In their adventure (The Mysterious Mayan Mission), the children had discovered that the gods were very important to the Mayans. They then found out that sacrifices were made for the gods. They watched clips from a programme where explorers dived down and found ancient Mayan pots preserved in caves. They wondered how these were still intact thousands of years later. They completed a science investigation to find out why.

The children set up an experiment using water, salt and apples. They thought that there may have been salt in the water or air to preserve the pots. One slice of apple was placed in the bowl, one was placed in water and another in salt water.

After a few days they saw that, matching their predictions, the apple in the salt water had been preserved the best. They wrote up their findings.

In our new science topic, Light, we began by looking at different sources of light - both natural and man made. We then looked at how light travels in straight lines and how we see.

We had a go at making our own periscopes  to understand how reflection can be used to help us see.

After learning how light was affected by reflection, we looked how how refraction worked.

We then had a go at experimenting with different shapes, symbols and even words to see which would be affected by refraction.

In our adventure, we needed to try and fix a hot air balloon balloon. To do so, we made small models of balloons to understand how hot air balloons work. The different groups made ones with different sized balloons to see if this would affect how they fly. After making them, they took them outside to light the candle and see if they flew. They then wrote up their findings to show to Barnaby.

To begin our new Science topic, we started by becoming Taxonomists. To practice, we organised several foods into categories before doing the same with a number of different animals. While each group sorted them into categories, no two groups sorted them in the same way!

To kick off Science Week, we had a special guest in school who demonstrated a number of experiments for us. There were exploding jelly babies, jets of flame, taste experiments and we also learned (in great detail) about how our digestive system works by making poo!

One of our experiments was to create a car that was propelled by a balloon. After inflating the balloon, the air would rush out through the straw and push the car along.

We even decorated the cars and raced them.

As part of Science week, KS1 had hatched some eggs into adorable little ducklings. Not wanting to miss out on the cuteness, we brought them up to Willow so we could meet them!

Animals including humans

In science, the children were learning about evolution and inheritance. They first learnt about fossils and the work of Charles Darwin.