Diet Coke and Mentos

The weather cooperated today and so Mrs. Watson did the Mentos and Diet Coke Demonstration that we talked about in our Week 5 science lesson.  Mrs. Watson found a way to drop many Mentos into the bottle at once.  After a small hole was drilled into each candy, they were threaded onto a pipe cleaner. Another hole was drilled into the cap of the pop bottle.  The pipe cleaner was held in place with a paperclip.  When the paper clip was removed, the Mentos would be released into the bottle.  Sierra was kind enough to pull the paperclip holding the mentos above the soda, and run for it.  Here’s what happened!

IMG_2742 from Melody Watson on Vimeo.

 

 

Here is a video we watched after the demonstration to help explain what happened:

Solids, Liquids, and Gases!

This week in science we learned about gases. The experiment at the end of the lesson was combining a liquid (vinegar) and a solid (baking soda) to make a gas (carbon dioxide). Mrs. Watson took us out to her front yard to do two different demonstrations.

If you want to try this at home, here are the things we used today:

In the first experiment, vinegar and baking soda were combined to blow up a balloon.  The students wanted to see a big reaction and thought it was a good idea to add extra baking soda to the balloon and extra vinegar in the bottle! The vinegar goes in the bottle and the baking soda goes in the balloon.  You can use a funnel to add the baking soda to the balloon.  Then you carefully put the balloon on the bottle and dump in the baking soda. Mrs. Watson didn’t get a picture of this.

For the second experiment, dish soap was added to the vinegar before adding in the baking soda.  Look what happened!

You can try this at home.  Experiment with adding different quantities of baking soda, vinegar and dish soap.  See what happens and post pictures to FreshGrade!

 

Bug Counting

We had so much fun with our bird count, that we decided to head outside to collect data for another graph yesterday. We graphed the insects that we could find in our yards in ten minutes. The students decided that we would look for: wood bugs, bees/wasps, and mosquitoes. We decided to include an “other” column as well.  Who knew you could find so many bugs in such a short period of time.  Here is our data.

 

 

 

 

ADST Paper Chain Challenge

On Wednesday, the students were challenged to make the longest paper chain that they could using one piece of construction paper, scissors, and glue or tape.  Some students completed the challenge on their own, and others had family members join in on the fun.  The students had just over 10 minutes to make a plan and construct their chains. Here are a few screenshots from Zoom of the completed chains.

 

The longest chain was measured at 290 cm long. Wow!

 

Bird Counting

The intermediate class had a wonderful idea this week.  For Earth Day they went out and did a bird count.  They used the data to make graphs.  We did the same thing Friday morning. At the start of math class we did a poll to make a prediction.

Then we each went outside and tallied the birds we saw for 10 minutes.  Everyone brought their data back and we made one combined chart.  One category was so large that we couldn’t fit in all the tallies.  After lunch Mrs. Watson shared a graph of our data.

 

 

 

Hello Everyone!

Tomorrow will be a very different start to third term (one like I have never experienced before). The teachers and support staff will be working hard to get things ready this week for a different style of learning. I will be reaching out to families Monday and Tuesday to get plans in place for our learning this term.  I am not sure how long we will be learning together from home, but I know that we can make it work!

I am getting a platform up and running called Zoom so that we can meet together online as a class. It is free for us to use and can be run on a computer or device like a tablet or phone.  I will be working with families to try and make sure you all have what you need to get connected. You will be doing some work offline (like writing in your journal and reading) and some work online (like meeting for math [grade 2/3s], science lessons, and even read alouds from Magic Treehouse). Later this week we will set-up times for you to come and get your supplies from school and any other tools you will need for learning at home.

While we are getting everything ready for you, I would encourage you to do your daily reading (a good fit book from home or a RAZ book), do some writing, and work on your math (you all have access to your DreamBox or Mathletics accounts and many of you have fact sheets you can work on as well). Passwords and login information for these websites was sent home in the report card envelopes before spring break.  You can call me at school Monday or at home after that if you have any questions.

I am going to use Symbaloo to organize all the websites you may need to access.  Some of these sites are new to you. If they require a password, I will be giving you that information once we get started. You will also have your own password-protected pages on this blog that you will use to get to a Google Doc I am setting up for each of you. We will talk all about this when we meet up in Zoom. For now, you can click on the different sites in the Symbaloo below and do some exploring.

I miss you all and am looking forward to learning with you again very soon!

Mrs. Watson

School Science Fair

The K/1/2/3s worked very hard on their science fair projects this term. Each student chose a topic in January that they wanted to research. They started with their questions and wonders and then decided whether they wanted to do an experiment or a study.  The school science fair was Thursday and I think you will agree that the students all did an amazing job!