This week all the Prep School children took part in a festive STEAM morning. The purpose of the morning was to get the children involved in STEAM activities designed to incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths as well as get the festive fun started! A whole variety of activities were put on for the children, led by eager and enthusiastic Christmas jumper-wearing teachers!

Year 3 were treated to two different activities: one saw the children make rockets out of cardboard, duct tape and plasticine and then launch them in the air using an air pressure launching system! Great fun was had by all. The winners were:

Overall (and 3S) – Anshul J and Matthew M
3B – Saskia B and Bea C-A
3ML – Quentin S
3SL – Harry S and Edward P

The other Year 3 activity was an Art activity, where the children created pop-out Christmas cards of snowmen and snowwomen!

Year 4 also had two different activities to do. One task was to create 3D Christmas Tree models, trying to make them as sturdy as possible but only being able to use newspaper and Sellotape! A tricky task but the children rose to the challenge and made some fantastic structures. The second activity was making pop-up bauble Christmas cards!

Some standout efforts and for great team work:

Rose B and Aurelia B
Olivia S and Martha M
Kenzie B and Liberty T
Ned G and Edward B for sheer perseverance in the face of adversity (USP – a collapsible Christmas tree!)

Year 5 were given the hard task of transporting brussels sprouts from the top of the Sports Hall to the bottom without losing any! They had to get to grips with tying some tricky knots and using pulleys in order to be successful and were fantastic at testing and adapting their methods.

Year 6 were told that they needed to create a water-based method for Father Christmas to deliver his presents. They were given all the equipment needed to make a fan-powered system and then developed their boat/floating grotto around this. Some super creativity and engineering was on show!

Year 7 had the opportunity to create a Winter Wonderland fairground. They designed and assembled their fairground rides, using electrical circuits, gears and pulleys and then decorated them brilliantly to fit in with the Winter Wonderland theme. They were judged on the safety of their ride as well as how well it worked and the design.

Winners: Maia B, Bea H, Poppy B and Harriet D
Special mention for engineering: Huckleberry G, Jack M, Charlie R and Ollie S

Year 8 were posed with a Climate Change Crisis. Father Christmas had been in touch to say that the North Pole was under water due to rising sea levels and could we help him create a floating structure for him, Mrs Claus, the elves and the reindeer. Year 8 rose to the challenge fantastically, using a variety of materials to create a stable floating structure. The winning team’s model was able to hold 1600g of mass before sinking!!

Winners: Santa Banta (Willow A, Arthur S, Harry C)

Thank you to all the staff who made it such an enjoyable, as well as educational, day!

For more photos, please go to the Gallery

As part of their Science topic on the properties of materials, and their Maths work on 3D shapes, Year 3 were challenged to build a bridge using 10 pieces of paper and 1.5m of sellotape. They had to build the strongest bridge, that would hold the most mass. All the children worked incredibly hard, using all their scientific and mathematical knowledge, but the winners were Bella S and Quentin S, whose bridge was able to support a tremendous 3.6kg! Well done!

For more photos, please go to the Gallery.