St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

First Class have been learning all about static electricity this week in Science. Firstly we talked about the difference between static electricity and current electricity.

The children shared times when they experienced static electricity like when they touched a hand rail and got a shock or heard crackling noises when they took off woolly jumpers. We talked about why this happens.

The children experimented with static electricity by rubbing balloons on their hair to make it stand up!

We wanted to investigate which piece of the school uniform produces the best ‘static’. The children split into groups and each picked an item of clothing that they were wearing like jumpers, t-shirts, trousers, dresses.  Each group was given a balloon, 5 small pieces of torn paper and a sheet to record their results. To make it a fair test we all agreed each group would rub the balloon on their chosen piece of clothing the same amount of times.  The groups counted together while their partners produced the static electricity.

We found out that the best material to produce static electricity from our uniforms was our trousers. We displayed our results on a graph on the board.

Light and Materials

3^rd class have been learning all about light this month! First we chatted about some different light sources. We brainstormed loads of different sources of light in our groups and discussed how important light is in our lives.

Ms. Seery then told us about a problem she was having… Her two boys like to read when they go to bed, but they keep waking each other up because their torches are too bright! She asked us to help her by designing lamp shades so that everyone in her house could get some sleep and still read!

We discussed the different kinds of materials lamp shades are made of. One clever boy suggested that translucent materials make great lamp shades because they let some light through without having a glare and that maybe that would help! The whole class thought that was a great idea. We decided to test lots of different materials to see which would make the best lamp shade.

We chose a few different materials- felt, paper, card, clear plastic and tissue paper. We wondered how we could test them? Maybe by holding each of them up to the window? K suggest the light from the whiteboard would be better because it always stayed the same, whereas the sunlight might change depending on the weather. This was great scientific thinking and we were so impressed!

We predicted which materials would be translucent, opaque and transparent- then it was time to test.

The next day we were excited to start making our shades. We experimented with lots of different 3d shapes. L thought a cone was a good shape for a shade as it would spread the light out evenly over the book. C thought we should use a cuboid and cut some symmetrical holes in it. We are learning about symmetry at the moment in maths so it was great to be able to use this in our science work.

We worked really hard making our lamp shades- we tested and retested to make sure they were fit for purpose. We discovered that lamp shades need to be strong, fire-proof and self-holding. Some of us added stands to our designs.

We were so proud of our work! Some of us want to bring them home so we can read at night too without waking up our siblings. Ms. Seery was delighted that she has some fab new lampshades for her house!

We having been learning all about plants in Junior Infants. We learned plants need water, air and sunlight to grow.

We have been growing egg heads – here is our procedural writing for how to make them! Check out our bossy verbs and our list of things that you need to make the egg heads.

What you need:

• Cress seeds
• Eggs shells
• Soil
• Googly eyes
• Felt tips

How to:

1. Boil the eggs until they’re hard boiled. Take the tops off gently and clean the inside of the eggs gently, so they don’t break.
2. Stick googly eyes on our egg shells.
3. Next, draw a face on the egg shells with felt tips.
4. Fill the empty shell full of soil.
5. Put some cress seeds on the soil and press them down gently.
6. Finally, place the egg shells in a sunny, warm spot – we placed ours on the classroom windowsill.

We enjoyed looking at the different stages of growth. We water our cress heads every day. We learned plants need water, air and sunlight to grow.

When the cress gets green leaves on top of the stalks, you can eat it! Cut the tops off the stalks and try them in a sandwich or a salad.

Here are some of the pictures:

This is the equipment that we needed!

We made the soil damp to help the seeds grow

We filled the eggshells with soil!

Here we are planting the seeds!

Last week, 2nd class read a wonderful book called Iggy Peck Architect by Andrea Beaty. In this story there’s a little boy who is always building things. When he went on a school tour, the bridge to their picnic area collapsed and he and his class had to build a new bridge to get back across. This got us thinking about how we could make bridges. We looked at a few different types of bridges and their structures and talked about local bridges we know of. This was all under the strand of Energy and Forces.

We then got into pairs and drew a plan of the bridges we wanted to make. We looked at all the materials that were available to us and made a list of what we would need. Then we got our materials and worked together to build the best bridge that we could. We used paper plates to represent the river to make sure the bridges were wide enough. We also discussed the term ‘best’ and what it meant in this context. We decided it would mean that it held strong without being touched, that it went across the paper plate and that it was stable enough for a small figure to walk across it.

We came across some challenges as we went along, like not having enough of some materials, or the straws not being as strong as we thought they were. We learnt that they need a really solid, heavy base to stand and that it’s important to use enough tape so it doesn’t fall apart. We found that the strongest bridges tended to be corrugated paper ones.

Once we had our final bridges, we presented them to the class, discussing how we made them, challenges we had to overcome and how the result differed from out original plan. We also measured them in centimeters using our rulers. We are doing length in maths so it was interesting for us to see what made some taller than others. We also talked about how the ones that were 25cm and 50cm tall were the same as a quarter meter and a half meter.

We were delighted when we shared this on Twitter and Andrea Beaty (who wrote the book that got our ideas started) saw it and commented on it! As budding scientists, engineers and architects, our favourite quote from the book was

“There are worse things to do when you’re in grade two than to spend your time building a dream”.

2nd class designed, made and measured some wonderful bridges after we read #iggypeckarchitect by @andreabeaty @DPSM_Activities pic.twitter.com/6en2wDIX2G

— St. Peter's Primary (@StPetersBray) April 19, 2018

5th class conducted an experiment this week using the strand energy and forces and the strand unit heat. The objective of the experiment was to measure and record temperature using a thermometer. The children had to compare the heat insulation properties of different materials. These materials included, aluminium foil, fabric and tissue paper. Each group had to ‘insulate’ their cups using the materials provided. Each group was given a recording sheet and the children had to check the temperature of each cup throughout the day.
When the children had finished their experiments, they wrote a short synopsis about the experiment and its results. They also calculated how much the temperature decreased between each reading. We discussed what insulation material worked best according to the children’s findings. We also discussed, as a class, what they learnt about heat insulation and what other ways they think we could carry out the experiment.

The children had great fun designing their heat insulators!

Recording their results

The children with their heat insulators

STEM challenge number 1: Design and make a paper aeroplane which can float.

6th class passed this test with flying colours !! They were tasked with designing and making a floating paper aeroplane. With a homework pass at stake for the winning design, we had some heavy negotiations about the best and fairest test to grade our designs.  We decided that our floatplanes would need to carry/hold 5 marbles when floating.

We worked in pairs to design and make a paper floatplane.  It was important to use waterproof materials for this task, but also to ensure our designs could also function as planes.  We trialed many deigns both in the water and through distance flying.  We were allowed to measure the distances our planes travelled and also how long they floated and how much weight they could bear during the design process.  This helped us to improve design.

Here are some of our results!!

Welcome to our blog!

We hope you enjoy exploring all the great learning and fun activities that make our school such a special place to be.

We were delighted to take part in the FIRST Lego League Competition in Galway again this year as part of our Lego Club. This was our third year to enter the competition and we had a brilliant time again.

There are 3 main elements to the competition – The Project, Core Values and The Robot Game & design

Problem

For the project this year we were asked to look at ways we find, use, transport and dispose of water and how we could improve this. We started looking at all the ways we use water in our lives. At Lego Club we split into groups and listed all the ways we use water every day. Then we wrote as many ideas down on ways we could save water. That’s how we came up with our idea.

Research

Through our research we found lots of interesting facts on water use.

• One full basin of water holds 6 litres
• Leaving the tap running in the kitchen sink uses 8 litres a minute.

Existing Solutions

Through our research we found there are 3 types of water – White Water, Black Water and Grey Water.

• White Water is clean fresh water that comes into our home through pipes.
• Black Water is water we use that we must dispose of – like toilet water.
• Grey Water is water we use that could possibly be reused again.

Our Solution

We developed a solution that looks at saving “Grey Water” from the kitchen sink to reuse again. Not all water could be reused but water left running or water from washing vegetables can be reused.

Our idea started off originally with the idea of having a bowl or cup catch water in the sink but as we began talking about it we started to develop our idea into an under sink tank, splitting the waste pipe and with one switch instead of two.

We would reuse this water to water plants and bushes.

Manufacturing

We decided we wanted to make a prototype of our idea. We made a list of items we might need and took a trip to Woodies to see what we could find. In the plumbing section we compared pipes and fittings. We changed our mind on using a Pedestal Trap which was €12.49 and replaced it with a Double Ended Waste Pipe for €4.79 to keep the cost down. Our Flexi Waste Pipe cost €9.49 each and we picked up a storage box for €6.49

The total cost to manufacture our product from our figures is €30.26 but we reckon we could improve the quality of the water storage container and cut down on the overall cost by buying items directly from the manufacturer.

We would also like to create a bigger version of our idea with an outside storage tank and a pump which could be used to pump water to toilets or be used to water the garden in hotter countries.

Sharing

We have shared our idea with a number of people so far. We spoke with the local council. We also visited St. Kevin’s in Glendalough, who are also taking part in the competition, and shared our idea with them and competed in the FIRST Lego League Competition in Galway.

3. The Robot Game & Design

The third and final part of the competition is the Robot design and robot game. This involves programming the EV3 Lego mindstorm to complete missions around the Lego table. We found the missions challenging but really enjoyable.

Having taken a look at our school garden we agreed that it needed some love and attention.  We decided this was a project to work on in the school as part of both our Discover Primary Science and Maths project, and our sustainability project.  In 6th class we all drew our own pictures and wrote short descriptive pieces of writing about how our garden currently is.  We then put our landscaping skills to the test in planning how we would like our school garden to be.  We also did some video interviews on yard at break time with children from other classes to get some of their ideas.  We discussed possibilities and in the end we had to be realistic with what we were hoping to achieve.  Here is a sample of our garden transformation so far…

Dylan and Billy loosening the soil before we sow some flowers.   We realized we will be needing to give some TLC to the grassy areas.  We hope our finished garden will have lots of luscious grass.

Ms Barret working with Casey and Amber to fill our raised beds. We tried out a few different designs before deciding.

We decided to keep our other raised beds to sow some pumpkins.  First class are going to sow some pumpkins in the coming weeks.  We hope we will have a pumpkin for each class next Halloween.

Amber sowing a climber which will decorate our garden fence when it flowers.

Huge thanks to Liz for collecting some colourful welly boots to add even more colour. Any more old pairs are welcome.

Raised bed perimeters painted by Brooke, Kia, Kelsey, Brigid, Amber and Caithlin.  6th class working very hard to loosen soil by the fence and sow lots of daffodil bulbs which will hopefully flower for us next year.

We painted old tyres and sowed some flowers inside.

We found some nice ideas on Pinterest and we decided that because our garden is quite small in area, we need to make the most of the surrounding fence. We decided to recycle plastic bottles to make herb ladders. This process involved concentration and precision to ensure the bottles remained parallel. 6th class boys took the lead on this project.

Jerry and Maddie from 5th did some running repairs and positioned the herb ladders on the fence.

Senior infants are very inquisitive about the transformation which is happening in the garden during lunch times.

Second class taking advantage of the recent good weather and sowing our herbs into the herb ladders.

Ryan and Billy trying some new ideas for securing our bamboo bee hotels. We used bamboo with different diameters to attract multiple varieties of bees to our garden.

Billy experimenting with design features.

Brigid and Brooke making some more bee hotels.

Dylan and Ryan securing the bee hotels to the fence.

An injured bee found on yard was helped to the bee hotel. We hope he enjoys our new additions to the garden.

Handyman Dylan putting the finishing touches to our bug palace or Buggingham Palace as we like to call it!!

Dean and Kelsey are organizing the different areas of the palace to entice the minibeasts in.

Colourful tin can wind chime designed by Caithlin.

Ava joining us at lunch time to secure our wind chimes without restricting them.

Maddie positioning some bunting to further brighten our garden.

What a difference a fortnight of school makes.  So much work has been done by the children so far, with more projects in the pipeline to further enhance our garden. Amongst these are a wishing well and a fairy door!   We are also taking an allotment in Fassaroe in which 5th class will be sowing a variety of vegetables.

Today 6th class welcomed Mr Gavin Duffy to St. Peters for Dragons Den.  He was joined on the panel by Ms Whyte, Mr Foley, Mr Kinsella and Paddy.  Each group battled their nerves to put on an amazing array of presentations where their products for Junior Entrepreneur were scrutinized by the judges.

The groups presented:

1.  A clever sun hat with added technology
2. Slime
3. A phone holder
4. A torch
5. Stress balls
6. Grassy heads
7. A music speaker with crafts
8. Handy holders

All groups received incredible feedback from the Dragons, who couldn’t decide between two products in the end. Well done to everyone involved! Now to get working on ur products which will go on sale at our showcase in March.  These include grassy heads and stress relieving toys.