Making lava lamps

This week we decided to try to make a lava lamp! Our school takes part in the Discover Primary Science programme so we are using this experiment for both science and maths.
We had great fun doing this on Friday.

First we had to gather all the equipment. We needed 1L clear plastic bottles, vegetable oil, water, food colouring, effervescent tablets (Alka Seltzer), non effervescent tablets (Vit C) and measuring jugs.

Next we had to calculate how much of each we needed. We are all so good at fractions this was very easy for us to do! Then we used the measuring jugs to make sure we had the correct amount of water and oil.

Next we added food colouring. This does not mix with the oil but it does mix with the water. We used red and green food colouring. Finally we added the Alka Seltzer tablet and watched our lava lamps work! 

The chemical energy from the Alka Seltzer reacts with the water produces a gas called carbon dioxide. This gas travels through the oil and tries to escape from the top. This is why the bubbles travel through the oil to top of the bottle. We can see this happening because we dyed the water using food colouring. 

To reuse this lava lamp at any time just add another piece of Alka Seltzer

GAA

Today we started GAA training with Paul from the Round Towers GAA Club. It was fantastic! We learned how to pass the ball and kick it. We began practising how to solo. It is quite tricky! We cant wait for next Thursday to learn some more GAA skills.

There is GAA practise for girls 2-3 on a Saturday with the Round Towers GAA Club on Monastery Road, Clondalkin.

Wag the Dog!

Yesterday we started talking about levers and why we need them and use them. A lever is a rigid bar that moves around a fixed point. When you push or pull one part of the lever you make a push or pull on the another part of the lever in the opposite direction.

To demonstrate this we made dogs whose tails wag and tongues stick out depending on whether we push or pull the lever. It was great! We named our dogs and had lots of fun playing with them.

Now we have them on display outside our classroom door. 

Jim's interesting talk

A very nice man  named Jim came from Dublin Zoo to speak to us about the animals in the Zoo and all the great work that Dublin Zoo does. He brought some animal skins, teeth and eggs to show us. They are all from real animals! we were allowed to touch them and examine them.

This is an ostrich egg. Look how big it is!!

This is an elephants tooth. Elephants have only 4 teeth. Each set of teeth lasts for about 10 years. They can grow up to six sets of teeth. They begin to grow their first set of teeth from the age of 1.  Can you figure out how long an elephant can live for?

This is a tiger skin. It is from a real tiger. It was dried out and the skin underneath felt like cardboard. The fur on the top coat was still very soft.

This is an elephants foot. When an elephant walks he/she does not make a sound! They have no bones in their feet only soft muscle. If they did have bones in their feet they would break because of the weight of their bodies! If you want to walk as silently as an elephant you can put two sponges onto the bottom of your shoes.


A few questions to get you thinking:

• What is the difference between a monkey and an ape?
• Which mammal can live the longest?

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Happy Christmas from Room 15!

All wrapped up!

This week we have been making lollipop stick presents. It has taken us a few days but we don't mind because everyone in our class loves art. First we stuck the lollipop sticks onto some red cardboard. The next day once the glue had dried we painted some designs onto the sticks to make it look like wrapping paper. Today once the paint had dried we decorated it with Christmas ribbon and made as little bow using ribbon and tinsel.

We think they look great!

Christmas Craziness!

This week we had a Christmas around the world theme with Catherine for Magic of Music. We listened to Handels Messiah which was played in Dublin, a traditional christmas song from Hawaii, Jingle bells with a Mexican theme and then Jingle Bells from Jamaica. It was fantastic! We dressed up in different costumes. We really really enjoyed this afternoon.

Take a look at our wonderful Music lessons.