Our history line

This week we were discussing how much we have grown as part of our History lesson. We all brought in objects from when we were a baby. We brought in babygros, bibs, bottles, nappies, booties, jerseys, hats and toys. We hung them all on our time line. We couldn't believe how much we have grown. We held up some of the clothes to our bodies and there is no way they would fit us now. We are changing and growing all the time.

Visit to the bottle bank

We are talking about recycling.

We went to visit the bottle bank today.

We saw where to recycle clear glass, green glass and brown glass.

We also saw where to recycle clothes, blankets and shoes.

We even helped a man to recycle all his bottles.

We are going to be careful to recycle all our rubbish.

Visit from a Montessori teacher

We had a visit from a Montessori teacher today.

Theresa came to tell us all about what children learn during their day in a playschool.

She showed us some of the books she uses every day.

Theresa says that she uses science with her students every day at work, especially when they are using sand and water, or when they are looking at or growing plants.

We really enjoyed guessing songs that Theresa played for us.

She praised our listening skills.  We really are good listeners.

Theresa told us all about how preschool children look after themselves and keep their hands nice and tidy.
They learn how to share and take turns at school.
We all got to take a turn with the tunnel that Theresa brought us in today.
We loved the story of Chicken Little that Theresa read, and were thrilled when she gave each of us a lovely pencil and rubber.
Thank you Theresa for such a wonderful talk today.

Seeing a sneeze

We have been talking about our bodies.

Today we were talking about our lungs, and about how sneezes can spread germs.

Teacher showed us a model of our lungs, made from a plastic bottle (ribs), a yellow balloon (lung), and a purple balloon (diaphram).  When you push the diaphram in and squeeze the ribs, the air in the lung is pushed out of our bodies, but when you pull the diaphram and let the ribs expand the air rushes in to fill your lung.

We were really looking forward to seeing a sneeze in action.

For this we needed a big balloon.

Teacher put some cornflour into the balloon, then blew up the balloon.

We burst the balloon with a pin, and the cornflour went EVERYWHERE!!!

This is what happens when we sneeze without covering our mouth.
From now on we are going to sneeze into our elbows so as not to spread germs.
We will also be careful about washing our hands when we go to the toilet or pick our noses!

Visit from an electrician

One of the dads in our class is an Electrician.

Tony came to our class today to tell us all about his job.

With his wonderful assistant he was able to show us his tools and tell us lots of things about electricity.

Tony showed us how magnets work, and he told us how electricity can be made making magnets (he even brought us in an electromagnet to see).  

He showed us wires and pliers, and explained how electricity comes to our houses from the electrical generating stations.

Tony works with science every day in his job.

He taught us how to stay safe around electricity.

We really enjoyed Tony's talk today.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful presentation.

Road safety

We have been learning all about road safety.

We joined in with all these great songs!

We are going to wear helmets on our bikes and wear seat belts in the car to keep ourselves safe.

Visit from a textile technician

We had a wonderful visit from a mum in our class.

Kelly is a textiles technician in our local 3rd level GMIT.

She came to tell us all about her very interesting job today.

Although Kelly is more of an artist than a scientist she uses science every day at work.

Kelly works with all sorts of different textiles (materials) and different colours.  She works a lot with mixing colours to get other more exciting colours.  Kelly also teaches her students how to sew and she is great at fixing sewing machines.  She brought us some very interesting pieces of art that her students have made or she has made herself.

We love her job and were delighted to hear that it is a job for boys just as much as for girls.

We are so amazed that everyone seems to use some science in their work.

Thank you so much Kelly for such a wonderful talk today.