Our Y1 children had a great start to their STEM Week 2022; consolidating and building on prior learning linked to materials.
We began the week by enjoying the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'.
Each group considered and then discussed the properties (features) of straw, sticks and bricks, making sure to use key vocabulary which was shared and displayed in class.
Then, as a class, we generated a set of our own fantastic enquiry questions about things that the children were wondering about or just wanted to ask.
After a really interesting discussion, in which thoughts and ideas were shared freely, they came to the conclusion that the pigs would not all be able to fit in just one brick house and so a new shelter was needed.
The children thought carefully about what this new shelter would need. some of the children's initial thoughts included things like:
With some further careful questioning they slowly came to the realisation that before these things, the shelter would need a roof, walls and even more than cushions!
"But what if it is rainy and stormy like the weather we had last week?" the children were asked...
They then started to investigate the best kind of roof and decided that it would need to be waterproof. so, in small groups the children decided on which materials they would like to test to see if they were waterproof , and therefore a sensible choice for the shelter's roof.
Later, the Y1 children, working collaboratively and independently in groups, carried out their own fair tests on a range of the different materials they had selected, using a range of equipment on offer to work - careful to practise using our key words whenever possible.
By the end of the session each group had determined which materials were waterproof, and which were not, and had come to their own conclusions regarding the most appropriate materials to use for the roof of their shelters.
Next the group will actually build their shelters as safe home for the pigs.
