Water Care

Water, water everywhere! On Friday of week 6, we were lucky to have Sally from Watercare come to teach us more about the water. We did a drama activity and experiments. Firstly we examined the process that water goes through to become drinkable water in our households. Our drama was based on the process that the water goes through to be cleaned. We were the water going through each stage. We had so much fun as we ventured around the school. Once we learnt how water is cleaned we then had to try and clean the dirty water ourselves. We had to create a filter system in partners. We had to do four different tests for our experiments. We experimented with a range of filters to try and test which filter system was the best. 

Science in a Van

Last week Science in a Van came to our school.  My favourite part about science in a van was all the experiments they did. One of the experiments was to put a bit of solid carbon dioxide into a tiny container and then the lid exploded off.

Water Cycle in a Bag

This week for science we some water cycle experiments. One of the experiments was a water cycle in a bag. You had to get a zip lock bag, then put some water in it and stick it to a window. We got to put some food colouring in it and had to draw the water cycle on the bag.

Sherbet Experiment

Today for science we got to make Sherbet. The ingredients were Icing Sugar, Baking Soda, Citric Acid and tartaric acid. Mrs Drummond made us taste each ingredients by itself and the only thing that tasted nice was the Icing Sugar but I still wouldn't go around eating Icing Sugar. It was hard to get it just right because my group all had different tastes they liked. I loved doing it and I can't wait to do another experiment. 

Potato Gun Experiment

Today for science we tried to make potato guns. The things you need is strong straws, a potato and skewers.  The first step is to get the  straw then jab it in the potato and twist the straw while it's in the potato. Then you pull it out and hopefully you get some potato in the straw. After you do that you have to do it to the other side. Once you have done that you get the skewer and stick the blunt side of the skewer into one end of the straw and keep pushing the skewer to the other end the straw. If you did it correctly some of the potato should go flying. One of the reasons why it didn't work for some people is because the straw wasn't airtight. I was sad because my straw broke so I couldn't do it. 

Bird Beak experiment

Today for science we got to do a bird beak experiment. We got into groups and my group was Setaita, Tupou, Molly H, Otis and me. The first thing We had to do was to predict what would be the easiest to pick up with the different tweezers. After you predicted you got to test the different tweezers with the different things. The things we had to pick up was Skittles, bits of gummy snakes and pieces of ripped up paper. I found it really fun and I can't wait for the next experiment.    

T.I.M.S.S Test

This morning all the Year Fives had do to a text/ questionnaire. It took 3 hours and there was 3 parts to it. We were the first year 5's in the school to do it. The test was on maths and science.  The first 2 part were more of test questions and the 3rd part was more of normal questions. At the end it was cool because we got a free pencil, a free pen and a certificate for doing the test.  

Science experiment

On Thursday the class did science. We got 4 containers and put green, yellow, red and blue dye in each container. We put the ends of wet paper towels in the dye and the end of dry paper towels. After lunch we came in and saw the dry paper towels had absorbed the dye and the 2 dyes they were in was touching each other. I thought it was really cool. 

Animal Classification

Yesterday we learned about how animals are classified into groups. Animals are either vertebrates (which means they have a spine) or invertebrates ( which don't have a spine).

Invertebrates are animals like jellyfish, crabs, insects and octopus.

Vertebrates are put into 5 groups. they are mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians.
Mammals have fur or hair and give birth to live young. Birds have feathers and lay hard eggs. Reptiles are cold-blooded and lay soft eggs. Amphibians breathe through their skin and need to keep their skin moist. Fish breathe through gills and have fins.

Here are 5 examples of each type:

Mammals: dolphins, cows, gorillas, Llamas and bats.

Birds: penguins, toucans, swans, parrots and flamingos.

Reptiles: Snakes, alligators, chameleons, tortoise and turtles.

Amphibians: Frogs, salamanders, toad, newts and caecilians.

Fish: goldfish, sea horses, stingrays, sharks and eel.