Rockets and astronauts

We finished our Solar System topic this week. It's been a really fun topic and we've enjoyed it. We really liked finding out about the space shuttle, and this week we made and launched our own rockets.

We made 2 different kind of rockets. The first was blow rockets - they were launched in the classroom. The different fin designs made them fly different distances - and also how hard you blew through the straw! First we laid out planet targets, then in groups we launched our rockets. Everyone got 3 goes and even the staff joined in!

Do you think anyeone's rocket reached Pluto?

Here's a slide show of all of the rockets being launched:



We made other rockets and launched them outside. They used a chemical reaction to make them launch.

First we estimated how high we thought they might go.

Then we set them off. How high do you think they went?

Sometimes when you are doing science experiments it doesn't quite go to plan ...

Mr Scott and Mr Mowat came to help us. They brought a rocket too - how high do you think their rocket went?

We had to stand well back to watch - about 10m away from where it was launched.

Then we did a countdown. 10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   Blast off!

Look how high it went! Can you see it about the school roof? This is it on the way back down!

Here is a video of the launch.


We also got to try astronaut food this week. It's freeze dried so all of the water is taken out of it and it's very light for the astronauts to take into space with them. We tried cinnamon apple wedges, strawberries, peaches and neopolitan ice cream.



Which would you like?

It was crunchy at first because it was so dry but if you sat the food on your tongue and waited for your saliva to wet it then it was just like eating a normal peach!

We invited 5A to try some because they are doing the Solar System too. Some staff tried some - we're not sure if Mr Geddes likes it...

We've thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Solar System. Hopefully the Coasts topic next term will be just as interesting and enjoyable.

We had a food tasting for Holiday Orkney (lots of lovely local food like bere bannocks, cheese and fish), a food tasting for Ancient Greece (octopus, feta cheese, olives ...) and now a food tasting for Solar System of astronaut food. We're wondering if we're having a food tasting for next term's Coasts topic too ... Mrs MacNab says we'll have to wait and see.

Star myths

Our topic this term has been Our Solar System. As part of it we've been looking at the night sky - we've watched the moon changing and we've spotted some constellations, like Orion and the Plough. We made our own constellations and wrote myths to explain how they got into the sky. We hope you like them. Maybe, if you look very hard, you'll spot our constellations in the sky....

Shargeth the greedy dinosaur!

Shargeth was a dinosaur, the only dinosaur left after the snow came. Shargeth managed to find a good enough shelter. He had lots of food but he was that hungry he ate everything. Then he had no food left and he went to bed. When he got up he decided to go out and look for some tasty food but it was all hidden up in the snow. Then he saw the moon. He said “It looks like cheese. Cheese will make a good meal.” Shargeth stood up on his back legs and jumped with his mouth open and tipped up and ate the moon. When he swallowed the moon millions of birds lifted him up to the sky and he turned into a constellation. The moon dropped out of his belly and it managed to escape back into the sky. Now when you look to the sky you can see him still trying to eat the moon with his mouth wide open.

by James, Magnus, Rosie & Kaitlyn

Asim the warrior

Once there was a warrior called Asim. He was a brave and strong man. He won all his battles and he was rich. Then he decided to make an offering to the Gods, a big tree. So he went to cut the tree with his axe. As soon as he got the axe into the tree, it started to fall and the top of the tree got him on the head and he die. Then the Gods decided that he was so nice they took him into the sky and made him a constellation.

by Ashleigh, Joe, Amy & Jessica

The Hero’s Sword

Once upon a time there was a hunter called Linke who saved the King three times. He had the sword since he was 16 and now he is 40. It was a big and shiny sword that could cut through anything except for gold. Once he was hunting a massive monster and he pulled his sword back but the monster killed him. The Gods picked up the sword and threw it into the sky to remind people of the great hunter.

by Dani, Lee, Reid & Ewan

Mariah the Swan

Long long ago lived a swan called Mariah. She was white and she lived in the Peedie Sea. She liked to fly up in the sky. One day she flew up high in the sky. She was so excited that she went so high that Orion the Hunter could see her. Orion thought that she was beautiful and he was lonely so he pulled her up into the night sky and now she is up in the sky beside Orion for us to see her beauty. Every time Mariah had a good thought a shooting star comes out of her eyes.

by Alanah, Abbie, Martyna, Molly & Molly

Fun with science

We had great fun doing science experiments on Thursday afternoon! We were investigating rocket propulsion.

Here we are trying to prove that there was gas being created in a bottle.

We talked about the experiement and then wrote reports on it.

We did drama outside this week. We went into groups and made up plays to show why it's good to be honest, then we acted them in front of everyone in the courtyard. It was fun. Mrs MacNab said that was the best acting we've done yet - we made up the plays ourselves and most people remembered to talk loudly so the audience could hear.

We also did more maths this week. It's getting difficult now. One group were dividing by 3, another were finding out about remainders and the other were using strategies to help them multiply numbers that aren't in the times tables (like 36 or 120). We'll be doing more practice of that next week.

Did you know there's games online where you can practise maths? If you click on the 'Class 3/4's Links' on the right of the blog you can find maths games to play.

In RME we've been doing the Easter story and practising our songs for the Easter performance. Next week we'll be finding out about how they celebrate Easter in Greece, and we're hoping to teach Miss Persidou about how we celebrate Easter in Orkney.

We love books

We celebrated World Book Day this week. We watched a live broadcast with Michael Rosen - he was really funny!

Then we had our own World Book Day event in class. Everyone brought in their favourite fiction book and their favourite non-fiction book. We did book reveiews and then had time to share our love of books. Everyone got very enthusiastic about sharing their books.

Mrs MacNab and Mrs Scott had brought in books too - their books were older than us!

We enjoyed seeing other people's books, and we found interesting facts about space in a lot of the non-fiction books. We also looked at Winnie the Pooh in Polish.

We also had World Maths Day this week. Lots of people took part in live maths games against people from all over the world. We were very proud that Molly C came top of the school for Level 1.

The rest of the week work carried on as usual. Here we are doing drama. We are making plays about being honest.

This is us looking at newspaper articles to find the 5Ws - who, what, where, when and why. We noticed that you can always find the 5Ws at the start of an article. We wrote our own newspaper articles about the space shuttle. Some of them will be appearing on the blog before the end of term.

Problem solving in maths - we were working together on different strategies to solve a problem.

We had an exciting time on Thursday and Friday when Mrs MacNab said we all had to become teachers and teach other people in the class. At first we were a bit worried, but in the end we loved it!

We went into groups to research all about how astronauts live in space. Some people found out about what they ate, some researched how they sleep, one group found out about how they keep clean and the last group researched what astronauts do in space when they're not working.

Here we are doing our research and making and highlighting notes to use to teach our group.

We went back to our original groups to teach them, so that everyone learned all about how astronuats live.

Do you know what astronauts eat?

Did you know that astronuats wear nappies when they are on a space walk?

We had to speak clearly so our group could hear us.

Did you know there is a keyboard in the International Space Station (ISS)?

Mrs MacNab showed us a picture of an astronuat playing it and Ewan spotted that he wasn't sitting on a seat, although he looked like he was sitting down there was no seat!

We watched some astronauts being interviewed in the ISS. They had some apples and oranges but most of their food is dried and needs to have water added and to be heated up.

We would like to be teachers again.

Our Solar System and PE

Here's the constellation some of us created this week. We wrote a myth about it too - that will be appearing on the blog in a few weeks when the other groups have done theirs.

Abbie got a planetarium and brought it in for us all to see. We enjoyed watching the planets orbiting the sun and we discovered that they stay in the same order so Mercury is always the planet closest to the sun.

The first day the classroom wasn't dark enough to see the constellations on the ceiling, but Mrs Scot held a big piece of paper for us to see the constellations on. Then we got some curtains and put them up and shut the blinds and we were able to see the constellations faintly on the ceiling.

Can you find any constellations in the sky?

We're still trying to look at the moom every night. What shape is it tonight?

Here are P4 writing newspaper articles about the space shuttle. They watched some interviews with astronuats and took notes first. Taking notes was hard!

Here we are doing tennis in PE. We learned how to play tennis rounders!

In RME we've been learning about Hinduism. This week we learned about reincarnation and karma and we made a game. Do you know what karma is?

This was our last week of gymnastics with Mr Berry and we were showing off how much we have improved, especially at balances.

In Golden Time some people were making aliens, others were using the techno lego to build things. We're hoping we get to use techno lego again next week.

Do you like our models?

What would you make?