Fizzy Rockets

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
We got some fizzy Vitamin C tablets. When they mix with water, they turn fizzy (they react together to give off Carbon Dioxide gas and this gas explodes the lid off the container).
We put some water into a container, added a fizzy tablet, put on the lid, counted
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Blast Off. The lid blasted off the container. When we caught the lid and put it back on, the top popped off….again and again. It was so exciting. After a while, no more gas was being made so the lid stopped popping .

Advent and Christmas Preparations

In Room 5 we have been talking about Advent. We have an Advent Wreath and an Advent Calendar, and the crib.Today, December 8th, we went to the church to see the Advent Wreath and all the decorations for Our Lady's celebration today. It is a holy day today so it is a very special day.

December Art

Friday, December 5th, 2008

We have been talking about the first Christmas tree, so on Wednesday we made lovely Christmas trees of our own. We painted them, cut them out, stuck them onto black paper and decorated them. Don't they look nice?

Today we made clay snowmen. Each one looks different. We wonder will they come to life like Frosty the Snowman?

The Ukraine

Friday, December 5th, 2008
One of the boys in our class has parents and grandparents that come from the Ukraine. He goes there on his holidays and knows lots about the Ukraine. Today his mum came to our class to tell us a little about his country.We learned lots and lots about the Ukraine from Iryna. She showed us a map, the flag and symbol of her country, and also some money. She taught us some Ukrainian words and letters and showed us the alphabet. She had a wonderful presentation which she showed us on the whiteboard about the food, countryside, festivals, clothes, toys, Easter and Christmas in the Ukraine.Iryna brought lots of things to show us. She had clothes, toys, decorations, Easter Eggs and lots and lots more. We all got to taste Ukrainian biscuits. We really loved hearing about the Ukraine and now we all want to visit the Ukraine. Thanks to Iryna for such a wonderful presentation.

Santa's Workshop

Drama,
Thursday, December 4th, 2008

We did lots of drama today. First of all teacher read us the story of the First Christmas Tree. Then some of us got a turn in the "hot seat". The child who sits in the hot seat pretends that he/she was the man who decorated that first christmas tree. All the rest of us got to ask the man questions about that night so long ago.Next we went to Santa's Workshop. Santa put us all to work. We had to make some toys, paint them, use hammers drills and nails and wrap presents. It was hard work. We made frozen pictures of us at work and the others had to guess what we were doing. Can you guess?

Book Fair

Book FairMonday 1st December to Friday 5th 2008
This week is Book Fair week in our school. We had an author and poet Pete Mollinaux visit our school today. He did some interesting drama with us, told us stories, showed us a rainmaker, sang a song on a guitar and told us always to use our imaginations. He was great! All this week we can visit the hall and see the books in the fair (with our parents if we like). We can buy the books. Money raised goes towards buying books for the school. Such a great cause!

The Water Cycle

Friday, 28th November, 2008
We had a cup of water on the window sill for a few days. It used to be full, up to the line, but now some of the water has evaporated.
Today we learned all about the Water Cycle. We know that water when heated will turn in to gas (this is called evaporation). Gas outside will form clouds, clouds will join together to form bigger clouds and they will let the water fall back to earth as rain. This rain will turn to puddles, rivers and seas. The sun outside will cause the water again to evaporate, and the water cycle will keep on going.

Art in November

Science Week was in November. We carried out lots of scientific investigations and talked a lot about heat, air, waterproof and absorbent materials and space. Our art work reflects some of the interesting topics we covered in our talks about science. Here are some of the examples of our work: Spiral Snakes, Waterproof Umbrellas and Space Pictures. Next Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent. We made Advent Wreaths with 3 purple candles and one pink one. We will look out for wreaths if we go to church this Sunday.

The Acid Test

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Today we were talking about acids. We know that they are bad for our teeth and that they often smell very strongly and may be in some of our foods or drinks. We wanted to find out how to tell whether a drink was an acid or not. This is what we needed:

A bowl of very hot water, a red cabbage, a knife and chopping board, lots of empty cups, a jug and lots of drinks and solids to check.

Teacher cut the cabbage and put the pieces into the bowl of hot water. She left this to cool. When it was cool, she used the jug to pour the now purple coloured water into each empty cup. (It is the colour from the red cabbage that turns the water purple, the cabbage in the water turned white when the colour went in the water).

Now came the fun part - we got to guess what colour the water would change when we put our drinks into the water.

Here are our results: Vinegar, lemon juice, cranberry juice, lemonade, apple and blackcurrant juice, ribena, orange juice and apple juice all turned the cabbage water red or pink. These all have acid in them - we need to brush our teeth if we drink these!

We found that wash-up liquid and bread soda both turned the water a blue-green colour. These are alkalis.

Finally we found that a drink of water didn't change the colour at all. Water is neutral. Red cabbage is a natural PH indicator and can tell whether something is an acid, an alkali or neutral. We can't wait to try this at home with our parents.

Raw and Cooked Eggs

Thursday, November 27th, 2008
We wanted to find out how to check if eggs were raw or cooked. Teacher showed us how. She gave us two eggs (one raw and one cooked) and showed us how to spin them. We found out that when you spin a raw egg and then gently put your hand on it and then take your hand off the egg, that the egg keeps on spinning. This is because the inside of the egg is not solid, and will keep moving once it has started moving, if it can - rather like a child in a car who has no seat belt on will keep on moving forward if the car comes to a sudden stop.If you spin a cooked egg, put your hand on it and then remove your hand, the egg will not continue moving, it will stop. This is because the inside of a cooked egg is solid, so it is like a child in a car wearing a seat belt - if the car stops suddenly the child will also stop.We learned a lot about raw and cooked eggs, and also about how important it is to wear a seat belt at all times when travelling in the car.