Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Looking after our teeth: Senior infants
Monday, November 29, 2010
Fun in the snow: Senior infants
We decided to make the most of the snow today and we went for a walk around our school. We had to take extra care in the snow. Our school yard was completely covered in snow so it was great fun to go out and make footprints in the snow. We also visited the church and said a little prayer. On the way back to school again we had some more fun in the snow and even got to throw some snow balls!!
Acid cabbage test and teeth: Senior infants
We have been learning how important it is to take care of our teeth. Teacher had an enormous toothbrush and set of teeth and she showed us how to brush our teeth correctly. We learned that acid is not good for our teeth so we decided to test some drinks and other things to see if they had acid in them. To do this we needed some PH neutral water. Teacher put some chopped up red cabbage in a bowl and added some boiling water. When it cooled we were left with purple water. Then we tested some drinks and other things to see if they had acid in them. If the drinks turned pink after mixing them with the cabbage solution we knew that they contained acid. It's ok to drink these drinks accasionally but not too often as acid is very bad for our teeth and we must make sure to brush our teeth after drinking them. We found that orange juice, apple juice, lemon juice, coke and vinegar all contain acid and turned the solution pink. Bread soda and washing-up liquid are alkalis and turned the solution blue/green.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Fun with magnets: Junior Infants
We were learning all about magnets last week.
We were talking about the materials that are used to make the things we use every day; chairs, tables, lunch boxes, toys... We discovered lots of different materials; wood, plastic and metal. It was very easy to find the metal things because it is hard, cold, shiny, strong and our magnets would stick to it.
We also discovered that magnets are fussy things. They will not stick to just anything. In a magnet north repels north, south repels south, but north and south attract each other. In our experiment that meant that the two blue sides would not stick together no matter how hard we tried and the two red sides would not stick together but the blue and the red attracted each other and stuck together very quickly. In discovering this we learned that we could push and pull things using magnets or even make our magnets spin around in circles. 
We know that the north side repels the north side and the south the south of magnets so they will not stick together. We placed the magnets in such a way that they repel each other and in so doing appear to be floating. We thought this was like MAGIC!!
Learning about fire: Senior Infants
We did experiments with candles last week.First we lit three candles , and put a small jar over one and a big jar over another.We left one uncovered.We saw that the uncovered candle burned longest and the candle covered by the small jar burned the shortest amount of time.We learned that fire needs fuel,air and heat in order to burn .
Next we put water around a candle and then covered it.We saw bubbles and then the flame went out.The water then went into the jar.We heard that that is because air expands when hot.When the flame went out,the air didn t fill the jar as much and so there was room for the water to go in.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Visit to the bottle bank: Senior Infants
We visited the Bottle Bank and the Clothes Bank beside our school today. We saw the large bins where people put their empty glass bottles. Some bins were for green glass, some for brown glass and some for clear glass. We discussed the importance of putting the different coloured bottles into the correct bin. We also saw the Clothes Bank. On the way there and back we observed all the signs of winter. Most of the trees around our school are bare now. Also there wasn't a swallow in sight. They have all gone back to Africa now to escape the cold Winter here!!! There was also a touch of frost in the air and we were well wrapped up in our scarves and wore our hats and gloves.
Science Week experiments in second class
Our class carried aout lots of experiments during science week. We made rainbow spinners so that we could see two primary colours make a new colour. We discovered that the rainbow spinners work better with a cocktail stick than a pencil. We also used some paint to make new colours.
We used diet coke and mentos to make a geyser. When we put the mentos into the diet coke it erupted. We had to do this experiment outside so that we would not make a big mess inside.
During science week we also made playdough. We made blue and pink playdough. Here is what we did:
1. Mix a tablespooon of salt, a few drops of food colouring and some water in a cup.
2. Put flour and a tablespoon of cooking oil in a bowl and mix them together.
3. Add the food colouring mixture to the flour and mix them all together until it looks like playdough.
We used diet coke and mentos to make a geyser. When we put the mentos into the diet coke it erupted. We had to do this experiment outside so that we would not make a big mess inside.
During science week we also made playdough. We made blue and pink playdough. Here is what we did:
1. Mix a tablespooon of salt, a few drops of food colouring and some water in a cup.
2. Put flour and a tablespoon of cooking oil in a bowl and mix them together.
3. Add the food colouring mixture to the flour and mix them all together until it looks like playdough.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Is it waterproof? Senior Infants
We talked a lot about what the word waterproof means. Then we decided to do a simple experiment to test and see if some things were waterproof or not. First we had to guess what we thought was going to happen and we recorded our guesses. Then we did our experiment. Amongst the items we tested were a sock, a paper bag, a plastic bag and rubber gloves. We found out that the sock and the paper bag were not waterproof but the plastic bag and the rubber gloves were. We put some water on teacher's raincoat also and found that it was waterproof too, as are wellies and umbrellas.
Electricity Workshop, Armagh planetarium: Senior Infants
The Armagh Planetarium visited our school on Friday,19 November, during Science Week. Our class got to go to an electricity workshop, along with some of the children from Miss Ferguson's class. It was a super workshop. First we got to see static electricity in operation. We rubbed a balloon against our hair and found that the balloon could then pick up small pieces of paper. It also could make our hair stand up!! Amazingly the balloon could also move an empty tin can when we held the balloon close to it after we had rubbed the balloon against our heads. We also saw some clever tricks on how electricity could be passed from one electricity source to another. It could even be passed from an electricity source through one person, then an object. to another person!! We could also block the path the electricity took by blocking it with our hands. Of course we are talking about safe electricity which is very different from the electricity we find in sockets etc.
