Sunday 9 June 2013

What do you know?

We are learning about heating and cooling processes in Room 22. We have been looking at how this affects different objects and this week we are exploring kitchen science and the heating and cooling process.

We are also doing some mini inquiry learning about volcanoes and how heating and cooling affect change in the environment.

Our trip to the museum to explore volcanoes next week is gonna ROCK!


Tuesday 14 May 2013

More thinking about states of matter...

Today we have been learning about the properties of each state of matter:

Solids have tightly packed molecules and their shape is hard to change.

Liquids have moving molecules and they take on the shape of the container that they are in.


Gases have wild and moving molecules and cannot be contained easily.

We also looked at what they have in common:

LS = you can see them easily
LG = flow easily
LG = don't keep shape
SL = don't fly around 
LG = affected by gravity
SL = can feel them, hold them, weigh them

They can ALL be measured!


Sunday 12 May 2013

What is the MATTER???

This week we are working with our Inquiry Learning teacher, Mrs Munro, to find out all about MATTER.

We have the big question: What is MATTER?

We started by thinking about this as a normal question and wrote sentences about it. We thought it meant things like - what is the matter? But it wasn't that sort of MATTER that we were talking about! And it really does MATTER!

So we looked on kids' websites for info about the states of matter and the definition of it. We found out that matter is kind of everything. It has different forms like: solid, liquid, gas, plasma and BEC. The last two are VERY complicated so we are focussing on the main three of solid, liquid and gas.

We thought about the forms that things take and answered some fun questions based on 'what if...' which is the question we looked at last term about lots of different things.

Here's our thinking:

What if your jeans were made of wool? Samantha, Nancy, Amie, Olivia
- uncomfortable
- have to stand up
- no running (too hot!)
- change colour every day
- can't wash it :(
- one pair
- no shoes (too hard to put on!)

What if your rubbish bin was made out of cotton wool? Simran, Elizabeth

  • we couldn't put the rubbish inside it
  • will collapse
  • you can't wash it
  • you can't put lots inside or heavy things 
What if the door was made out of fabric? Adam, Alec, Jake
  • people could rip the fabric and rob your house
  • it would be nice and colourful
  • you could walk over it/through it
  • not strong
What if your t-shirt was made of cardboard? Taine, Ben R, Ben C
- it would get wet in the rain and fall apart
- it would stink
- you couldn't wash it
- it would be uncomfortable

What if your rubbish bin was made of cotton wool? Simran
  • it would feel soft
  • it will fall down when the rubbish is heavy
  • if you put liquid in it, the wool would stain
  • it would leak
  • you can't put rubbish in it
What if your school bag was made of metal? Faye, Rui Wen, Ha Jin
- it would be heavy
- the metal would get rusty
- if you dent it, you'd get in trouble with your mum
- you could use it as a table
- you could protect yourself

What if your desk was made of wool? Tahlia, Meadow, Amy
  • it wouldn't be able to stand
  • you can't write on it
  • you can't open it
  • your things would go through it
  • it would be really soft
  • everything would make it crumble
  • it might fly away!
  • it would rip apart
What if your ball was made of glass? Guy, Sione, Kyle L
- when you kick it, it would hurt
- you couldn't play some sports
- it would be too fragile

What if your pencil was made of chalk? Kyle E, Jacob, Dylan
  • it would be messy
  • could be colourful
  • dusty
  • very messy
  • might be allergic
What if your ruler was made out of paper? Josh and Ethan
- it would bend
- it would rip
- you couldn't rule straight
- if it got wet it would disintegrate