Sturminster Marshall First School

Grow, Achieve, Inspire, Nurture. SMFS where learning is an adventure.

Egg-cellent Experiment!

Woodpeckers have had another fun filled week! We continue to love our book ‘The Dragon Machine’ and have been doing all sorts of exciting writing! We have drawn our own dragon machines and described what the different parts may have been used for eg the shiny, silver fuselage would house the controls that guide the machine. We have been using a range of sentence types including exclamation sentences and have been working hard to spell some of the common exception words and use these in our writing.

   

In maths, we are continuing to practise our calculation skills and are still learning about fractions. This week we have learned that ½ is the same as 2/4 and found ¾. We have also enjoyed joining in with the song on BBC Supermovers about fractions. Here is the link if your child would like to practise at home: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers/ks1-maths-fractions-with-joe-tracini/zmjy2sg

   

In science this week, we did an experiment that needed 80 eggshells for the whole class! It was so exciting! We were exploring the strength of materials. We used the upside-down empty eggs shells to test how strong they were. We used different amounts of eggshells in different patterns, triangles, squares and pentagons. We then added a hard book and added weights until the eggshells broke! We found out that it was stronger with 5 eggshells. We then looked at buildings in real life that use ‘dome’ shapes (or a parabola) because of the strength it gives the building. 

   

Our next experiment looked at the strength of paper and cardboard. We made bridges with these materials and enjoyed testing them. We discovered that the packing cardboard was the best because it has lots of layers and this makes it a stronger material.