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.

Making a Volcano

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

We put bread soda into a small bottle. (We also added red food colouring for effect, and wash up liquid for bubbles). Nothing happened yet.

Next Markian poured in vinegar and the volcano exploded, sending out bubbly red lava. This is because bread soda and vinegar react together chemically, giving off lots of bubbles (of carbon dioxide). We used the gas made to blow up a balloon. This time we started with vinegar in the bottle and the bread soda in the balloon. When we held the balloon upright, the bread soda in the balloon fell into the vinegar. The gas that was made blew up the balloon.

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, counted10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 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.

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.

The Science of Bubbles

Friday, November 21st, 2008

It is Science Week in Galway. Actually, in Galway it is a Science Fortnight, starting last week and finishing with a very exciting Science Exhibition in Salthill in Galway on Sunday. In our school all the teachers and pupils walked to Galway Education Centre to see a fantastic Bubble Show. Three of our Junior Infant classes also got to go to a show given by the Armagh Planetarium.Steve was our bubble man. He blew lots of bubbles, small ones and then big ones. He showed us the 7 colours that can be seen in bubbles - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (the colours of the spectrum, same as the colours in the rainbow). Steve showed us how to guess when a bubble will burst - it will turn from colourful to blue, then to gold, white, and will finally burst. Next we got to move bubbles with our hands and by blowing them. That was great fun. Steve showed us that bubbles are always spheres, regardless of whether they are blown through a circular wand, a square wand or through your hand. We saw bubbles really clearly when Steve blew smoke into the bubbles. He even showed us how to bounce bubbles, put our hands through them, how to blow a bubble inside another bubble, and how to make a string of bubbles all joined together. We can make really good bubble mixture using wash up liquid, water and glycerine. We are looking forward to having lots of fun ourselves with our bubbles.

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.

Planting Bulbs 9th October 2008

Today we learned all about planting bulbs in Ms.Crotty's Junior Infant class. Plants need water, sunshine and soil to grow. We each received a brown pot with our name on it. Ms. Crotty helped us to pour the soil into our pots. Then teacher gave each of a bulb. We placed our bulbs in the soil, which was in the pot. Then we covered the bulb with more soil. Then we added a little bit of water to wet the soil.The bulbs are now in our classroom. We water them everyday and we are watching to see which daffodil will grow first. But I think we might have a little while to wait as Ms.Crotty said they probably won't come up until the spring time. Until then we'll keep watching and waiting!!!!

Bubbles

This is "Science Week" so today
we went to the Education Centre to see someone make bubbles. We had a nice walk to get there. He made lots of bubbles of different shape and size. We discovered that bubbles have all the colours of the rainbow but the colours disappear before the bubbles burst. It was very exciting to see him put smoke into the bubbles.
We were tired and hungry by the time we walked back to our class!

Making Paper Aeroplanes

Making Paper Aeroplanes

Thursday, 13th November 2008

It is Science Week. In Galway there is a paper aeroplane flying competition during science week. In our class we decided to try making our own aeroplanes out of a sheet of paper.Teacher showed us how to make them, then we coloured and decorated them, and flew them.

A photographer from the local paper took our pictures with the aeroplanes.

Waterproof or Absorbent

Waterproof or Absorbent
Thursday, 13th November 2008
We are talking about materials. We checked lots of materials to see whether they were waterproof or not, by pouring water over them.
Here are our results:

Waterproof Materials:
Plastic, bottles, cups, wet weather trousers, tins, ice cream containers, jackets, our skin.
Absorbent Materials:
Newspaper, tissue, toilet paper, cloth.

Water Fills an empty glass

Water will fill empty spaces

Wednesday, November 11th 2008

Teacher got a candle. She put it on a stand, in a basin, with coins beside it. Then she put a glass jar (full of air) over the candle. She put some water in the basin. Teacher lit the candle. The candle stayed lighting in the air for a while, until all the air got used up. Then the candle went out. Now because the jar was empty (all the air was used up) the water rushed in to fill the space in the jar. Look at all the water that rushed into the jar to fill up the space that the air used to take.