St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

We have been learning about the environment and climate change in 6th class and are busy working on our Science Blast submission. As part of our research into climate change, we studied some shocking facts about the way it affects different countries. We have been learning about Malawi and the economy there. We watched some great Donal Skehan clips about a visit he took there and heard some interviews with locals regarding the changing climate over the past number of years. We saw how drought affects crop yields and how heavy rain can also be responsible for destroying products. We also... 

As part of our research into the Winter Olympics and the various sports that are included in the games, we decided we wanted to find out more about bobsledding! We found out that bobsledding is a team sport, which involves riding on iced tracks in a sled. These modern tracks are made from concrete and are coated with ice. The aim of the race is to reach the finish line in the fastest time possible! Bobsledding was originally developed in the 1800s in Switzerland. We watched some old videos of the first bobsled (4 man) event in the inaugural Winter Olympic Games in 1924 and were shocked... 

We are very excited to be back completing some STEM challenges! STEM activities give us a chance to practise our Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills and to have some fun 😊 Check out our first STEM challenge of the year in Ms. Kane’s class below! For our first challenge we were given the task of designing of a tin foil boat that could float while holding a number of cube blocks. It appeared to be an easy challenge at first but it required some careful consideration when it came to designing and making the boat so that it could take the weight of multiple cubes. We... 

Discover Primary Science and Maths 2021 Application Welcome to our submission for the Discover Primary Science and Maths award for 2021. This is our 16th year taking part in the Awards, although this school year has been a little different! Once again, we are applying for the Plaque of STEM Excellence. This award is given to schools that carry out extensive work in science, technology, engineering and maths, all of which are very important in St. Peter’s. This is the 7th year that we have had Junior and Senior Infants taking part in the award! It is great to see the young scientists... 

We had great fun taking part in our recent STEM challenge. We have been learning about climate change, sustainability and also celebrated Engineers Week 2021. To bring all of our recent learning together we decided to make our own eco racers, test how they operate and race them to see what makes them travel fast and in a straight line. We think eco racers might be the future of car design because their friendly to the environment, not using fuel to operate and can be cheap to make! Before we got building, we planned our design based on the materials we knew we would be working with. It’s... 

Keeping with our theme of Easter we decided to do an experiment using eggs! I laid out the materials we would be using during the experiment to aid discussing throughout (an egg, salt, a bowl of water and a spoon). First, we discussed and predicted whether an egg would float or sink when put into a bowl of water. We then put this to the test! We all predicted correctly with great ideas behind why this happened- the main one being that the egg was heavy! The children were then asked ‘how could we get this egg to float in the water?’. The children were encouraged to think... 

Hi everyone! Well done on all your hard work doing STEM activities so far. This week we are looking at density. Density is a word we use to describe how much space an object or substance takes up (its volume) in relation to the amount of matter in that object or substance (its mass). Another way to put it is that density is the amount of mass per unit of volume. If an object is heavy and compact, it has a high density. This video will show you how it works! Try it out at home too see if you get the same results. Feel free to experiment with different liquids, good luck!  

For this week’s STEM we will be making home-made ice-cream! It is delicious and very easy to make. You will need: A plastic bag/ zip lock, cream, vanilla extract, icing sugar, ice. Step 1: Put 1 cup of cream into a zip lock bag and add a drop of vanilla extract Step 2: Add 2 tablespoons of icing sugar to the bag. Step 3: Fill a bigger plastic bag with 2 cups of ice and salt. Step 4: Put the small bag into the big bag and shake for 10 minutes. Step 5: ENJOY, it is delicious!  

Well done to everyone who made a walking paper animal last week. They look brilliant! Mia in 2nd class 2nd class STEM winner this week. well done! Corey in 1st class 1st class, Tadhg and Elif in 5th class  

For this week’s activity we’ll be making a home-made pet! I can’t wait to see all the animals you make. What will I call my little red animal? Follow the link for the instructions; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htrW7E3o2Vw