More rocket experiments!

Today we made rockets with long balloons, straws, tape and fishing line.  It was quite tough to blow the balloons up but we discovered that Casey was an expert! Ross went a bit red when he tried too!

We know that when air comes out of the back of a balloon it shoots forward in the same way that a rocket is propelled. We taped straws to the balloons and threaded some fishing line through so that we could control where they went.
We had to go into the hall to get enough room to fly the rockets.

Not all The rockets worked well however!
We discovered that short bits of straws worked better than long bits.
Can you tell which rockets had shorter bits?
We had great fun!

Rocket propulsion

We have been experimenting with different ways of propelling objects. Our first experiment was with denture cleansing tablets, water and balloons. We discovered that the tablets reacted with water and made a gas which inflated the balloon. This is what happened.

We tried putting a tablet in a film canister with water and putting the lid on. Some reacted quickly but others had a wee while to wait!

 

Flying saucers and planets.

We have a collection of strange flying saucers and planets hovering in our classroom. This is how we made them.
Mrs Muir cut some polystyrene balls in half for us and the first thing we did was decorate them with felt pens. We drew patterns or alien creatures on them.

Next we stuck 2 old cds together to hide the labels and then we used the glue gun to stick a half ball on each side.

Now we added the final touch - glitter!(I bet the cleaners loved us!)

 

The final task was adding string to hang them up. They look great hanging from the roof!

Golden time

If we have worked hard and displayed good behaviour, manners and cooperation all week, we earn 30 minutes of 'Golden Time' on Fridays.
We can choose which activities to do. Some of us like to read, some build with construction sets or paint pictures. We share the laptop computers with other classes so we sometimes have them too.

Computer concentration!

Choosing what to read.

Painting fun.

Take a look at some of our art work on the theme of space.

Space drama!

We've been using a space theme as inspiration for some drama activities in the dining hall.

Here we are putting on our space suits. It's like everything is in slow motion because there is no gravity in space and everything floats.

Operating machinery needed cooperation!

                   We're travelling through a meteor storm and it is VERY bumpy!

 After the bumpy journey all our supplies in the storeroom were scattered so we had to reorganise them. They were floating all over the place!

Seasons

We found out that seasons occur because the earth is tilted and as it travels around the sun different parts of the Earth are facing towards it. When the part of the earth we are on is facing towards the sun we have summer and when we face away from the sun we have winter.

We got some inflatable globes and practiced demonstrating the seasons to each other.

Watch our demonstration here.