What’s happening in Year 5 – Week 3

This week in Year 5, we had the pleasure of visiting  Springfield Primary School to make use of their fantastic outdoor facilities, forest school. The children have previously been learning about properties and materials and how we can separate materials in a variety of ways. In an earlier experiment, we were able to separate a mixture of sugar and water, using evaporation. In our forest school lesson, we recapped some key vocabulary, including mixtures, filtration and magnetic attraction.

The children were given a mixture of paper clips and rice. As a group we discussed possible methods of separation. We decided we could not use filtration as the holes in the filter were too large and our rice and paperclips would fall straight through. We then tried using a sieve, but discovered the holes in the sieve were too small and both the paperclips and rice got caught in the sieve. We then discussed the properties of both materials and deducted that paperclips are magnetic and rice is not, therefore we were able to separate our materials using magnets.

The children were then asked to gather different mixtures, including leaves and soil and bark and water. Children were then asked to experiment with the various separating methods and choose the most appropriate one. Children showed amazing teamwork and scientific analysis and experimentation to produce results. Children were then asked to produce scientific diagrams of each method and record our results and explanations in a table.