Year 4 - Exploring Digestion

In Year 4 we have been learning about keeping healthy.  During our Science lessons we have been finding out about the digestive system and the ways nutrients are absorbed into our bloodstream.  To help us understand this we investigated using a pair of tights and a tin of beans.

We poured the beans inside the tights to replicate food moving through the digestive system. 

The beans stayed inside the tights, showing the waste products moving through the digestive system.

The tomato juice was squeezed out through the holes in the tights to show the nutrients being absorbed into the blood stream as the food makes its way through the digestive system.

We used some key words during the activity, such as:

oesophagus

large intestine

small intestine

stomach

Can you think of any more?

 

Why don't you have a go yourself?  

Rice Challenge!

The Fairtrade group have really enjoyed being able to continue with our Rice Challenge this week.

  

For those new to Kings Copse Primary (and for those who may need reminding), we started the JTS Rice Challenge last year.

 The challenge…

90kg of rice = 1 year of education

JTS (reg. charity) has challenged schools to sell

90kg of rice – the amount of rice sold that would enable a Malawian farmer to pay for a years basic secondary education for one child.

As of today we have sold an incredible 84 bags which means we only have 6 left to sell!

We will be outside the main entrance after school on Friday selling the last few bags so if you haven’t got yours yet remember to bring your £3 and grab yourself a bag whilst stocks last! It is for a great cause and is very tasty too!

Finally a big thank you to everyone who has already bought a bag and have helped us to make a difference. Also thank you to all the children who have helped run the stall this week. They have shown great determination and enthusiasm (as well as some good selling skills!).

Year 3 - Digestion Drama

We've begun to look at how our digestion system works in Year 3. We knew that we put food in our mouths and that it ended up in our stomachs. However, we weren't really that sure about what happened next or what each part of our digestive system does!

To help us, we acted out the different parts of the digestion system. One child acted as our food - she decided that she would be fish and chips!

First, our food (our fish and chips!) was put into our mouth through the lips....

Then... the teeth chop and chew the food down into small pieces.

The salivary glands cover the food in saliva so it is slippery and can be digested easily.

The tongue then pushes the food down towards the esophagus (also known as the food pipe).

The esophagus squeezes the food down the tube to take it towards the stomach.

The stomach then covers the food in acid to break it down for digestion. It also kills the bacteria. It can be in here for up to 6 hours!

The liver and the pancreas spray the digested material in enzymes to break them down further and to help release sugars.

The small intestine takes the sugars from the material and absorbs them into the bloodstream. Waste food carries on through.

It then enters a larger intestine that sucks the water from the waste.

As the waste enters the end of the intestine, it is pushed out - that's when we need to go to the loo!

Year R - Zoolab

Zoolab

We had a visit today from Heather from Zoolab.  She bought with her, Tilly the Tarantula, Stanley the Millipede, Alan the Giant African Land Snail and Cuthbert the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach.

Heather told us all about the minibeasts and we shared what we know.  We found out that all insects have 6 legs and no skeleton. We took turns holding Cuthbert.  We learnt that he hisses if he is scared.

Alan was slimy, we looked at his tentacles and discussed how he had a shell for protection.  Heather told us he likes to eat grass, carrots, leaves and plants.

We were only able to look at Tilly!  We talked about how all spiders have 8 legs and that when tarantulas are scared they flick their hair.  Heather told us how spiders suck their food.

Finally we met Saturn,  we found out that snakes have bones and smell with their tongue.  They like to eat mice, but not every day!  Saturn had a lovely pattern which helps her to stay camouflaged.

It was fantastic to see and hear about all these minibeasts and we were all very brave!

Stretching and Curling: Mannequin Challenge

In Year 4 we have been thinking about how superheroes and spies use their bodies.  Our focus has been on stretching and curling.  This week we thought about how our heroes could move simultaneously, replicating or mirroring each other's moves.  We made some fantastic stretched and curled shapes with our partners.  To show this off we pretended that a villain had frozen us so we could complete our own mannequin challenge.

As you can see they did a fantastic job of freezing in their positions.  How many stretched or curled positions can you make?

Year 3 - Striking Some Shapes!

Year 3 have been really busy learning about 3D shapes in lots of different ways! We've worked hard to identify the names of common 3D shapes and to describe them by their properties.

Using the terms faces, vertices, edges, straight, curved, point and prism, we've discussed the similarities and differences between the different shapes.

We made a 'Top Trumps' game using these properties and challenged a friend to see who could win each round...

We've also used nets of different 3D shapes to make models. Some shapes were a lot trickier than others to make! Lots of team work was needed but everyone managed to make a range of different models. How many 3D shapes can you recognise?

We've also tried making shapes out of plasticine! After choosing our shape, we needed to mould the material to make it as accurate as possible. Lots of our shapes were extremely accurate! Can you work out how many vertices, edges and faces they have?

We discovered that a cone doesn't have any vertices but it does have a point. Can you explain why it doesn't have any vertices?