Plants (4th Grade)

Good morning!

In 4th Grade, we have been learning about the PLANTS. Today, we want to share with you some of the activities we have done.

1. At the beginning, we asked ourselves the following question:

What do plants need to grow?

We planted seeds in 6 different pots, each one with a specific variable: 

- No water

- No soil

- No air

- No sunlight

- In the fridge

- Water, soil, sunlight, air, correct temperature.

We observed and compared the growth of these plants.

2. We planted some seeds in a tranparent CD case in order to observe the parts of the plants once while they were growing:

3. We learnt the parts of a flower by observing them carefully:

Bones (6th Grade)

Hello children!

Some days ago, pupils were asked to bring bones in class. Attention! These bones had to be cooked, cleaned and frozen, for our safety work.

Once we had all the bones (most of them, chicken bones), we classified them into 3 groups:

LONG - SHORT - FLAT

After that, we broke a bone to see what it has inside: THE BONE MARROW; responsible for making blood cells.

Then, we put some bones in a jar full of white vinegar, and we waited for 2 weeks.

What happened to the bones when we opened the jars after 2 weeks?

We found out that bones could be easily bended! But, why?

Vinegar is an acid, so it dissolves away the calcium in the bones. When the calcium is dissolved, the bone isn't hard.

This is the reason why it is so important to eat calcium (milk, yogurt, cheese,...). The calcium we eat, goes to our bones and makes them stronger.

Blood components (5th Grade)

Hello!

In 5th Grade, we made a blood model, in order to see its different components:

We used some candy for:

- RED BLOOD CELLS, which carry the oxygen and the carbon dioxide thorough the body. They make 40% of the blood, so we made sure we added plenty of them.

- WHITE BLOOD CELLS, which protect our bodies from bacteria and microbes. There are fewer that the previous ones, so we used only a little of them.

- PLATELETS: which stop the bleeding in a wound.

- PLASMA: we used water but, in fact, we might have used another liquid because plasma is yellow.

It was easy and very visual. Are you going to do it at home using other ingredients???

Ear drum model (3rd Grade)

Good afternoon everyone!

Today, with 3rd Grade pupils, we have made an EAR DRUM model (we are learning about the sense of hearing).

The EAR DRUM is a very sensitive organ, inside our ears, which vibrates when sounds pass through it.

With very common materials (a can, a balloon and salt), we built a model of it. To see how it works, you just have to make loud sounds near it and then observe how the salt moves without touching it, just by the vibration of the balloon (=ear drum):

Senses videos (3rd Grade)

Hello 3rd A!

Here there are the videos you asked for! Enjoy them!

How old are your ears? (3rd Grade)

Hello 3rd Grade!

As promised, I share here the video watched in class, in which we tested our sense of hearing.

Try to do it at home and also test your family!

Parts of a plant (4th Grade)

Welcome back to Science class 2019-2020!

Hello children!

Let's start a new challenging academic year!

How old are your ears (4th Grade)

Hello 4th Grade!

As promised, I share here the video watched in class, in which we tested our sense of hearing.

Try to do it at home and also test your family!

Newton Disc (4th Grade)

Hello children of 4th grade!

As we all know, Sir Isaac Newton, discovered that discovered that WHITE LIGHT is made up of these colours:

RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO and VIOLET.

Don't you believe that? Then, try to do this experiment at home:

Butterfly Life Cycle

Hello everyone!

Today we want to share with you a very special project. For the last weeks, we have been observing the life cycle of butterflies:

It all started when our teacher found some eggs on a broccoli leaf and brought them to school. We observed them through the microscope and saw that we had around 50 yellow eggs:

Two days later, lots of tiny caterpillars hatched from the eggs. We realised that they were very hungry because they started to eat from the very beginning:

We observed them every day: they grew super fast.

At his point, we found out that they were caterpillars from a butterfly called Pieris brassicae.

They were "eating machines" (so, if you look at the pictures, you will realise that there were faeces everywhere...haha):

We also discovered that our caterpillars changed their skin several times. Even their head!

Many of us, took a couple of caterpillar at home, in order to keep observing and taking care of them consciously. 

About one month after hatching, these larvae were big enough to start their transformation into a butterfly. This process is called METAMORPHOSIS, and happens to all insects. 

The caterpillars attached themselves at the top of the box and started to build their chrysalis:

And finally, about 15 days later, when the pupas turned darker, butterflies started to emerge:

It has been a great project that has caught pupils of all ages.

We couldn't end our project in any way but setting the butterflies free and wishing them good luck!

Electricity (6th Grade)

Hello everyone!

In 6th grade we are studying the ELECTRICITY. Let us show you some of the contents learnt:

We know that all objects have electrical charges. Some charges are positive, PROTONS, and some are negative, ELECTRONS.

Sometimes, the negative charges pass from one object to another. For example:

- By rubbing a pen to a piece of cloth, we pass negative charges from the cloth to the pen. Now the pen is (negatively) electrically charged. So, it can attract small pieces of paper.

- Or by rubbing a balloon to a piece of cloth, we pass negative charges to the balloon. So, it is attracted to other objects:

- But when we approach 2 negatively charged balloons, they repel:

This is STATIC ELECTRICITY.

We also know ho to build an electrical circuit, which carries electrical current:

Finally, we can say if some materials are conductors or insulators after adding them into the circuit. For example:

Wood: insulator.

Pencil lead: conductor.

Pencil lead: conductor.

Salt water: conductor.

Magnetism (6th Grade)

Good afternoon!

Magnetism is our current learning topic. 6th Grade pupils are experimenting with this force and trying to understand how it works.

Last week we learnt what the magnetic field is: an area around a magnet in which there is a magnetic force. There are invisible lines that go from the north pole of a magnet to the south pole (or the opposite).

By performing an experiment, we could see these invisible magnetic field lines. All we did was spreading out some iron fillings onto a paper, which was laid on a bar magnet. Then, we gently tapped on the paper and...

The next day, we created some temporary magnets:

STEM Challenge #12: Floating boats

Hello!

3rd Grade pupils have a new STEM Challenge to show you:

"Design and build 2 different floating boats for capacity".

These were the materials provided:

Students, in small groups, had 30 minutes to build 2 different floating boats.

Once they had built the boats, they had to test their capacity, measured with cents.

It was incredible how they managed to build boats designed to hold as much capacity as possible:

A cool look at the sky! (4th Grade)

Hello everyone!

There are many amazing Apps that show us how the sky really looks like.

Fourth grade pupils tried one called Sky Map:

They could find different stars, constellations, planets and even galaxies!

It is very easy to use and you can spend hours and hours investigating the universe. We strongly recommend you to download this app or another (there are many more and most of them are free!).