length of the
shadows created when the suns rays are blocked.

These children were left with their tummies effectively filled when they used
Oreo biscuits to demonstrate the different phases of the moon. This was a
worthwhile demonstrate and the children were able to recall all eight phases of
the moon. The moon takes 28 days to orbit the earth and we are able to see
the magnificent shapes over this time.

The Reception year group continued with the Space theme and were are to recognise the
size and shape of all 3 spherical shapes: The sun, earth and moon.

Year 4
We worked in groups to create a life sized drawing of a human body then used pictures of
the different parts of the digestive system to design our models. We then had to label and
explain what the functions of each of the parts of the digestive system.

Mr Lynn’s Year 4 Science club was busy making bridges. The children needed to consider
how the proportion of weight should be divided to withstand pressure. They were able to
compare and contrast the different design features of famous bridges from all over the
world.

In Year 3 the intrepid Forest school children were learning about the great outdoors in this
magnificent after school club led by Miss Archer.

In Year 1we have been learning about the weather. We completed a weather diary to observe the weather over a week. We
have learnt about the different symbols used to represent weather and we had lots of fun presenting our own weather fore-
casts! We also talked about extreme weather events such as high rainfall/flooding and really hot weather conditions/
bushfires.

Year 3.
During the first half term, year 3 investigated what light is. We learnt that light is produced by a light
source and that it only travels in straight lines and can reflect off different materials. We also looked at
how shadows were created and learnt the scientific definition of this. Over the weeks we completed many
experiments where we investigate which materials reflect light, how mirrors work, how shadows are
formed and how the size of the shadows change depending on where the light source is.

Year 6 - The Digestive System
Develop investigative skills
Year 6 used investigation boards to plan experiments linked to pulse rate. The
‘sticky-note’ boards supported the children in planning, carrying out and evaluating
their fair test investigations.

Digestion in action
We recreated the digestion process in the classroom using household items such
as paper cups, bananas, orange juice and a pair of tights. The demonstration en-
abled the children to visualise the process of digestion in an engaging, practical
way.