Icy Fun!

We are having lots of fun on Fridays being Scientists!  Last Friday we loved learning more about ice by doing some cool experiments.  We made delicious ice blocks with banana inside to explore how water changes into ice when put in the freezer. 

We felt how cold the ice was with our hands and we listened to the cracking sounds as the ice began to melt. 

Most of us thought that ice would sink in water because it feels heavy and were surprised to discover that it floated! 

We used magnifying glasses to look closely at ice to see the cracks, bubbles, tunnels and the changes that happen to ice as it is left out of the freezer.   We found out  that it was heat that was melting the ice. 

 We added rock salt and food colouring to some blocks of ice to  see how salt melts ice and makes colourful designs. We discovered that the salt made the ice melt faster. 

School is cool for everyone...

We went on a trip to the Wamakariri Public Library today.
We had a tour of the Library and two great stories read to us by Donna.
Donna and Sally are the Librarians who showed us things in the Library.
We loved looking at the artwork that was made of clothes.
We saw jeans, a shirt and even a pair of underpants in the work!

We had our lunch in Victoria Park and played on the playground.         
Thank you to all the parents who helped us.

          A saxophone in the playground?
           We heard a great sound drifting into our classroom.
           George said, "That's my brother playing on his saxophone."
           George invited Jack in to talk to us and play some notes. 
           George said, "I feel proud of Jack!"

                             Thanks big brother!

Learning a new process...

Today we started to use the digital camera. 

We used our Black Hat to look at our first try. 

We asked the question "What is wrong with this?"

We will keep experimenting with different shots. 

Please watch this space!

Where did the water go?

Today we became scientists who explored the magic of how water can easily change. In each experiment we asked the question:  

Where does the water go?  

We painted water pictures outside on the concrete and made wet hand prints that we left in the lovely sunshine and  came back to after a while to find that the water had disappeared! 

We used pieces of board to wave in the air like a fan.  We painted 2 boards with water and put one on the ground and waved the other one in the moving air.  We discovered that the moving board dried very quickly, whilst the one on the ground was still wet!

 We made some some salt water paintings and talked about how they dried and left some sparkly bits.  

We had lots of different ideas about where the water had gone. At first some of us thought  that the water might have soaked into the concrete or into the paper/ board. We then decided that the water couldn't go through the concrete.  We learned that the sun and wind help warm the water and turns it into vapor that rises and goes up into the sky- evaporation!

Run, run, as fast as you can...

Today we made yummy gingerbread men as part of our science inquiry exploring changes. We looked carefully at the changes that happened at each stage of the gingerbread making process.  We used these questions to help us as we carefully measured out each of the ingredients and followed the recipe:

What does it look like?

How does it feel?

What does it smell like?

How does it taste?

What does it do when mixed with the other ingredients?

We liked tasting some of the ingredients but some made us want a drink of water!

We really enjoyed measuring, beating, mixing, kneading and cutting the soft dough. 

mmm.... we all agreed that they tasted delicious!

Road Safety Week

Constable Ken visited us today to talk to us about road safety.

We always remember to 'click' our seatbelt.

We get in and out of the car on the footpath side.

Thank you for helping us to learn about being safe again.

Going in the police car was so cool!

Cross Country 2012

Today we held our cross country run in George's paddocks.

Thank you to your family for letting us come and use your property.