This session of dance class, we have been practicing our coordination and memory by learning dance routines across the floor.
We have also been practicing traveling techniques,
keeping rhythm, and
and some difficult moves that build our strength and further test our coordination.
Welcome to another month of science! Mr.John has kept us busy with new science experiments.
During each science activity, we always come up with our own hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess. A great part about Mr.John’s science class is that it never matters if our hypothesis is wrong or right! Mr. John always tells us that it is okay to be wrong because sometimes even scientists are wrong! That is how they learn what works and what doesn’t work.
Materials needed to complete this activity at home:
Question of the week: What will happen when we try to balance a text book or multiple picture books on a piece of paper? What about when the piece of paper is turned into a cylinder?
Well, the flat paper got squished by the books! Then Mr. John turned it into a cylinder using rubber bands. What happened next?
The cylinder of paper supported all the picture books! Amazing!
But why was the cylinder of paper able to hold the book, but the single piece of paper did not? SCIENCE!
The average weight of a piece of paper is .7 grams. It makes sense that it wouldn’t be able to balance a book! It just collapses under the weight of a book. This is because the paper is unable to keep it’s shape. It wants to return to a flat position. But, when Mr.John uses rubber bands to keep the paper in a cylinder shape, it all changes.
The secret to the paper’s new found strength is the geometrical shape known as a cylinder! Cylinders are one of the most structurally sound and strongest geometrical shapes. They are able to be strong because they disperse stress throughout their entire shape. If the rolled-up piece of paper were a perfect cylinder, the strength of it would be even stronger!
Question: What will happen if we write a secret message on a strip of Teflon tape?
Materials Needed:
This week Mr. John introduced us to polymers! On the Teflon tape Mr. John wrote GO BUCKEYES! Then he stretched the tape out so much, we couldn’t read his message anymore!
Then he pulled on it again and SCIENCE made the letters legible again! But how?
Teflon tape is a type of polymer called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). That’s a really long word for a kind of polymer that has long chains of molecules lined up side-by-side and on top of each other. Polymers like to be near each other. After Mr. John stretched the tape, the polymers that make up the tape were all puled apart. When Mr. John pulls in the opposite way on the tape firmly, the polymers become reconnected together which allows the message to be legible again.
Mr.John was absent this week, so I (Miss Ame) stepped in with a shortened version of science for our classes.
Materials:
The spider was glue to a small piece of cardboard. On the other side of the cardboard was a match attached to it with glue. In between the match and the cardboard was a piece of thread.
Using our imagination we pretended that the thread was the spider’s web. While I was holding both ends of the web tightly, the spider did not move. He was suspending sitting still in his web.
I then asked the student’s what they thought would happen if I let go of the string that I was holding our spider. Would he fall? Would he stay hanging on his web? So each child shared their hypothesis, all starting their sentence with “My hypothesis…”
On the count of three I let go of the spider…..and he fell quickly to the end of his web! But why?
Because of friction!
When the thread is held taut, it touches the match. This causes friction between the match and the thread, which is strong enough to stop the spider from moving down the thread. But, when you let it go slack it no longer touches the match. This means less friction, so the spider slides easily down.
We have had a blast in taekwondo during the month of September! We played a lot of games that helps to improve our sense of balance and requires us to multitask. One of these games is called Ninja Rocks. To play this game, you have to walk across the ninja rocks (punching targets) and you also have to watch for the ninja sword so you can block it when it tries to tap you on the head.
We also took time to practice our forms which we will have to learn for our belt tests.
The elementary students had the opportunity to challenge each other in a game of Ninja Tag. In this game, students are paired up and they each get two lunges to try and tag their partner on the arm.
Ninja Sneak is another game we played this month. This game is played much like Red Light,Green Light however everyone has to be as silent as possible because if the instructor hears you, you have to go all the way back to the beginning.
Welcome back to another fantastic year of science with Mr. John! Mr. John does science every Thursday for our classes at the Cuyahoga Falls site. He prepares fun and interactive science experiments that students enjoy so much. After each class your student will come home with an outline of the experiment, your child’s hypothesis and an explanation of what us happening during the experiment.
The science, behind this balloon baking soda experiment, is the chemical reaction between the base {baking soda} and the acid {vinegar}. When the two ingredients mix together the balloon baking soda experiment gets it’s lift! The balloon is filling with the gas produced from the two ingredients is carbon dioxide or CO2.Carbon dioxide is Mr. John’s favorite gas.
Week 2:
If you put an egg in a cup of tap water, it will sink to the bottom. Why is this?
Because the density of the egg is higher than the density of tap water, so it sinks. Density is the mass of a material per unit volume. For example, the density of freshwater under standard conditions is approximately one gram per cubic centimeter.
But, if you add enough salt to the water, the egg will actually float back up to the surface! Adding salt to the water increases the density of the solution because the salt increases the mass without changing the volume very much.
When enough salt is added to the water, the saltwater solution’s density becomes higher than the egg’s, so the egg will then float! The ability of something, like the egg, to float in water or some other liquid is known as buoyancy.
Week 3
Week 4
In week 4, Mr. John used oil, water, food coloring, an empty plastic bottle and a funnel. Have you noticed that he tends to use everyday household materials for a majority of his experiments?
Mr. John set the bottle down and everyone had their eyes glued to the bottle. The oil and water were separating!
Why does the water not mix with the oil?
Explosion of vinegar and baking soda
What will happen if we put vinegar and baking soda in a sandwich bag?
We put vinegar in a sandwich bag and added baking soda, and the zipped sandwich bag popped!
Mixing vinegar and baking soda causes the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to react with acetic acid (vinegar) releasing carbon dioxide gas and making sodium acetate. The CO2 gas production caused the ziploc bag to pop.
Fire Resistant Water Balloon
What will happen if we put a flame under a balloon? What will happen if we put a flame under a balloon filled with water compared with putting a flame under a balloon with no water? The balloon without water popped when a flame was placed under it. The balloon with water in it did not pop when a flame was placed under it.
The thin balloon allows the heat to pass through very quickly and warm the water. As the water closest to the flame heats up, it begins to rise and cooler water replaces it at the bottom of the balloon. This cooler water then soaks up more heat and the process repeats itself. In fact, the exchange of water happens so often that it keeps the balloon from ever popping! The carbon was deposited on the balloon by the flame, and the balloon remains undamaged.
Paper Towels vs. Diapers
-Absorption “ To take something in”
What will happen if we pour water in a container containing paper towels and another container containing Sodium Polyacrylate(the stuff in diapers)? Which will hold more water, paper towels or Sodium Polyacrylate?
The container with the paper towels absorbed some water but not all the water. Some of the water spilled out of the container. The container that had Sodium Polyacrylate absorbed all the water. None of the water spilled out of the container.
The Sodium Polyacrylate holds more water than paper towels and is therefore, more absorbent.
Magic Milk Rainbow
Surface Tension
“A property of a liquid keeping an object from going into the liquid”
What will happen if we put drops of food coloring on the top of milk in a bowl and place dish soap in the middle of the milk?
We placed the drops of food coloring(green, red, and yellow) on top of milk in a bowl and we put dish soap on the end of a Q-tip in the middle of the milk.
When we dipped the dish soap soaked Q-tip in the milk the food coloring swirled!
Food coloring is less dense than milk so it floats on the surface of the milk. When the dish soap touches the milk, the milk’s surface tension changes and the milk begins to move in an attempt to keep normal surface tension. This movement causes the food coloring to mix creating a milk rainbow.
Pop Rock Expander
-Chemical Reaction
What happens when we mix Pop Rock candy and soda? Should we ask Mikey?
First, get an entire package of Pop Rocks into a balloon using a funnel and place the balloon over the mouth of a bottle of soda. Grab the balloon and dump the Pop Rocks into the soda. And then the balloon was inflating!
Both candy and soda contain pressurized carbon dioxide gas. When the Pop Rocks are dropped into the soda, aome carbon dioxide is able to escape from the high fructose corn syrup of the soda and, because the carbon dioxide gas has nowhere to go in the bottle, it rises into the balloon.
Dancing Spaghetti
-Carbonation
What are the bubbles? What will happen when we put cooked spaghetti in a fresh glass of baking soda/vinegar mixture?
We made a “batch” of baking soda/vinegar mixture(2 cups of water and 2 cups of vinegar). We dropped several strands of cooked spaghetti into the baking soda/vinegar mixture, Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to the water/vinegar mixture.
The spaghetti sinks to the bottom of the baking soda/vinegar mixture. Then when the baking soda is added bubbles are produced lifting the spaghetti throughout the liquid.
The carbonated bubbles rise to the top “pushing” the spaghetti towards the top of the bowl creating dancing spaghetti,
Tea Bag Hot air Balloon
What will happen when we set fire to an unused, empty tea bag?
First we cut the unused tea bag and discarded the tea leaves and then made the tea bag into a shape of a cylinder. Mr, John set fire to the tea bag, As the tea bag burned, it began to float up.
When the tea bag burns down it gets lighter in weight and the air around the flame gets hotter. Hot air rises and once the burnt tea bag is light enough it gets carried up with the hot air.
Suspension(chemistry)
-A state of matter “A fluid containing solid particles”
What will happen if we mix cornstarch and water?
We mixed cornstarch and water and slowly put our finger in the mixture. We quickly hit the mixture.
When we slowly put our finger in the mixture it went into the mix like a liquid. When we quickly hit the mixture our fingers stayed dry, out of the mix. It felt like a solid.
By mixing the cornstarch and water we created a state of matter known as suspension. When we hit the Cornstarch Suspension it felt like a solid because its molecules line up. But it looks like a liquid and acts like a liquid when no one is pressing on it because the molecules relax.
This last week and a half has flown by! First we learned all about Reptiles and Amphbians! We learned that reptiles are cold blooded and that most lay eggs. We also learned that most reptiles leave their babies alone, except for the crocodile We also learned that amphibians are also cold blooded and have smooth, moist skin! We also had fun identifying all the types of animals we have learned about at the Akron Zoo on our field trip!
We also talked about Summer Safety during the final few days of school. We learned that 911 is the number to call in an emergency. We also talked about strangers and about the safe adults we can trust. We also talked about making sure we always wear helmets when skating, riding our scooters, or riding our bikes outside.
It has been a wonderful school year! I consider it an honor and a privilage to teach your children! As Maria Montessori said, “If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men.” Your children are truly a ray of hope and sunshine in my life!
Have a wonderful and safe Summer and we’ll see you in August!
This week, we learned All About Birds! We learned that all birds have a beak, two wings, two legs, have feathers, and are warm blooded. We also learned that not all birds fly! We also learned the french song ” Alouette” which is a song about a lark and and we also learned the Parts of The Bird.
Grandparents Day!
Thank you to all the wonderful grandparents who came on Thursday to spend the morning with your grandchild! It was such a wonderful morning!
A Peek Into Next Week:
-All About Reptiles and Amphibians
This week, we learned all about Mammals. We learned the mammals are warm blooded, breathe oxygen from the air, and give birth to their babies. We learned that a Blue Whale is the largest animal in the world! We also learned that a Duck Billed Platypus is also a mammal, even though it lays eggs!
A Peek At Next Week:
-All About Birds
This week, we learned all about Insects! We learned that insects have three segments to their body: head, thorax, and abdomen. They also have six legs and two antenna. We also learned about the Life Cycle of the Butterfly and how the butterfly starts of as an egg, then the egg hatches and out comes a caterpillar! The caterpillar then eats and eats and spins a chrysalis and after several weeks, emerges as a butterfly!
A Peek Into Next Week:
-All About Mammals
This week, we learned all about Outer Space! We learned the names of all the planets in our solar system. We also learned that our Sun is a star! We also learned that all the planets orbit the Sun! We also learned that one orbit of the Earth around the Sun takes one year! We also learned about the International Space Station and watched a video clip of Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon!
A Peek Into Next Week:
-All About Insects
