The Little Museum

On the 28th February we went on a trip to The Little Museum with 4th class. It was really interesting. Kim and Niall showed us around and explained all the different rooms. There was the back room which was covered ceiling to floor in old pictures and artefacts , the front room which had pictures of important people from the War of Independence and the U2 room which had anything you could possibly want to know about Ireland's most famous band.
After the museum we had our lunch in St Stephens Green and went to the playground for a while.

It was a really fun day out! Thanks to Dublin Bus who brought us into town on a lovely double-decker bus.

Science Fair 2014

This week is Science Week in Scoil Mhuire. We began science week with a science fair in the hall. Each class had a stall demonstrating and explaining one experiment. We decided to display our wonderful lava lamps. 4 girls from our class went to the hall for the morning and then after break 4 other girls got a chance to explain our experiment.

We all had 20 mins to go and have a look at the different stands and ask the different classes questions about the experiments. It was fantastic! We learnt a lot of interesting things today.

These 8 girls in the above pictures were our scientists in the hall today. Well done on explaining our experiment so clearly.

Below are a few pictures from the science fair today.

 working with magnets 

 exploring the effects of gravity 

 lava lamps 

 brain quiz 

 Chromatography 

 Creating a lighthouse 

 Investigating slopes 

 Balancing the scales

 Static electricity

 String Telephone

Mirror writing 

Diving drops and sinking feelings

St Brigid

Sr Mary very kindly brought us in some rushes on Friday and taught us how to make a St Brigid's Cross.
Once we got the hang of it it was quite easy. We tied the four ends with elastic bands to hold the cross together. Amy from sixth class came in to help us.

Thank you very much Sr Mary and Amy!

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?