Big nature walk

The children became very excited as we left the gates of the school today. And I quote "oh my god we're going outside the gates!" This made teacher smile.
We went on a hunt for a leaf of every autumn colour and acorns from the oak tree and conkers  from the horse chestnut tree. Teacher heard there is a shortage of these this year. Despite this we managed to find some. Although they some what magically appeared by teacher! We had a lot of fun in the Autumn leaves!

Autumn Nature Walk

We went on a nature walk around the school.
We picked up golden leaves that had fallen from the trees.

 We found a nice place to sit and talk about autumn.

We think we found the tallest tree in the whole school and stood underneath it for a picture!

Learning about reflectors

We learned all about reflectors today.

We also talked about using reflectors to keep us safe on the roads in the dark.

We know all about cats' eyes on the roads too.

We also talked about mirrors and about how they reflect light so well.

After watching a fun play doh movie about mirrors we tried pretending that we were mirrors.  Some of us are very good at this.

By the way, if you are free on Saturday 27th of October next (1-3pm) come to Oranmore pitch and be counted wearing a high vis vest. (Reflector vest).  If lots of people come and join in this, this will become a new record in the Guinness Book of Records!  BE SAFE, BE SEEN!

Dancing raisins

Taking care of our teeth experiments

We want to check how good or bad certain drinks are for our teeth.

We put a small amount of eggshell (because it is made like a tooth) into each container and added orange juice, vinegar, blackcurrent juice, water,7up or lemon.  We will leave these for a few days and see what happens to the eggshells.  We think that water will be the best for our teeth, and that 7up or vinegar will be the worst because we know these are acids.  We kept this test fair by using the same size eggshell in each cup, and the same amount of liquid in each cup.  All we have to do now is to wait and see!

Next we tried another experiment.  We want to see what exactly toothpaste does.  Teacher half filled 2 small bottles with vinegar and put a stick of chalk in each. Into one container she also put a squirt of toothpaste.  Then she stretched a balloon over each bottle.  We had hoped to see the orange balloon fill with gas because the vinegar reacts with the chalk to give off a gas (Carbon Dioxide).  We thought the green balloon would not blow up because the toothpaste stops the vinegar reacting so well with the chalk.  In actual fact neither balloon blew up, but we will leave this experiment another day or two to see does the reaction happen slowly.

Our fish tank

Moving a can!

We had lots of turns trying to get our can to move using static electricity.

It worked really well for most of us, but teacher found it hard to capture this on video!

Growing shadows

Static Electricity

Absorption patterns

Last we talked about absorption, things that take in water. We also talked about things that keep water out. Teacher helped us fold tissue paper into a neat square. We put food dye into water and then watched the tissue paper soak up the water. It made a fantastic pattern!

Shadows

How germs are spread

We also tried another experiment to show how germs spread when you sneeze.

Teacher filled a balloon with flour.  The balloon was like teacher's mouth and the flour was like her germs when she has a cold.

When teacher burst the balloon, it was like teacher sneezing.  The balloon popped and the flour spread out everywhere.  Some of us got flour on our clothes and skin.

If we sneeze without covering our mouths we are spreading germs in the same way.

We have learned lots now about preventing the spread of disease.

Hopefully we will be a very healthy class this year!

More frogs

Today a scientist named Diogo from Portugal. All the children in room 2 decided his name was Frog Man and continuously addressed him as this. Diogo loved this name.
He thought us about frogs in Connemara. We watched some short and interesting videos about frogs. In between these videos Diego played some fantastic games! We learned about the food chain and of the importance of keeping the ponds litter free. We had a recycled paper airplane flying competition. We watched a frog jump high up in the air. We thought it looked very like our fizzy rockets. We loved it all and a big thank you to "Frog Man"

Frog TV

A scientist called Diogo came in to do a lesson on frogs this week.We saw videos on  how they develop and change ,and how pollution from cars and litter left in ponds is harmful to them.The children did fun activities on what eats what in the wild ,and an experiment to make the frog hop  with a chemical explosion.It was fun!