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Chris Coyle-Chislett

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“Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundations of deep-rooted learning. Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”
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Science

Fantastic Fun at Newquay Zoo

On Friday 9th March, Class 4 had a fantastic time at Newquay Zoo. The children have been learning about animals in their science lessons at school and discovering which animals have backbones and which do not. We went to the zoo to learn more about vertebrates and invertebrates, and to learn more about the classification of animals.

When we got to the zoo, we were met by Pippa who gave us a really interesting lesson about classification. The first thing Pippa showed us was a cockroach. She explained that they have holes down their sides which allows them to make a hissing sound.

When the coach roaches get scared, they all get together and make a hissing sound that sounds like a snake. It tricks the predator that wants to eat them! Ada

Some animals do not have backbones, like insects. They are called invertebrates. Insects have 6 legs. Oliver

The next thing Pippa showed us was the skin of a royal python. It was very long and smooth. Flora and Amelie helped Pippa and held the snake skin. Everybody got a chance to touch the skin.

 

After that, we had to be very quiet because Pippa got out a real snake. His name is spot. Everybody got a chance to touch him if they wanted but we had to do it with the back of our hand.

I like the snake. I’m not scared of him. He’s quite cold. – Ptolemy

I know all about snakes because I’ve got one at home and he’s called Monty. Snakes are cold blooded animals. – Alfie

After a really interesting talk, we got to explore the zoo. Although it was raining and we got quite wet, we all had a fantastic time. Here are some of the photos…

Caio and Flynn count the meerkats

Silly selfies in the tropical house!

 

Ted, Riley and the lions have a roaring competition!

What a fantastic day out!

How to Build a Computer with Year 5 + 6

This week our Year 5 and Year 6 classes have all taken it in turns to build their own computers using the assortment of components that they learnt about last week.  Working in small groups (and with the help of Mr Woolcock and Paul) each child learnt where the components went and what they do inside the computer.

Below is a step-by-step to understanding what goes inside a computer, written by our pupils.  Enjoy!

 

Step 1: Motherboard

“This is the thing which everything else plugs into, for example the power cables and processor.  The motherboard is big and it’s covered in circuits and interesting bits.  You need a motherboard in order to build your own computer.” – Harry, Class 13

  

 

Step 2: RAM

“The RAM is a bit like the arms of a computer, it helps the computer to multitask and to juggle lots of things at once.  You need to add the RAM in two slots (which have to be colour matching!) and it must be the right way around.  Push it firmly into place and the clips keep it in.” – Taran, Class 13

 

Step 3: Processor

“The processor is like the brain of the computer, without it the computer wouldn’t work at all!  We had to line the Processor up in its square holder and gently lower it into place.  We then used the clip thing to lock it into place so it doesn’t go anywhere.” – Ben, Class 13

 

Step 4: Graphics Card

“It shows the screen what to display and they can be really expensive!  It was quite easy to push it into the slot on the motherboard.” – Kian, Class 11

 

Step 5: Heatsink

“The heatsink cools the processor down because it gets really hot when it’s working.  It looks like a big fan with a big metal grate on one side.  You had to screw this into the motherboard so it sat firmly on top of the processor otherwise it won’t work.” – Meghan, Class 13

 

Step 6: Hard Drive and CD/DVD Drive

“It’s been really cool because I learnt how to put things into the computer and what everything was called.  The hard drive was interesting because it’s where you save all the work and that means all of the work that we’ve done is saved on one of them.” – Melissa, Class 11

 

Step 7: Cables

“I liked putting together the computer and seeing how it worked.  I found it amazing how everything could fit in a small computer and how the cables link everything together on the motherboard.” – Freya, Class 11

 

 

Step 8: Power Supply

“It’s important to a computer because it helps to run everything.  You have to plug the power cables into the motherboard and the drives and that gives it power.” – Emma, Class 11

 

Step 9: Turn it on!

“When everything is plugged in and safe, we turned the power on and you could hear the fans start to spin up as the computer started working.  It’s magic!” – Freya, Class 13

 

Space Day For Our Budding Year 5 Scientists

This week the children (and teachers)  in Year 5 have celebrated their learning within science this term by taking part in a Science themed Space day. The day was split into three activities including rocket building, space themed art and movie making.

Working in pairs, the children created an iMovie film sharing what they had learnt over the term. This involved collating facts, pictures and pieces of work before organising them into a short two minute film. The movies included their own music, headings and direction.

 

I loved using the iPads to make movies, I’m definitely downloading the app on my iPad at home! – Emi – Class 12

Whilst some of the children were busy planing and directing their own short movie, the rest were designing and building working rockets, which are set to be launched next week. Using lots of recycled bottles, tubes and pieces of cardboard, the children ‘junk modelled’ rockets which will be powered by water and air pressure.

I tried to make my rocket as streamlined as possible so it had the least amount of air resistance possible, and it worked! – Sam – Class 11

What was particularly pleasing was the effort children put into making their rockets aerodynamic to limit the amount of air resistance, something they had learnt about in their previous science topic on forces.

Due to poor weather, the launching of the children rockets has been postponed until next week where hopefully the conditions will be more favourable.

The third task for our Space Day required the children to ‘Space themselves up’ by adding their photos to a space scene; either in the form of an astronaut on a space walk, or steering a rocket to space. Some examples can be seen in the below.

We rounded off the day with a ‘space walk’ of their very own, down the catwalk as we held Penpol’s first space themed fashion show for the children (and adults) to show off their costumes.

 

 

 

 

Super Science in Class 2

Class 2 were very excited this week to welcome a special visitor Mollie into our classroom to do some science experiments. Mollie showed the class lots of experiments all to do with colours.

The first experiment involved some skittles and warm water. A couple of children carefully arranged the skittles on a plate to make a circle, making sure that none of the same colour were touching. Then we added warm water and waited to see what would happen.

It was amazing! The skittles made a rainbow! – Jessica

Next we had a go at making some lava lamps. We put some water and oil into a bottle and then Mollie added some food colouring to each one. Some children also added some glitter to make the lamps sparkle!

I liked putting the glitter in. I chose silver sparkly glitter – Lola

In our final experiment, we had some special filter paper which we dyed with red cabbage to turn purple. When the paper had dried we had great fun using lemon juice, vinegar and bicarbonate paste to paint on the paper. The children were amazed to see how the paper changed colour when they painted it (lemon and vinegar turned the paper pink, while the bicarbonate turned it blue!)

We had great fun with our science experiments and would like to say a big thank you to Mollie for visiting us in Class 2!

Special Visitors for Year 2

Mark’s Ark arrives at Penpol School

To coincide with their ‘Science’ topic “Animals including Humans’, Class 5 and 6 invited some unusual visitors into their classroom.

During the visit, the children heard a lot of interesting facts about how animals use their senses to stay alive and for those who were feeling very brave, were given the opportunity to handle and stroke some of the animals.

Lily and Zackery feeling very brave

The snake felt all cold and soft – Mia

 

I felt really scared to hold the snake and then I felt brave – Lily

 

The owl was my favourite because it looked really soft and cute – Abigail

 

Class 4 have an Art Attack!

Class 4 love art! They have been having great fun investigating materials in their art lessons and have been making metal sculptures using everyday objects including cheese graters, cutlery, tin cans, mixing bowls and anything else they can get their hands on! Check out their fantastic owl creations!

 I love the metal feather bits on your owl Lily. Can I help? – Alfie

Evie and Sienna are really happy with the way their owls are turning out. They are using jam jar lids for the eyes and sticking on squashed foil cases and beads. They’re looking great.

I like my owl. I want to take it home and show my mum. – Tyler

Ada and Flora help each other choose the best buttons and beads to stick on to the wings.

I love my owl. I brought in my sieve and my whisk from home and Mrs Anthoney helped me stick all the bits together. – Zak

I am really happy and so proud of the children. They put in a lot of hard work and were very creative. I think their owls look fantastic! – Miss Ryan

Owl Facts

  1. Owls live in barns, trees, old buildings and tunnels.
  2. Owls eat mice, rats, birds, raccoons, skunks, snakes, squirrels and other small mammals.
  3. Owls can’t digest bones, fur or feathers so they spit it out.
  4. Owls have sharp beaks that they use to shred their food.
  5. Owls grab their ‘prey’ with their sharp claws.
  6. Owls don’t make any sound when they fly.
  7. Owls camouflage themselves in the trees.

Year 2 out and about!

 

 

On the 28th and 29th September, classes 5 and 6 visited Trevaskis Farm for a workshop to learn about how and where many of the fruit and vegetables we eat are grown. Did you know that raspberries grow up and strawberries down and out? That the pigs are the award winning British Lop breed and the South Devon cows are exported world wide?

 

 

 

 

Though dry, it was very, very muddy so wellies were essential but the sows and piglets seemed quite at home!

We also had a talk from the fishmonger and were shown the different types that are for sale. The Gurnard looked quite gruesome!

We finished off with a treasure hunt, following the clues around the farm to find a pot with a hidden seedling, we are wondering what will grow!

 

 

It was a great day! – Sonny

 

I loved the piglets but it was really muddy and I fell over! – Josie

Green Fingers

The children in Class 6 have been very busy learning all about plants and the conditions they need to grow.To help with their understanding we teamed up with ‘Sow & Grow ‘ to help the children learn to love healthy food by growing some of their own in class. The children were so excited when we opened the parcel and found a bag of compost, pots to the grow their seeds in and some cress, runner beans and baby carrot seeds. The pack also contained a chart to record the growth of the plants and a ‘Star Grower’ badge.

 

 

  The children started off by filling their pots with composts and then carefully added their seeds.

The pots were then placed onto a sunny window sill to germinate.

Every morning the children would come into class and check their seed pot. There was great excitement around the room on the day the first shoots started to appear. Every week the children recorded the growth of the plant and eventually the ‘Star Grower’ was announced. Congratulations Harry!

Apart from growing seed in pots the children also made cress heads and a garden in the glove. The children found it a great challenge having to push the wet cotton wool balls into each finger and then carefully placing the seeds inside.

The gloves were then attached to a sunny window and all we had to do next was sit and wait for the roots and shoots to appear. Which wasn’t too long!

 

I really loved making the cress heads because the cress looked like hair – Finn

 

I liked making the cress head as you got to eat the cress after – Jasmine

 

I enjoyed all of it, especially watching my bean grow so tall – Summer

Under the Sea With Oshi.

Class 1 had an inspirational experience of visiting the Falmouth Maritime museum. We learnt all about the different boats in the museum and how they are powered. We saw how the boats are made up of different parts and found out what the hull, keel, mast, and sails do. Next, we had the opportunity to make our own boats using the knowledge we had just learnt about what we would need to make our boats sail. We then had great fun racing our boats against each other on the boating pool. Amelie’s boat was the champion and she was delighted to be the overall winner of the boat races.

We saw flying boats, we made a boat we put it in some water, we did races with them – Hazel.

I saw a sail, it moves the boat along with the wind. My sail was a triangle, I had a straw as the mast to hold the sail up. The front of the boat is the bow. I liked seeing Oshi – Ada

 

We also met Oceana, a sea sprite from the Lost Land of Lyonesse. The children helped Oshi retell her story of how the Lost Land of Lyonesse, where Oshi used to live,  was once part of Cornwall but a great storm blew up and the sea swept over Lyonesse. The city sank to the bottom of the sea and the magical Cornish sea sprites and mer people saved Oceana and many of her friends and family and they now live at the bottom of the sea. We used musical instruments to recreate this exciting story.

We made a story up with Oshi. In the story I have to do the rain. There was also thunder and wind. She showed us some treasure – Maisie

After the story we were excited to see what treasures she had in her treasure chest. She explained to the children that treasure wasn’t just sparkly jems and jewels, but anything that is special to them. She showed us some things that have been caught in fishing nets including a cannon ball, a port hole, part of an old ship, a killer whales tooth, a very old pot and part of an old leather boot.

 

She brought out some treasure. She showed us a rusty ball a cannon ball, we saw part of a pirate ship with nails in and we saw part of an old boot – James

We saw Oshi, she is a sea sprite. She lives in the sea water. She gave us a shell. When you hold the shell and sing the song on the beach she will come. Oshi Oshi of the sea please wake up and play with me – Alex

 

Through hands on discovery, imagination and role play, the experience at the museum empowered children with excitement confidence and skills to hopefully begin a life-long enjoyment of museums.

Class 5 Explore Materials Through Wicker Work

In connection with our science topic on ‘Materials’, Class 5 was really lucky to have a visit from Jazmin’s aunty Caroline. Caroline is very creative and she makes absolutely marvellous wicker pieces, from baskets to lobster pots.

During her visit she brought in examples of her craft and even showed us how she makes them. We learnt so much about this ancient craft and are now weaving fish using a wicker frame and raffia. It’s not as easy as it looks, as the children are discovering, we’ll let you know how we get on and will post some photos of the finished product!

Our Penpol School Vision: “Penpol pupils are curious, creative and courageous learners. Our school community believes in authenticity as the foundations of deep-rooted learning.

Through our rich and relevant curriculum, we nurture community-minded, forward-facing international citizens of the future.”

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Chris Coyle-Chislett

secretary@penpol.cornwall.sch.uk

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2 St George's Road, Hayle, Cornwall, TR27 4AH

01736 753472