In class we have been talking about electricity, how it is made, what it is used for, what life was like in the olden days when there was no electricity and how we can save energy.
Next we had a chance to make electrical circuits. First of all we made circuits using 2 wires, a battery and a bulb. It took good group work to get the bulb lighting. We know that circuits are like circles made of wires, battery and bulb. The circuit can't be broken in any place if you want the bulb to light. 
When we were all able to do this, one of the wires was taken away and we made the circuits again with just one wire, a bulb and a battery.
Using our circuits we could make a lighthouse. You need a kitchen roll cardboard, 2 wires, a battery (and holder) and a bulb (and holder). We can even make the lighthouse bulb flash on and off by connecting and disconnecting the bulb.
Teacher had some celery, so we put it into a cup with water coloured with red food dye. We put another piece of celery in a cup with water coloured blue, and a third piece of celery, with its stem sliced a little, into both cups of coloured water. Even after a few hours we could see the celery changing colour, depending on which cup it is in. Tomorrow we will chop the celery stems to see the food dye in the celery.
We can really see the colours being soaked by the celery. Teacher cut the stalks and we could see the colours in the stalks. 
The most interesting stalk was the one that was half and half in each colour. Look at the way that stalk looked!
Both snowballs were the same size but we left one on teacher's desk and the other on the radiator. We had to guess which would melt first. We all guessed the one on the radiator, and we were right! 
They both melted quickly. It was 2degrees outside, but about 16degrees inside. Snowballs like the cold weather!
We wondered was it newspaper, paper hand towels, kitchen roll or delux paper roll from Mrs. Browne. We mostly guessed it was Mrs. Browne kitchen roll. 
We set up a little test to find out. We used strips of each paper, a dish, skewers and a cup of water with red food dye in it. We left the test soaking for a while, and watched the water being absorbed by the paper strips. 
We were right - the nice thick paper roll was the best, then the ordinary kitchen roll, then the paper towels, and lastly, worst of all for mopping up skills was newspaper. Now we know which to use when something spills in our class!
We talked about New Year's Celebrations in China. We found out that most of us are sheep (2003) or Monkeys (2004). We found out what kind of people we are. We also found out about tigers, and about Chinese inventions such as paper, printing, fireworks, gunpowder, compasses and hot air balloons. We were curious about how strong paper is, and if every type of paper is as strong as all other types. 
Teacher cut out strips of different kinds of paper that we have in the classroom, and we had to guess the order of the paper in order from strongest to weakest. Most of us guessed that the purple tissue paper is the strongest, maybe because it is the darkest. It turned out not to be so.
Teacher made a little bucket for the test, out of a yoghurt pot, a paper clip and some string. To be fair each piece of paper was the same size, and had a hole punched in the same place as the others. We attached this bucket to the piece of paper for testing, guessed first, then added marbles to see at what point the paper would tear. 
We enjoyed the counting and testing. We were really really surprised at how strong an ordinary (recycled) piece of A4 photocopying card was.
We hadn't enough marbles to get a result on this one. Here are the results:
