Look at something interesting found at home. We have lots of questions? Where did these bird feathers come from? Was a bird in the house? What kind of bird has feathers like this? So interesting!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Feathery Fun
Look at something interesting found at home. We have lots of questions? Where did these bird feathers come from? Was a bird in the house? What kind of bird has feathers like this? So interesting!Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Making Boats
We are watching the Volvo Ocean Race on the computer (and whiteboard). We are cheering for Green Dragon and we can't wait to see the Green Dragon in Galway next week. Today we made our own boats out of marla. It was quite a challenge getting them to float. Our lumps of marla wouldn't float without being changed into a boat shape.
When one of the girls figured out a great design for her boat, she showed us all how to make floating boats. Next teacher got some passengers (peas) that were willing to ride in our boats. All the pieces of marla were exactly the same size so we looked for good floating designs. Some of our boats held 21, 22 or even 42 peas! (which beats teacher's previous record of 16 passengers). Now we know more about good shapes for floating.
When one of the girls figured out a great design for her boat, she showed us all how to make floating boats. Next teacher got some passengers (peas) that were willing to ride in our boats. All the pieces of marla were exactly the same size so we looked for good floating designs. Some of our boats held 21, 22 or even 42 peas! (which beats teacher's previous record of 16 passengers). Now we know more about good shapes for floating.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Caterpillars, Cocoons and Butterflies
Don't forget to keep up to date on the progress of our painted lady caterpillars on http://scoilchaitrionajnrmsmcloughlin.blogspot.com/2009/04/caterpillars-and-butterflies.html
Friday, May 15, 2009
We know lots about lifecycles. We can tell you lots about the lifecycle of the frog, the butterfly, the hen, and plants. We have toys and charts we use to show others all about the lifecycles.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Water Investigations
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Today we learned more about water. We tried some investigations. They were very interesting. We know that when water is poured it always falls straight down to the ground. We can get it to fall diagonally by getting it to run along a piece of string. The water holds on to the string using surface tension.
Next we tried some bath tricks. 
If you have a bottle full of water, and you turn it upside down, all the water will run out. If you turn the same bottle of water upside down, but you do this under water, the water will not run out. This is because the water in the bottle is trying to get out, but air pressure is trying to force water in the basin to go into the bottle. Neither the water in the basin nor the water in the bottle end up moving at all. 
We can see air pressure at work even more clearly when we get a cup filled with water, turn it upside down on cardboard, and let go. We all expected the cardboard to fall down and the water in the cup to run out, but this didn't happen because the air pressure on the cardboard prevented the cardboard from moving.
Surface Tension and Detergent:
This is a great investigation you can try in the bath at home. Fill the bath with water. Make a cardboard boat and float it on the water. It will not move if the water is still. Now drop one drop of wash up liquid (or shampoo) into the water at the back of the boat. This causes the surface tension on the water to be broken and the boat will shoot forward. Be warned though: This works only once, until the bath is washed and dried again, getting rid of any detergent.
Water Races:
We tried to figure out the fastest way to empty a bottle. We tried racing bottles, we tried pouring, squeezing and shaking a bottle, while racing it against a control bottle. None of these ways got the water out of the bottle more quickly than others. What we discovered is that you need to swirl a bottle of water to get the water to pour out more quickly. When you swirl a bottle, the water runs to the outside of the bottle, allowing air to push up inside the bottle. This air pushes down on the water, pushing it quickly out of the bottle.
Today we learned more about water. We tried some investigations. They were very interesting. We know that when water is poured it always falls straight down to the ground. We can get it to fall diagonally by getting it to run along a piece of string. The water holds on to the string using surface tension.
Next we tried some bath tricks. 
If you have a bottle full of water, and you turn it upside down, all the water will run out. If you turn the same bottle of water upside down, but you do this under water, the water will not run out. This is because the water in the bottle is trying to get out, but air pressure is trying to force water in the basin to go into the bottle. Neither the water in the basin nor the water in the bottle end up moving at all. We can see air pressure at work even more clearly when we get a cup filled with water, turn it upside down on cardboard, and let go. We all expected the cardboard to fall down and the water in the cup to run out, but this didn't happen because the air pressure on the cardboard prevented the cardboard from moving.Surface Tension and Detergent:
This is a great investigation you can try in the bath at home. Fill the bath with water. Make a cardboard boat and float it on the water. It will not move if the water is still. Now drop one drop of wash up liquid (or shampoo) into the water at the back of the boat. This causes the surface tension on the water to be broken and the boat will shoot forward. Be warned though: This works only once, until the bath is washed and dried again, getting rid of any detergent.Water Races:
We tried to figure out the fastest way to empty a bottle. We tried racing bottles, we tried pouring, squeezing and shaking a bottle, while racing it against a control bottle. None of these ways got the water out of the bottle more quickly than others. What we discovered is that you need to swirl a bottle of water to get the water to pour out more quickly. When you swirl a bottle, the water runs to the outside of the bottle, allowing air to push up inside the bottle. This air pushes down on the water, pushing it quickly out of the bottle.
Some of the seeds we planted have really grown. Look at our wonderful broad bean and four leaf clover plants. We are so proud of them.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Floating and Sinking
Some things float and some things sink. Today we tried out various things to see whether they would float or sink.
Each time we had to guess first whether something would float or sink, then we could try it out. We had some surprises - things either floated or sank when we didn't expect them to.
Each time we had to guess first whether something would float or sink, then we could try it out. We had some surprises - things either floated or sank when we didn't expect them to.