Science

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Science: Investigating how materials may be changed by mixing.

Materials; Materials and change;

We learned how materials may be changed by mixing.

 

Science; Mixing 001

During the year we  investigated

how materials may be changed by mixing.

We mixed paints to make new colours.

We mixed water and sugar

and water and salt,

We talked about the ingredients

that are mixed to make pancakes.

We mixed water and baking powder

and made baking powder ‘bombs’.

You can read about that by clicking on this link.

 

This week we mixed fizzy lemonade …

Science; Mixing 002

 

and ice-cream;

Science; Mixing 003

We put icecream in cups and added fizzy lemonade:

Science; Mixing 005

 

 

The mixture bubbled up.

We made ice-cream sodas.

We drank them.

They were yummy.

 

 

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A poem that we like a lot: ‘Science’ by Danielle Sensier

“Experiment” by Danielle Sensier 

 

At school we’re doing growing things  

with cress. 

Sprinkly seeds in plastic pots 

of cotton wool. 

 

Kate’s cress sits up on the sill 

she gives it water. 

Mine is shut inside the cupboard 

dark and dry. 

 

Now her pot has great big clumps  

of green 

mine hasn’t 

Teacher calls it Science 

I call it mean! ‘

We like this poem. 

We learned it when we did experiments

about growing things.

Experiments we did about growing things.

 

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Planet Avatar – Starting A Project on the Planets in our Solar System using Voki

We are doing a project on the Sun, and the planets in our solar system.

We thought it would be fun to do our project using avatars.

 

First we wrote down what we were going to say.

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First Avatar Abi will tell us about the Sun.

Avatar Alice talks to us about Mercury

Avatar Amy tells us

some interesting facts about Venus

Avatar Calum talks

about his home planet, Earth.

Avatar JC gives us

some information about the Moon.

Avatar Cian has some information about

The Red Planet, Mars.

Guess how many moons Jupiter has?

Avatar Clara will tell you the answer and more!

Breaking News!

Saturn has even more moons than Jupiter.

Our reporter Avatar Fiona will tell you about it 🙂

A report from the very special

and unusual Avatar Jack.

He is truly out of this world!

This is Isabella’s report on the planet Neptune.

Well done to all.

 

The experts tell us that Pluto is a dwarf planet

but we are fond of it and wouldn’t like

to see it disappear from school books

Finally Avatar Jake is going to tell us

about the early days of the Planet Earth.

We think we would have a lot more fun

if only we could get our own voices recorded properly on Voki.

At the moment we have to change ‘text’ into words instead.

It is fun, but we really don’t sound like this!

We are working on trying to solve this problem

and are going to try a different microphone.

Has anyone any advice?

 

We enjoy learning about the planets.

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Can you see the planets hanging from our classroom ceiling?

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A Chemical Reaction

 

 

The very very very best fun we had

in Science was the day teacher told the class that

she was going to show us some chemical reactions.

 

Teacher added sugar to water and shook the mixture

and asked us what we thought would happen.

Most of us had a pretty good idea.

 

Then she added salt to water and shook the mixture

and again we guessed it would vanish into the water.

 

Then she asked us what would happen

if she added baking powder to water and shook it.

We all went to the yard and stood in a large circle

in the middle of the basketball court.

 

Teacher explained that she was going to

half fill a little black container,

(the type of container that camera film come in)

with baking powder this time.

 

She would then add some water.

She would give it a little shake

and put the lid on tightly.

She asked us to predict

what might happen.

 

We thought that the same thing

would probably happen again

and that the baking powder would dissolve.

 

Teacher put the container

in the middle of the circle

and asked us to stay well back.

 

Nothing happened at first.

Then suddenly the black container flew up into the air.

The lid popped off and a fizzing bubbly mixture

spilled out onto the ground.

 

We jumped and screamed

and we asked teacher to do it again

and again until the baking powder was all gone.

It certainly taught us to expect

the unexpected in science!


Calum was busy. Nice work Calum.

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Some Super Science Experiments

Science Reports from 2nd Class, Room 6

 

Magnets

We experimented with magnets

We found out that

glass,

plastic,

cloth and wood

are not attracted to magnets.

They are non-magnetic

 

We found metal was magnetic.

Things made out of metal like

paperclips,

toy cars

and some coins

were attracted to magnets.

 

We found out how strong the different magnets were

by seeing how many paperclips they could lift.

 

We saw the designs a magnet made with iron filings

 

We found a magnet could work through a sheet of paper

 

We lifted a paperclip out of a glass of water without getting wet!

 

Static Electricity

We learned about static electricity as a whole class

and it was very nearly the best fun we had.

 

Teacher had balloons, blown up all ready for us.

Balloons
‘Balloons’ by Beau B on Flickr

We rubbed the balloons on our jumpers and cardigans

to charge them.

When the balloons were charged they attracted

sugar,

small pieces of paper

and the balloons stuck to the wall of the classroom.

 

The charged balloons were unfriendly to one another

and when one charged balloon

was placed beside another

they jumped apart.

 

The funniest thing was the way

a charged balloon made our hair

stand up on end.

 

We did this on a dry day

and it worked well.

 

On a damp day teacher had one balloon

and we were surprised when she showed us

that on a damp day static electricity

hardly worked at all.

 

Light

Our favourite experiments that we did with light

was when we made rainbows.

We held the prism so that the light

from the overhead projector passes through it.

The rainbow danced high on the wall

RainbowOnWall
‘Rainbow On Wall” by Dana Ross Martin on Flickr

Water

When we experimented with water,

we guessed what would sink and what would float.

We made plasticine boats.

We saw how many dried peas they could hold before the boats sank.

 

Sound

Here is one of the experiments we did with sound

We got two tin cans and string

from the box of sound experiments.

There was a hole at the bottom of the can.

We threaded the string though each hole

and put a knot on the string to stop it pulling through.

 

We passed the can to a friend who moved

far enough away to make sure that

the string was tight.

 

We talked into the cup

and we could talk to our friend

We then let the string not to be so tight.

The sound wasn’t as good then.

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“Teacher calls it Science. I call it mean” – A Poem by Danielle Sensier !

Living things

Recently we did some experiments

about growing living things!

We put pea seeds in three separate jars.

 

To one we gave no water.

Another we gave water

but then put the jar in a dark cupboard.

 

The last jar got water and light.

 

Teacher asked us what

we thought might happen.

We guessed the jar with no water

would have seeds that didn’t grow at all.

 

We thought the ones in the dark

wouldn’t grow either.

 

We thought that the jar

with light and water would grow well.

 

We were surprised when

the pea seeds kept in the dark grew so much.

We were surprised that the plants were pale yellow.

 

Now that plant is on the window sill

and we move it round to see it grow towards the light.

 

Teacher said that this experiment reminded her of a poem

 

“Experiment by Danielle Sensier 

 

At school we’re doing growing things  

with cress. 

Sprinkly seeds in plastic pots 

of cotton wool. 

 

Kate’s cress sits up on the sill 

she gives it water. 

Mine is shut inside the cupboard 

dark and dry. 

 

Now her pot has great big clumps  

of green 

mine hasn’t 

Teacher calls it Science 

I call it mean! 

 

We also saw how water travels up to the leaves of a plant.

We did this using food colouring.

After two hours traces of the blue food dye

that the celery sticks were in

started to show on the leaves of the plant.

 

After two days this was the result:

Blue Celery !

We think that is probably mean too!

If you would like to tell us what you think,

double click ‘Continue Reading’ below

and a comment box will appear.

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Every Week is Science Week!

We loved Science Week in 2nd Class Room 6.

Our enjoyment was much enhanced by

the entertaining Table Quiz

that was featured on Seomra Ranga.

Seomra Ranga’s Science Week Junior Quiz

We especially appreciated the Science Joke

at the end of each round that eased the competitive tension.

 

2nd Class Room 6 enjoy Science each and every week.

We are very lucky because we have large plastic boxes

available in the school full of all the equipment

we need to do science experiments.

There are boxes for each strand of the Science curriculum.

Light,

Energy & Forces,

Sound,

Heat,

Magnetism & Electricity

and Materials.

 

We like working scientifically.

We like the ‘scientific method.’

We are learning to think like a scientist.

Scientists ask questions.

They look at things carefully.

They predict what might happen.

(We come up with some pretty funny answers sometimes.)

Scientists investigate and experiment.

(This is our favourite bit!)

 

Safety

We know that safety is very important.

This is an important part of ‘thinking like a scientist’!

Some of the equipment we use in experiments is delicate.

Some of the equipment is made of glass, so we have to be careful.

We follow the instructions of the grown up who is helping us.

We don’t touch things we are not supposed to.

We don’t taste or smell stuff either.

That way we keep safe!

These are the rules for safety in Science that we learned:

 

Classroom Rules – Science

1. A responsible adult should always supervise.

2. Listen to all instructions and follow them carefully.

3. Do not eat or drink any substance

4. No shouting or messing around with anything or anyone.

5. Long hair should be tied back.

6. Eating and drinking in the laboratory is not allowed.

7. Ask questions if you are uncertain about anything.

8. When finished with your experiment tidy up carefully

9. You may need to wash your hands.

 

A Science Experiment is not a Magic Trick…

It’s better than that!

Despite the animation at the top of this post…

one of the comments that remains with Teacher

from the inservice days in science is that

it is important not to present science

as a series of ‘magic tricks’.

Teaching the children to ‘think like scientists

and to employ the ‘scientific method’ safeguards against this!

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What did you do in school today?

Today it was Friday and after a busy week where we all worked hard, Teacher decided that we deserved extra ‘Golden Time’. Having worked at our maths and literacy, then we…

…did science.
We learned about the interesting reaction that occurs if one mixes baking powder and water in a small plastic container (with a lid).
We conducted this experiment in the yard. This was just as well as the results were ‘explosive’.
We talked a lot about the importance of safety when doing science. We observed these rules and we all emerged unscathed.
If you want to try this at home UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION here is a link
***HOW TO MAKE A BAKING POWDER BOMB***

Integration being the key to an holistic education, we continued on the theme of safety and revised the Safe Cross Code employing the following link.
!!!SAFE CROSS CODE DANCE!!! 🙂

Then we watched a section from the Fantasia movie by Disney.
We watched unicorns and satyrs dance to an air from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony from Disney’s ‘Fantasia’.
The mood on screen was one of happiness.
Then Teacher replayed this section of the dvd.
The difference was she played a different backing track; ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ by Wagner.
Wagner’s ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’ from Disney’s ‘Fantasia’
This time the unicorns and satyrs looked nervous as if they were expecting something dangerous to happen.
In this way we learned about the effect music can have!