St. Peter's Primary Bray Blog

Welcome to our submission for the Curious Minds (previously the Discover Primary Science and Maths) Award for 2023. This is our 18th year taking part in the awards, 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 9th year that we have had Junior and Senior Infants taking part in the award! It is great to see the young scientists have so much fun learning about science and maths. Each year we try to put... 

This year 6th class took part in the ESB Science Blast and asked the question: ‘How clean is our school? An investigation into the unseen micro- organisms that are found in our school’. We thought this was an interesting question and that we might find some very surprising results! Take a look below at our investigation… We started examining this question by researching and learning about bacteria, fungi and viruses. Bacteria: We know that bacteria are single – celled organisms, and that there are probably more individual bacteria than any other sort of micro... 

Senior Infants spent all of last month learning about Space. We had a lot of fun doing different experiments and incorporating Space into our Aistear. The different Aistear stations included our roleplay area which was the International Space Station, building a rocket in construction and playdough and making space passports in our writing station. Our International Space Station roleplay area Check out inside the ISS! Our Lego and construction rockets and space stations For Science, we experimented trying to launch a rocket into the air using bicarbonate soda and vinegar in a... 

We have been very busy in 5th class this month! We have been doing lots of STEM activities and improving our engineering skills! We worked on engineering a roller coaster made from paper. We have to work on our designs to allow a marble to move along our coaster! We have also been learning about space this month! We completed a STEM activity creating rockets! We created some lovely space themed art too!  

4th class are learning all about Greece and we discovered that Greece was where the first Olympic Games was held. As a Stem challenge we decided to make our favourite Olympic Games and sports into table top challenges. Each group picked a sport and began designing and creating ways they could make that into a table top game. We were delighted with our results and loved giving 3rd class a chance to play! Take a look at our homemade Olympic Games:  

Junior Infants were very excited about Science Week. This week, along with STEM for Fun we got to explore magnets and how they work. Early in the week we explored magnetism. We talked about what magnets are and watched a short video on magnetism. We then investigated things that were magnetic by testing our magnets out around the school and yard outside. During Aistear we got to explore magnets and magnetic objects more. We used magnets to test items that might be magnetic and categorise items that were magnetic and non magnetic. Finally at the end of the week we looked at a... 

This week in 5th class, we has great fun doing lots of different experiments to celebrate science week! We have been learning all about the respiratory system and what happens to the body when we breathe. We completed a STEM activity and created our own model of the lungs to show how they work when we breathe! https://youtube.com/shorts/t1nGcD6ev28 We investigated pitch using glasses and some water. We wanted to find out how to make the highest and lowest sound we could. We placed all our glasses in a line. We used glasses of the same size and shape to make sure it was... 

We have been loving #mathweek on third class! We have been very busy doing some fun activities. We did a STEM experiment and linked in with maths week. This experiment was the water cycle in a bottle. We used capacity to measure the amount of water in the bottle. We made some spooky potions and measured how much liquid was in each potion! We watched maths week t.v and learned some really cool tricks. Dr. Ken Farquhar showed us the maths behind juggling which was really cool. We did some cool riddles on the board together. Can you figure this one out?  

First class were constructing boats as part of a STEM challenge this week. To begin we decided to test different items to see if they would float or sink. Here are some pictures that show our test: After this first class started to make a plan in groups of three to decide what materials they would use to build their boats. The boat had to hold a trailer and stay afloat for 10 seconds. All of the boats were successful and passed the STEM challenge. Take a look at us designing and some of our finished products.  

Welcome to our submission for the Discover Primary Science and Maths award for 2022. This is our 17th year taking part in the Awards and although this school year has been a little different we are starting to get back to “normal”! 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 8th year that we have had Junior and Senior Infants taking part in the award! It is great to see the young scientists have...