Update on our Dissolving Chalk Experiment

Poppy, Masyn and L:ucy found out that the three liquids (water, lemon juice and vinegar) are slowly dissolving the chalk.

The lemon juice and vinegar have acid in them and they are dissolving the chalk. The water does not have any acid so it is just soaking up some of the water. 

Dissolving Chalk

Growing Crystals

Look at our crystals only 5 days after we set up our experiment!

The water has started to evaporate from the sugar solution to leave behind sugar crystals. 

We can't wait to see them again in another 5 days! 

Growing Crystals

Today we made sugar crystals. 

First we made a saturated solution. This means we completely dissolved the sugar into water over heat. 

Next we set up our cup with an ice-block stick and string dangling into the cup.

Then we poured the sugar solution into the cup and made sure our string was dangling into the solution. 

Then we put our cups onto the window sill.

Our predictions:

• The water will evaporate and the sugar crystals will stay behind and grow and stick to the string. 

Scientific vocab we learnt today:

evaporate

dissolve

saturated solution


What do these words mean? Write us a comment and let us know what you think. 

Flying teabag experiment

This is a flying tea bag!!! Try this at home (With an adult).

Why does the teabag fly?

Lighting the top of the teabag cylinder heats the air inside the cylinder. The air molecules start to move more quickly and spread out to take up more space. As the air molecules spread out, the air inside the cylinder becomes less dense. Warm, less dense air rises above cool, dense air. The ash of the teabag is light and doesn't require much force to lift it. As the warm, less dense air rises, it has enough force to lift the ash of the teabag.

Here is the link to the experiment http://www.planet-science.com/categories/experiments/surprise/2011/03/make-a-teabag-fly.aspx

Making Sherbet

Created by Jade and Zoe
By Aaron

Science Experiment

Floating orange Experiment

Yesterday we conducted an experiment using oranges.

We asked the question "Will an orange float in water?" "Will a peeled orange float?"
First we predicted what we thought would happen.

We were amazed that the peeled orange sank to the bottom and the unpeeled oranges floated!!! It was because the orange that still had it's skin has air pockets in it's skin and therefore floats! Wow!

Egg Experiment

Today we conducted an egg experiment. We put an egg in regular water and an egg in vinegar to see what would happen.

Look at the changes so far to our egg experiment! It only took half a day for us to notice changes!

What do you notice?

What do you think will happen next?

Did you know that raisins can dance?

On Friday we asked the question "Can raisins dance?

Here we are making predictions. Most of us thought 'No, raisins cannot dance!"

Mrs Natusch then explained that we would conduct an experiment to see if raisins could dance using fizzy drink.

We used our prior knowledge from a previous experiment and knew that fizzy drink has CO2/carbon dioxide in it and we knew that made it fizz and produced bubbles!

Here are photos of our experiment;

Raisins in normal water.

We found out that raisins in water sink to the bottom because raisins are more dense than water, therefore they sink. 

Adding raisins to fizzy drink.

Comparing raisins in normal water and fizzy drink. 

 You can the see the bubbles from the fizzy (co2 gas) sticking to the raisins and causing the raisins to rise to the top (dancing on the way). The bubbles pop and release the co2 into the air and then the raisins sink. This process continues until there is no more co2 left in the fizzy drink.

Watch our experiment in action.....

Here is a video explaining how raisins dance; starring Leah and Thomas, produced by Zaric.

This is their first attempt at explaining our experiment  Do you have any questions for them, is there anything that you need clarified or perhaps you would like to just leave them a comment?

Making a magic Rainbow

Making Butter

Today we watched this video on how to make butter.

Then we made our very own butter!
Watch our animoto! We hope you enjoy it!



This is how we made our butter:

1. We poured cream into two glass jars for two groups and put the lid on tightly
2. We sat in two circles and shook the jars for about 5 minutes
3. We poured out the buttermilk out that had been separated from the butter
4. Then we rinsed the butter with water
5. Then we tipped out our butter
6. Then we spread our butter on bread and ate it!

It was yum and just like real butter! We thought our butter was much more yellow than the man that made in the video above. That's because our cows must have eaten more green grass. Greener grass = yellower butter. 

Our Topic: From Milk to Ice-cream

From Grass to Glass

Did you know there are over 11,600 dairy farms in New Zealand and 4.4 million dairy cows being milked?
What did you learn from watching this video?

About Milk

What did you learn about inside a Dairy Factory?

Science Experiment

Listen to Katie and Loren explain today's science experiment. 

Crystal Flower Experiment

Watch our Animoto show about our science experiment- We made crystal flowers. Tomorrow we post how we did this experiment and what is happening so far....

Thank you to these children who wanted to explain what is happening so far to our crystal flowers. Stay in touch for when up update the progress again and also our scientific knowledge of how the salt crystals are actually forming.

Tadpoles and Frogs

We have one tadpole left in our class. We used to have three but unfortunately two passed away :(

We have asked questions to find out more information about tadpoles and frogs.

Can you please tell us what YOU know about tadpoles and frogs. You can either leave a comment or email us at room7@vardon.school.nz.

Cutting flax with Mrs Anderson

Mrs Anderson talked to us about how to cut flax. We had to say a karakia before we cut the flax to bless the flax. Then Mrs Anderson showed what flax to cut and what flax not to cut. We only cut the outside of the family (grandparents and the parents). We can't cut the baby flax because they need to grow. We also were showed how to cut the flax on an angle so the rain can drip off it.

We took the flax back to class and plaited it to make flax ropes.

We used the flax ropes to act out the legend of How Maui slowed the sun.

Maui and the sun

For our topic we are studying solar energy.
We read the legend of Maui and the sun.
We also listened to this legend retold in maori.

Solar Energy