Forces - air friction

Primary 4 are learning about forces this term and have been investigating air resistance.  You can see the effects of air resistance on a parachute - it is air resistance that slows the parachute down.  The air moves over the surface of the parachute and this slows the speed it falls.  There is also another force pulling the parachute down, which is called gravity. 

To help us learn about air resistance we were given the challenge of making our own parachute.  We had to design one that fell slowly to the ground and make a prediction about what we thought might happen, before putting it to the test.  We tested it once and then made changes to try to  make it fall slower the second time.  There were some things that we could NOT change because we had to keep the test fair - these were the weight that we tied onto the parachute and the other was the height we dropped it from.

 

We then had to write a report which explained what we had found out.  Primary 4 will hopefully add some comments on here to explain what they found out about air resistance.

 

Please have a look at our photos to see us in action!

 

Slideshow - air resistance experiment

 

Column addition

Primary 4 have been learning about column addition and made videos to explain how you do this.  Please have a look at our videos and leave us some feedback on how well we explained this!

  

 

 

Oops - look what Ms Rendall found!!

Ms Rendall has been searching everywhere for the photos she took when we were at the Science Festival last year but she couldn't find them anywhere ... until a few weeks ago, when she was using her camera in the holidays and suddenly they appeared. 

Primary 4 were at the Science Festival to help with the Viking activities.  There were a number of activities, which included:  inspecting Viking poo to try and figure out what they ate; making chocolate Thor hammars; spinning wool; carving soap to make a Viking bowl; working as a detective to figure out where different bins of rubbish had come from; making friendship bracelets.

As you have never seen them, Ms Rendall thought she should post them for you to see - even if it is a bit late. Ms Rendall can't believe how much you have all grown - no wonder the classroom seems so much smaller now! As always, please click on the link below to have a peak at our slideshow.

Slideshow - Science Festival

Handwork

We are very lucky in St Andrews School to have handwork every Thursday afternoon in Term 2 and 3.  We are all busy making mats or knitting in Primary 4 and really need to concentrate to do this well!

 

We are very lucky to have so many helpers who come in especially to help us with our handwork - thank you!

 

Maths

We use lots of games and different activities to help us in our Maths, which makes the learning more fun and helps us understand better.  Last week we were learning about place value and how numbers can be written down in lots of different ways.

  

As well as helping our Maths skills, this helps us learn how to work with and help others around us.

 

It would be great if Primary 4 could add some more information about the different things we are learning in class during Maths lessons and the different activities we do to help us with this!

 

Helping each other

In Primary 4 we think it is very important to help each other if we can, and we do this in lots of different ways.  One way we have been doing this is to work with a partner to complete a tricky reading comprehension activity and we have to work together to figure out the answers.  It can be tricky but when we work together it is much easier.

 

 

Health week in Primary 4

Last week in school all the classes had a special focus on Health and Wellbeing and we did a number of different activities in class.  Here are some of the activities Primary 4 did in class:

• we researched the different food groups and made posters to show what we learned;
• we learned about the need to have a balanced diet so we have a little bit of everything that we need to be healthy;
• we learned about how exercise helps keep our bodies healthy;
• everyone set themselves a target to try something new or something they thought they didn't like for lunch;
• we thought about the importance of keeping our minds healthy as well as our bodies i.e. thinking about the friends we have and the hobbies we do which were good for our mental health;
• we worked in groups to design and make our own circuits which would make our hearts beat faster - there are some pictures below!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Primary 4 would like to add any comments to explain more about what we were doing, this would be great - or if anyone has any questions about this please post them in the comments box and we will try to answer!