Today in science we planned and carried out an experiment. Professor Pole has asked for our help – his umbrella has disappeared! He wanted us to find out which material is the best for an umbrella. Millie thought we needed to do an experiment to find out! We decided an umbrella should be waterproof and strong enough that it wouldn’t rip in the rain.

We discussed which materials would be a good idea and which wouldn’t. We decided glass would be too dangerous and breakable, wood would be too hard to shape and metal would be too strong and might hurt him in a snowstorm!

We made some predictions and talked about how to keep our experiment a fair test.

In our science lesson today we learnt how to classify animals. We used some information posters to practice sorting animals. We then shared our ideas and learnt some facts together before having a go on our own.

In science today we learnt more facts about animals that live in polar regions. We learnt a polar bear weighs more than 700kg! We didn’t really understand how heavy that was so Miss Williams is going to weigh us and we are going to find out how many children would weigh the same as a polar bear. We also learnt about some new Arctic animals. We used the science words carnivore, omnivore and herbivore.

We started our new year with a very exciting discovery because outside our classroom this morning there was a tent! We had no idea why or what it was doing there so we decided the only way to find out was to explore it for ourselves. We went outside and inside the tent we found a letter, a backpack and a bag.

Everyone was very excited to read the letter. It said:

We were then super-excited to try and find out who PP was and what film he was talking about. It was very chilly outside so we took our findings inside to explore them further. We looked through the bag together and the more things we found the more we were convinced PP was definitely an explorer of some sort. He had some warm gloves, a hat, a woolly scarf, a compass, a clock, a torch, some snacks and lots of other things that suggested he explored in cold places. We then found a memory stick which had the film he spoke about in his letter. We watched it and discovered that PP was actually Professor Pole who is a nature explorer. He said it was minus 28 degrees in the North Pole today – BRR!

He told us he explores all over the North Pole and is particularly interested in polar bears. He asked for our help with 3 things which we are interested to find out more about:.

1: What animals live in the North Pole?
2. What are the landscape and climate like?
3. How do people survive in the North Pole?

He has left his things with us while he explores further and left us a lovely bag of fiction and non-fiction books too. We have put them in our role-play area so we can practice being explorers too! We will keep you informed about how we get on with our research.

Welcome back and Happy New Year.

Today in science we continued to learn about categorising into ‘alive’, ‘not alive now’ and ‘never been alive’. We learnt about what it is that makes things alive. We talked about life processes and thought about how they can be different for plants and animals. We then used this knowledge to sort some pictures together. Finally we tried on our own.

This week we have been completing challenges to help us to develop our growth mindset. We have learnt that scientists have discovered having a positive attitude and a growth mindset means you will achieve more than if you have a fixed mindset. Having a growth mindset means:

• You try again if you don’t succeed the first time.
• You try different things.
• You ask for help, advice or ideas.
• You learn from your mistakes.
• You talk positively to yourself remembering of power of YET! I can’t do this… YET!
• You work your brain hard because it is a muscle and learning challenging things makes it stronger.

We have completed challenges including painting with our feet, making something that can fly and building a marble run. We had to work hard to remind ourselves of all the above when doing the challenges as it is easy to fall back into ‘This is too hard!’ We tried really hard and are getting better.

Today we learnt about how germs are spread. We learnt new facts about germs and then learnt about what happens when we sneeze. We carried out our own experiments to see how far we could sneeze… we obviously didn’t really sneeze on each other! We used spray bottles to replicate what happens when you sneeze if you don’t catch it. We then learnt a song all about the importance of washing your hands properly.

In Science this week we have been learning how exercise keeps us healthy. We bought our bikes in and then talked about how helmets help to keep our heads safe and how important they are. Miss Williams showed us what might happen to our heads if we don’t wear a helmet by holding Mr Egg up high and dropping him. He didn’t end up looking very healthy – in fact he looked egg-stremely sorry for himself!

We decided to make him an egg-helmet to protect him. We designed them based on the materials we had available and then tested our egg helmets to see if they worked. Before we tested them we discussed how to keep it a fair test. We decided that:

• The same person would test them all.
• The egg would be the same size.
• They would all be dropped from the same height.

This made sure it was a fair test. Have a look at our photos to see the results!

As part of our Science topic, the Toucans brought their bikes and scooters to school. We discussed the importance of exercise to be healthy and what body parts we were using when riding our bikes, scooters or skipping.

We also talked about the importance of wearing helmets when riding our bikes and scooters for safety and protecting our heads. This was an interesting conversation as some children felt that if they could ride a bike they didn’t need to wear a helmet. We discussed this further and the reason why you need to wear a helmet even when you can ride a bike.