Eggs in different liquids:  We decided to do an experiment by placing eggs in different liquids to see how the different liquids would affect the egg shells. We chose to place an egg in water, milk and vinegar. The water and milk had caused the eggs to gain weight. The vinegar caused the egg not only to gain weight but striped off a layer of the eggshell making the egg squishy.

Parachute: We created two parachute’s one out of paper and one out of plastic. Then, we dropped both parachute’s to see what would happen. When we dropped the parachutes the strings that were attached to the plastic and paper pulled down, which in turn made the parachute’s open to full size. When the parachute’s opened to full size it created a large surface area and more wind resistance. The more wind resistance there was the slower the parachute’s went down.

February was so much fun in Miss Lisa’s class! We reviewed Peter and the Wolf, started learning about the piano, practiced our listening skills and played some fantastic games! Check out our fun pictures below to see more details of these fun lessons!

We can’t wait to see what fun activities Miss Lisa has planned for us next month!

Bouyancy – A force in a liquid pushing against an object in the liquid

In Science class we wanted to find out what would happen when we place peeled and unpeeled oranges into a tank of water. We hypothesized that the peeled orange will splash. Consequently we thought the unpeeled orange would make bubbles. First we peeled one orange. Next we left the peel on the second orange. Last, we dropped the oranges in the water. We observed the peeled orange sank while the unpeeled orange floated. We discovered that the orange peel traps air. So even though it is heavier, it is more buoyant. The peeled orange had no air, so it sinks.

Density- the mass in a specified volume

In a similar experiment, we wanted to see what will happen if we drop a lemon and a lime in the water. The lemon floated and the lime sank. We can concluded the lime is denser than the lemon.

A note from Mr. John:

I did some research for more information. According to the USDA website, a lime is 88.26% water by weight and a lemon is 87.4% which is a minimal difference. This could mean that lemons have higher air content, but I’m still researching why the lemon floats and the lime sinks.

Dancing Hearts: We put candy hearts from some of our candy boxes in Sprite to see what would happen. The students had hypothesis like they will dissolve, float, sink and make a rainbow. We observed the carbon dioxide pick the candy hearts up and float on top of the Sprite. Then, when the hearts reached the top the bubbles burst and the candy dropped down again.

 

Upside down glass of water: We filled a glass up with water, placed a piece of cardboard over the top and turned it upside down. We discovered that the air pressure around the glass was greater than the weight of the water. Therefore, the air pushing up from underneath the water was strong enough to hold the piece of cardboard in place so the water would not spill out.

January was full of cold and snowy days but we stayed warm and active with Miss Lisa! We focused on rhythm and tempo this month. We used rhythm sticks and scarves to practice these skills.

A new unit we started at the beginning of January and finished at the end was “Peter and the Wolf”. We learned about the characters, the instruments and the story line of this classic tale.

We had so much fun this month leaning about ” Peter and the Wolf”. The illustrations and music told such a vivid tale we will not forget anytime soon! We also learned about all sorts of instruments. Try listening to this with your student and see what they can identify at home.

Absorption – To take something in.

What will happen if we pour water in a container containing paper towels and another container containing Sodium Polyacrylate? What is Sodium Polyacrylate? It is the material in diapers. All the children shouted,  “Ewwww”~ for diapers.

Mr. John took the container with the Sodium Polyacrylate and water, and dumped it out above the children’s heads. No water spilled out! We had fun learning about absorption!

Leak Proof Baggy

Polymers – Polymers chains working together.

“What? You poked holes with a pencil in a baggy filled with water? It didn’t come out?”

Yes! We slowly, but firmly pushed sharpened pencils through one side of a zip-locked bag filled with water. The water doesn’t leak at all!

Why? Plastic bags are made out of Polymers which are long chains of individual molecules, called monomers. So poking the bag with water means separating polymer chains without breaking them.

SCIENCE ROCKS!

Play Dough Shapes

Buoyancy- A force in a liquid pushing against an object in the liquid.

We dropped different shaped (a bowl and a sphere) Play dough in water. The sphere shaped dough sank while the bowl shaped play dough floated. The sphere is dense and cannot push enough water out to stay a float. The bowl is able to push enough water out to equal its weight and therefore, floats!

We made our own slime!!!

We mixed Borax, Elemer’s glue and water. We stirred it with the spoon first and when we felt the long strands of molecules starting to connect, we used our hands!

Borax is the compound that is responsible for hooking the glue’s molecules together to form the putty-like material.

SCIENCE IS FUN!!!

With Ms. Renee

We started off the new year traveling back in time to the very first artists: cave painters! We read The First Drawing by Mordecai Gerstein and talked about what it was like to live in the time of the cave people. Then we taped our “cave walls” to the walls of the room and made our very own drawing! We even signed them with our handprints like the cave people did.

Our next stop in time was the Ancient Egyptians! We learned that Egyptians also told their stories using drawings on stone, this time on the walls of their temples. We also talked about the dress of the Egyptians and how beautiful their clothing was, and that was probably purchased from a Girls Clothing store online. We read Let’s Visit Cairo by Lisa Manzione to learn more about Egypt and what makes this part of the world so unique. Then we decorated our very own Egyptian collars to wear over our clothes from The Fifth Collection! If you want to find the amazing world of matching clothes and accessories for family, friends and couples don’t forget to visit matching gear.

Next we traveled to Ancient Rome and learned about tesserae and the art of mosaics. The Romans used tiles to tell their stories on walls, ceilings and floors, so people started to imitate this on their homes, and learn to use different techniques and materials, like using 5KG buckets of weber grout for their tiles. Then we created our own mosaic using yarn and paper squares for our tiles.

Our last project of the month was an exploration of painting! The students had fun breaking into groups and traveling around the classroom visiting different painting stations. The students experimented with unique paintbrushes, rollers, painting with small cars, yarn and pom poms. It was so neat to see how involved and focused they all were while they did this!

December was filled with lots of practice in our classrooms for our 2017 Christmas Show! In Miss Lisa’s music class we practiced performing our songs and she taught us many popular Christmas carols and songs!

Here is a friend examining a large jingle bell. Miss Lisa brought a variety of different bells for us to practice with. The two main songs we played the bells with were Jingle Bells and Jingle Bell Rock.

One of our favorite games with Miss Lisa is freeze dance! It doesn’t matter what song is playing, we love to dance! The most important skill in this game is listening. We have to listen very closely for when the music  stops so we know when to freeze our bodies.

Here is a picture of a friend waiting patiently to play her tambourine. We all know that instruments can’t play on their own, so we have to wait patiently until Miss Lisa tells us it is time to play.

A new instrument we enjoyed exploring with was the maracas! Maracas are used in many Latin and South American songs. We shook these maracas while singing along to Feliz Navidad.

We had a fantastic month with all of our festive singing! Don’t forget to order your copy of our 2017 Christmas Show DVD so you can hear us singing some of our favorites!