Underwater Fireworks!

Science, science and more science! Last week we even made underwater fireworks! Here is what we did - and you can try this at home!

• fill a glass bowl or jar with water
• in a test tube (or little container) put 3 ml of oil, 2 drops of red food colouring and 2 drops of blue food colouring and use a stirrer to mix it together
• gently drip the coloured oil into the water and watch the fireworks begin!

As the coloured drops exploded, they sunk to the bottom!
It looked really cool!

When we looked at the top of the water, you could see large oily blobs floating there.
What we learnt about oil and water with Mrs Thompson has come in really handy!

Making Lava...

We did an experiment in D1 called 'Groovy Lamp'! It was showing us a little bit about lava. This is an experiment you can try at home!

• First you need a little test tube (or a jar might work)
• We put water in the test tube up to the 1 ml mark
• Then we added 2 drops of red food colouring
• We filled the test tube up to the 4 ml mark with oil (we remembered that oil and water don't mix...so we could see the oil staying on top of the red water)
• Finally we broke up an antacid tablet and dropped little pieces in. We could see some bubbles forming on top of the water but they didn't go up into the oil...

This was a little bit disappointing. We waited...and waited...and waited...then it was home time! Mrs Sutherland left the test tube sitting on the bench and a little while later...

Floating bits of 'lava'!

What is happening? The bubbles are carbon dioxide and they rise to the top, through the oil, carrying some blobs of red water with them. When the bubbles reach the top, they burst and the red water sinks down under the oil again!

Do you remember why the water sinks? Tell a friend what you think!

Try This at Home!

On Friday, London shared an experiment she had done at home. Here is a photo of what she brought into class:

You gave us great instructions, Dr London!
The egg is in some water in the photo just to protect it on its visit to school!

Here is how London told us to make a 'shell-less egg':

• get an uncooked egg
• put it in a jar
• cover the egg with vinegar so that it goes over the top of the egg (any kind of vinegar)
• put the lid on
• leave it for 3 days
• now you can gently rub the shell off...and now you have a 'shell-less egg'!

London also told us that if you hold the egg a little bit above the bench, you can make it bounce too!

Kingdom Kid Awards

It's great to start the term celebrating our school values and the people who help us see them in action! Here are the May Kingdom Kid awards:

We are all very proud of you!

D1 - Eva shows our class what the value of Diligence looks like EVERY day! She starts her work quickly and doesn't give up until she is finished. As it says in Colossians 3:23, she works at tasks 'with all her heart'. She helps and encourages others to do the same.Keep shining brightly, Eva!

D2 - Amelia always listens carefully and works diligently to complete her work to the best of her ability. She is kind and polite and an excellent role model in our class.

D3 - Hunter is a diligent and attentive class member. He engages fully in all learning opportunities and produces excellent work. He is  kind and considerate friend and a great example of a Kingdom Kid.

F1 - Sulurina has started her time at Cornerstone full of energy and a desire to learn. She starts every day with a friendly "Hello" and continues to be kind and caring throughout the day. She completes all her work to a high standard and shows real pride in her work.

Cross Country

We have just finished our cross country running for 2017. It is always so hard at the start - long distance running is SO different to the short bursts of fast running that we do in many of our games and fitness activities. The longer running fits so well with our school value of Diligence this term - we start fast, work hard and finish well!
Here are our first 2 runners home - for the boys, Johnny, and for the girls, Ciarra. Well done to all the runners. You can be so proud of your efforts in training and on the day!

Great run, Johnny!
Just look at all that mud at the finish line to welcome you home!

Go Ciarra!
I think your mum needs a medal for being a great cheerleader too!

Explosive Science!

Which one of these bags do you think will make the biggest "BANG!!" when we pop them?

A supermarket bag, a snaplock bag and a paper bag...

We tested the snaplock bag first. We thought it was quite a 'tough' plastic and it was! Johnny had to stomp it with his foot to make it pop! It did make a loud bang...but was it the loudest? It didn't break the tough plastic - it popped along its 'zip'!

Next we tried the paper bag. Eva had a great go at popping it but it just wouldn't burst! I think we were all giggling too much by then! Mrs Sutherland had to help and...BANG! It burst through the bag with 2 really big rips! Was this one going to be the biggest bang?

Finally we got to the supermarket bag. Many of the D1 children thought it would be the loudest because it had the most air in it...so they thought it would make the biggest bang. Zane used all his muscles...but it only whooshed the air out quietly through 2 tiny rips in the seam at the bottom of the bag. What???!!! 

So... which one was the winner? The paper bag was the loudest, then the snaplock bag and finally the supermarket bag. If you are allowed, try this again at home and see if you get the same results!

What makes the 'bang' noise? We did some investigating and found out that air is made up of molecules that push against everything they touch. This is called air pressure. A few of the D1 children talked about pressure when they were predicting what would happen - well done! Because we squeezed the air into our 3 bags,  the air pressure got bigger and when the bags popped, the high-pressure air rushed out! That change in pressure makes a shock wave that travels to our ears as a loud POP! The loudest pop comes from the highest air pressure...which was in the paper bag!

We had a really interesting question from Zane too. He said that we were blowing carbon dioxide into the bags and wondered if we would get the same if we used oxygen? Now that's an interesting idea to think about! 

One explosion down...many more to come!

Celebrating Success

It is wonderful to honour children who work so hard at their homework! In D1, these children have learnt EVERY spelling word or EVERY memory verse for the whole of term 1...WOW! One super hard worker, Jada, achieved BOTH of these goals:

Amazing effort everyone!