Science

Foundation 

After investigating the properties of many different materials, last week the children finally began planning their party hats. 

In the coming weeks, the children will complete designing their hats, choose appropriate materials depending on their choice of a ‘sunny day’ or a ‘rainy day’ party hat, and then make their party hat. 

They have been very excited working towards this project which was of course all based on sorting and testing the observable properties of a variety of different materials! 

Grade 1/2

What fun the Grade 1/2 students had last week with their sifting investigation! 

The children have begun using a formal planning template in their science investigations, and used this to identify a question for investigation - in this case - do the size of the holes in different sieves impact what actually passes through them?; what is the change or different element in the investigation; what will we observe and what will we keep the same to make it a fair test? 

The children were amazed to see that usually the average piece of kitchen paper is actually four layers of thin paper that fine powders can actually pass through!

Grade 3/4 

These children have also been working towards an investigation to test ‘Does the capacity of different materials protect a biscuit from impact?’ 

We tested bubble wrap, a plastic post bag and a cardboard box, dropping a weight from different heights until the biscuit broke. 

It was a very fine line between bubble wrap and the box, and students will now design a package that they could use to send themselves a biscuit - perhaps they could try it out in the school holidays! 

We will actually be using our classroom results to send ourselves a packet of ANZAC biscuits to school and will each get to eat them upon receiving our packages! 

Please let me know if you do not wish for your child to have a biscuit at school, particularly if they have any allergies etc.

 A picture of the biscuits and their ingredients are included in this newsletter! 

Grade 5/6  

This week, these students will carry out an investigation they have been planning to test ‘ Do gases have volume and mass?’ - they will be blowing bubbles into a fish tank after creating the gas carbon dioxide, and observing whether the bubbles sink to the bottom or does the gas prevent this by taking up the space in the tank? 

Stay tuned for the results!