Thursday 26 April 2012

A day out in North Wales

Helen and I had a wonderful day with a tiny village school in rural Flintshire North Wales.
At just over 70 pupils Nannerch primary school is in the most beautiful village between Mold and Denbigh - a lovely part of Wales.

It was an early start with a very packed car full of exciting science so that we arrived in time to set up for our first session - one of our favourites - Super Science Magic for the very youngest.
So we had  nursery and reception tinies along with the very grown up year 1 and year 2s - all very excited to see what the scientists were going to do.
We took Timmy - our puppet - with us, who helped Helen explore the amazing objects in the basket and see what they were made from. One brave young man put his hand into a container of liquid only to find it full of jelly balls which had been quite invisible! We had huge fun!

Then we did two shows all about changing materials with the Juniors. The dry ice was a huge hit - of course -   ooohs and ahhhhs came from the flame tests and the iron filings sparklers. In such a small school everyone was able to come up and volunteer for something so the shows were very interactive.
After a well earned lunch we did two hands on sessions - getting up close and personal with some of the show demonstrations, making lava lamps and having a go at things to try at home with a take home make - bath bombs with year 3/4 and slime for yr5/6. The tip of the day for the slime session - the more you stir it the thicker it gets..... and it doesn't drip off your elbow!
After a quick slurp of coffee it was the turn of the teachers - we had a great time exploring the experiments from the shows - the teachers had been itching to get their hands on some of the things we had been showing - the jelly balls, the colour changing straws but most of all the dry ice! It is not something you get to play with every day and the staff certainly enjoyed making vast amounts of spooky smoke and Boo Bubbles.

Finally we all had a go at the ever popular Art on a Plate - there were so many ideas of using this in all areas of the curriculum and I think nursery planned to do it the very next day - how's that for an impact!
Thank you to everyone at Nannerch for being such lovely hosts and making us so welcome!