Ms. McLoughlin's class, 2nd Class, Room 9

Friday, 9 January 2009

Papier Mache Houses

We are talking a lot about houses this month in class.

We made papier mache houses out of flour, newspaper and milk cartons. When the cartons were dry we painted them to look like cottages. We have made a lovely village of cottages.

We also made lovely clay castles,

and printed homes.

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Lions and Prisoners behind bars

A lion/prisoner behind bars
Thursday, 8th January 2009
Teacher printed out pictures of empty cages, lions and prisoners.

We each cut out a cage and then stuck either a lion or a prisoner on the back.

We can put the lion/prisoner behind bars by spinning the cage very quickly. This confuses our eyes into thinking that the lion/prisoner is actually behind bars and not on the other side of the page.

Wednesday, 7 January 2009

The Oily Water Bottle

The Oily Water Bottle,

Wednesday, 7th January, 2009
We have a bottle with oil, water and some blue colouring in it.

We can rock the bottle and see the blue water making waves in the oil. We shook the bottle and let it stand on teacher’s desk for a while. After a while we could see that the oil and water were separating again. That is because oil and water never mix.

Diving Drops

Diving Drops and Sinking Feelings
Wednesday, 7th January, 2009
We poured some water into a cup. Next we added oil. We had to guess whether the oil would mix with the water, or whether the oil would lie on top or on the bottom of the water. The oil stays on top of the water.

Next we added syrup and had to guess where the syrup would stay. It fell to the bottom of the cup, under the layer of water.

Lastly we dropped a few drops of red food dye into the cup. The drops sat on the top of the oil for a while (except for the biggest drop). Then they all rested between the oil and the water and finally the drops mixed in with the water giving a nice red colour to the water.

Monday, 22 December 2008

Indian display

Indian Display
Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Adi’s Mum and Dad are from India. They speak English and Bengali. They came to our class to tell us really interesting things about
India…….

....Adi’s Dad had a great presentation to show us. He showed us the Indian flag and map, and told us that it would take us 8 hours to fly to India by aeroplane. He showed us photographs of the Himalayan mountains in the north, the desert in the west, the sea and beaches of the south, and the lovely bay and sea of the east. We saw pictures of peacocks, a tiger, lotus flower, cricket, Taj Mahal, traditional food, clothes, festivals, art and
architecture, travel, and a really interesting piece from an Indian film. It was all so interesting.

Adi’s Mum showed us her everyday clothes, and also how to wear a sari. We were really surprised at how much material is in each sari. We saw Indian jewellery (it was lovely), spices, and home decorations. Adi and his mum and dad showed us how they say their prayers in Bengali, and they also let us try some traditional snacks. They were salty rather than sweet. They were
delicious. Thanks so much to Alok and Tanu for letting us experience India in such an interesting and fun way.

Friday, 19 December 2008

Christmas Lanterns

Friday, December 19th, 2008

We made some lovely Christmas lanterns in class today. Look at us holding them.

Santa's Visit

Friday, 19th December 2008

Santa came to visit our class today. He was big and round and jolly, and he wore his red suit. He was really nice and he gave us some chocolates. We can't wait until he comes to our houses on Christmas Eve.

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Racing Colours

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

We got tissue paper, cups with a little water in them, and markers. We made spots with the marker fairly near (but not at) the end of the tissue. We put the tissue into a cup with a little water. What happened?

The tissue absorbed the water and pulled the marker dye with it. We could see the colours racing, and we could see what colours are made from other colours. We saw purple (red and blue), green (blue and yellow), orange (yellow and red) and brown (red, yellow and blue).

Colour Wheels

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Teacher had some Quality Street chocolate wrappers. We could look through the papers and everything seems a lovely colour. When we mixed the colours together we could make new colours.

We discovered that:
red and yellow make orange,
red and blue make purple,
yellow and blue make green and
yellow, blue and red together make brown.
Mrs Newell had some coloured plastic sheets. We stuck these to the windows in different combinations and got the same results.

Next we made colour wheels and spun them using toothpicks. Teacher let us spin some with a motor. They spun really well, and made lots of different colours. We discovered that if you make a wheel with the 7 colours of the rainbow on it, that when it spins you can see a white light. Do you know the colours of the rainbow? We do. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Carol Service

We had our Carol Service last night (Wednesday, 17th of December). It was just lovely. The children sang so well, the junior infants looked gorgeous dressed up as people and animals from the Nativity Story and the "Amen" dance at the end was spectacular. Well done to all the children, teachers and parents who put so much time and effort into making the night a really special one.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

German Display

German display
Tuesday, 16th December 2008

Jordan’s mum Anita came to tell us all about Germany today. She lived there for 8 years. She brought lots of toys, ornaments and clothes to show us.

She also had a huge beer mug. Anita had a lovely jigsaw of Europe to show us the countries we are hearing about at the moment. We looked at lovely nutcracker dolls, German jellies and all sorts of Easter decorations. We learned some German words too, and saw the map and flag of Germany. It was all so interesting.