Monday, February 22nd, 2010
After watching water being absorbed by paper, we thought we would see if a vegetable could absorb water too. 
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.
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.Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
We had a look at our sticks of celery this morning. 
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!
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:
She gave some of us short whistles, and some of us got long whistles. We discovered that the short whistles made high sounds, while the long whistles made low sounds. 
Teacher then showed us a sliding whistle that she has. We would all have liked to play the whistle, but that would not be too hygenic, so teacher showed us how it works. Just like the straws, when the whistle is short it makes a high sound, but when you slide the whistle to make it longer, the whistle sound is lower. Next we broke up into groups and were given a strong plastic container and 5 elastic bands of different colours and sizes. 
Teacher put the elastic bands in order from shortest to longest, then put them, still in order, on to the plastic container. She plucked each one in turn and we tried to sing the note that it made. We noticed that the shortest elastic bands made the highest sounds, and that the longest elastic bands made the lowest sounds. We had our own turn then at arranging the elastics according to size, and putting them on the plastic containers. 
We tried strumming the elastic bands, and singing the notes it made. In three different ways we found that short instruments (elastic bands, whistles and straws) make high sounds and that long instruments make lower sounds. We even used our maths skills by sorting from long to short to shortest and from short to longer and longest.
We sorted too from low to higher to highest, and from high to lower to lowest. We really understand long, longer, longest, short, shorter, shortest and high, higher, highest, low, lower, lowest now.
