A Window into 2i's World

On the move…..

2009-08-29T16:26:00.001+02:00

From the start of September 2009, new posts to this Blog will be found here http://class2ipregny.blogspot.com/

It is a funny thing…..

2009-06-21T09:13:00.001+02:00

…..that around this time last year, I posted what indeed turned out to be the last post of that school year, following an outstandingly (even though I say it myself!) successful day of Student-Led Conferences. If you look back to the post you will see that the day was also reportedly the happiest day of the year; a day arrived at as the result of some cunning mathematical trickery by a British academic, Cliff Arnall.

Imagine my surprise, having long since forgotten all about that, when I read in the paper on Friday evening, that the 'happiest day of the year is June 19 according to formula'. My surprise of course being that by some coincidence, June the 19th was the day that had been chosen for this year’s Student-Led Conferences.

The days leading up to Friday 19th June (more specifically the late nights and early mornings!) of course were for me somewhat less than happy. However, to have a classroom filled with proud children sharing with parents and grandparents a snapshot of the learning that they have done during this long school year, made it worth all those long hours. The looks on the faces of adults and children alike showed me that the happiest day of this year (or at least one of them!) surely had turned out to be June 19, whatever formula you use to work it out!

Bad planning…..successful outcome!

2009-06-12T17:02:00.000+02:00

Having hunted unsuccessfully online for the opening times of the Military Museum (although had I thought about it I would probably have found them in one of last year’s posts right here!) we decided that we would anyway zip over the road on the off-chance that we might find the doors open, our fingers firmly crossed.

But of course, in spite of all those crossed fingers, it was firmly closed. As was the Chateau museum too. Bother. Deadlines (of which we know all too well) fast approaching – and out of luck.

Well, we could have about-turned and trouped back to school again. After all there was so much to do! But eager voices urged; ‘Let’s see if we can find the monkey puzzle tree!’ and ‘Where is the tissue tree?’ and even ‘Can I climb to the top of the lightning tree?’ We had earlier been comparing notes; looking at the Guide Books children in previous years had written.

On the way to check out these three things, we ventured somewhere I had not been before. Into the orchard.

A new challenge. Remembering some of the learning we had done in our unit of inquiry on Plants, we set about first to see if we could find any fruit growing. A quick (but totally unnecessary as it turned out) reminder of what a fruit is and off we set.

Squeaks and squeals as excited children ‘discovered’ tiny apples, as distinct from equally tiny pears.

And how about these? Soft furry baby quinces (can you see the remnant of the flower there?)…..

and peaches too. Not to mention hard green mini-plums.

And then squeaks and squeals as excited teachers ‘discovered’ fat juicy ripe cherries, dangling enticingly from the branches.

But no, we did not pick any (tempting though it was!) Instead we hunted around on the ground underneath the various trees for windfalls. We eventually returned to school - having also checked out the monkey puzzle tree, the tissue tree (now of course lacking its tissue-like flowers but instead sporting these…..

intriguing fruits) and having allowed Amelia and others to scale the lightning tree - red-lipped, with our pockets and fists bulging with the results of our scavenging.

As the title admits, bad planning – but a most successful outcome. Sore tummies notwithstanding.

Deceptively simple

2009-06-11T00:31:00.000+02:00

At first glance, the Pregny-Chambésy shield looks simple with its straightforward two-colour design in blue (to represent the lake) and gold (for the wheat…..

that once grew widely in these parts). And yet, as we found out, it would take very good listening skills in order for us to make our own. Let’s see how we went about it.

First of all we made a template, by folding a piece of A3 paper in half, carefully lining up the edges.

Next, we measured 10cm from the folded corner along the shorter side and 25cm along the longer.

These spots we marked with a pencil, before joining the two spots in a J-shaped curve…..

so that when we cut it out, we ended up with a shield-shape.

What next? Stick the white shield onto a piece of gold paper and carefully cut it out…..

trimming any sticking-out edges.

Now use the gold shield as a template to trace and then cut out an identical blue shield. Put this safely to one side…..

while you draw a wiggly cross on the back of the gold shield.

Mark these very faintly (on the gold side) so that you will know which piece goes where. (Starting at the top of the shield and moving round clockwise, we used the letters N, E, S and W!) Now, cut along the wiggly lines…..

so that you end up with 4 pieces.

Now, how good are you at jig-saws? Well, as long as your labelling system works, all you need to do is discard those marked N and S and stick the other two (W and E) in the right places on the blue shield.

Simple? Why not come and see how we all got on?

How lucky we are…..

2009-06-05T16:35:00.000+02:00

Having been out and about to various places in our local area, we were having a chat-on-the-mat reminding ourselves of some of the places we have seen on our travels. Places, we discovered, where people can work and where people can visit. Tommy, ever thoughtful, suddenly pronounced; ‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes…..

in our local area. You can walk all around - and see tadpoles.’

Shahrbano continued. ‘A few weeks later you can see frogs and you can hold them.’

Rammy reiterated. ‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes because there are a lot of things you can do like catch tadpoles - and climb trees.’

‘You can look at the tall trees,’ added Aabis.

‘Yes, you can amuse yourself by looking at the amazing leaves and trees,’ elaborated Amelia.

‘We are lucky to have Chateau de Penthes because there is a nice view,’ said Quentin.

‘From the wall by the chateau you can see a bird’s eye view and the sun shining on the lake,’ Dylan pointed out.

‘You could paint the view from the wall by the Chateau,’ contributed Tatiana. (As we did the other day.)

‘You can see birds,’ said Shouq.

‘You can hear the birds sing,’ added Ryoma.

‘You could rest on the grass or go for a run,’ suggested Amelia.

‘And it’s a good place to walk your dog,’ added Meghna.

‘You can roll down the hill,’ said Martin.

‘You can play,’ Viivi told us.

‘You can have a picnic there,’ said Virginia. ‘And you can learn stuff.’

‘Yes, you can go in the nice museum.’ Sivert.

And we could have continued in a similar vein - had we not needed to get to French.

The discussion was all the more extraordinary if you look at the timing; we had earlier in the day indulged in the fantasy of pretending that we might have anything that we wanted in our local area, just outside the school gates. Imagine leaving school each day and being able to dive into a swimming pool or ride on a rollercoaster, pet a friendly lion or even, perish the thought, shop endlessly for toys.

Well, a pleasant dream perhaps; but it would appear that in fact we are happy with our lot and, perhaps more importantly, that we understand quite how lucky we are to have it.

The Green Schoolyard

2009-05-29T20:31:00.000+02:00

We have a shiny new sign. Well, in truth, it is neither shiny nor new; it is ‘green’ as in recycled. And it took my eye; largely because of the fact that the letters had been cleverly formed by leaving spaces unpainted white.

But I digress (so no change there then!) I am here (again) because of our latest ‘workout’ in the garden (which I should probably start calling the Green Schoolyard). Sadly we have had a bit of a problem. Just take a look at this wheat.

Look closely; what do you notice?

What can possibly have happened to it? Suggestions included the possibility that someone had walked on it or that it had blown over in the wind, or even that a hailstorm had flattened it. But we learned that it was not that at all. To help us understand, we were cunningly corralled into a squashed up roped-in place in order to ‘grow’ from tightly-packed seeds into tall, strong healthy plants. And it turned out to be impossible for us to grow so tightly-packed without falling over.

The same would have been true for the growing wheat. Seeds that had been too generously scattered left growing plants with too little space to become tall and strong. Instead they just keeled over. An important lesson noted to be remembered for next year.

And then we went off around the rest of the garden to look for similar signs of too-tightly-packed seeds having led to weak plants. We quickly spotted floppy lettuces. But with lettuces it didn’t matter too much because you can eat them. Which we did!

There was work to be done too. Warm sunny weather and rain had meant that everything (including things we hadn’t planted) had shot up.

The roses were a profusion of colour…..

but in amongst the healthy peas…..

and run-away beans…..

were ‘weeds’…..

that needed to be cleared, in order to give more space to the plants that were supposed to be there. So it was ‘all hands on deck’, removing them.

Being careful to remove just the things that were not supposed to be there. After all, we want to be able to harvest our strawberries and our cabbages…..

as well as pick the odd bunch of Sweet Williams and even sweeter lavender. Mmmm!

Make like a ‘real’ landscape artist

2009-05-28T17:11:00.000+02:00

As if it wasn’t enough to go on one expedition, there we were, planning a second; on the same day! I told you it was a lovely day, didn’t I?

Break time saw a flurry of teacherly activity; a hustle and bustle of preparation; two sizes of paintbrush, fine-tipped and fat (check). Clipboards (check). Special (expensive) watercolour paper (check). Freshly-cleaned tins of watercolour paints. Paper towels. Bottles of water and colourful plastic cups (check, check and check).

And shortly after the cowbells (bells not unlike this one) rang…..

to signal the end of break and the return of the hordes, off we set again, incidentally in the same northerly direction as we had an hour or so earlier. However, we ignored the next turning to the left and instead walked right past the fortified building (also on our left) and on towards the beautiful grounds of Chateau de Penthes, for this was to be where we would search for a landscape worthy of our closer attention.

The perfect spot (and pose!) having been chosen…..

water was poured into cups…..

and this and other equipment distributed.

Fat brushes were used to wash the special (expensive) watercolour paper with water. Fine-tipped paintbrushes were swirled in water and then dipped into chosen colours. Paper towels were put to use to dab off excess wet (and to mop the odd spill).

Before our eyes…..

landscapes took shape.

Colours were scrutinised…..

and carefully copied. Those mountains do indeed look blue!

Frequent comparisons were made to make sure we had got the shape of the trees right.

And whoever it was that said trees were merely green…..

was surely…..

mistaken!

And after all that creativity, there was even time at the end for a bit of a lie-down on the warm grass…..

before tidying everything up and trudging back to school.

The finished works of art will soon be proudly (deservedly so) displayed in the classroom. Why not take the time to pay our gallery a visit?

Trying out our newly honed map-reading skills

2009-05-28T15:16:00.000+02:00

Having learnt how to hold a compass horizontally to allow the swinging needle to settle before turning it oh-so-carefully until the needle is lined up with the letter N (for north) what better way to put our skills into practice than by seeing if we can find out about some directions in our local area.

As well as compasses which we will share, we will each need a map of our local area, plus a clipboard and a pencil. And our wits about us.

And we’re off! Leave the school and having crossed at the crossing, turn, yes, right. Walk (in which direction is this?) until the next junction where we will turn left. And a quick look at the compass confirms that yes, it’s northwest. Go past this, fortified building…..

(which is on our right) the shadows of whose impressively strong and high fences throw fantastic patterns on the footpath!

Walk in the dappled shade of this ‘avenue’ of trees…..

and then turn left. Pass this building…..

which has these symbols on the glass doors…..

on our way (in a south westerly direction) to the roundabout.

Turn – yes, you’ve guessed it – left. Direction?

Spot this building in the distance and walk along the path towards it.

Enjoy the pretty leaves on the trees…..

and the shadows they make (it is a lovely sunny day!)

Stop every now and again to make sure you know exactly whereabouts on the map we are and to check the lefts and rights (the mostly lefts – it is to be a ‘round trip’!) Make sure you have a ‘turn’ at using the compass to tell which direction we are heading in.

Turn left again at the next pathway. And goodness me; who is that enormous statue of?

Zip down the grassy bank to check will you Aabis? (See, I told you it was enormous!)

Quickly onwards (as it is almost break time!) until we pass this building on our right…..

then yes, turn left, at the next junction. Up the hill (northwards again) in single file (along the narrow path) until we reach the place where we crossed the road at the start of our adventure. And we are back - in time for break (just!) having marked our somewhat ‘circular’ route on our maps; having each had at least one turn at working out the direction we were heading in at our stopping points; and having hopefully found some way of ensuring we will remember whereabouts are each of the places we passed en route. For our next related challenge will be to match (these) photographs with their position on the map.

Finding our way – through a fog of confusion!

2009-05-27T14:14:00.000+02:00

A discussion that began with the question ‘What is a map?’ threw up all kinds of interesting ideas and conceptions; certainly plenty of food for thought (and we thrive on that kind of food in Class 2i!)

Tatiana: A map is like a big paper with places on it.

Virginia: A map is a paper who (sic) shows places around the world.

Sharukh: A map is a big piece of paper with the names of roads and the names of areas and you use it to see how you go to the other areas. And there are maps on the Internet.

Meghna: If you are lost you can just take a map and it tells you where to go. (Now wouldn’t that be wonderful!)

Sivert: In museums maps tell you where to go in them.

Martin: It helps you to go where the right place is so you don’t go to the wrong place.

Shahrbano: When you want to go somewhere you can see the map and it tells you where to go.

Harrison: If you don’t know where a place is you can buy a TomTom that shows you where to go. (A true sign of the times!)

Tommy: Or you can use a compass. (That was one large mouthful of ‘food for thought’.)

Right. Let’s home in on what Tommy suggested; namely that a compass can help you find your way. And ask a supplementary question or two; How does a compass help you find your way? What does a compass do? What is a compass?

“If you have a compass you see, if it shows north you have to continue,” said Dylan.

“North is up,” ‘corrects’ Virginia, pointing skywards.

Sharukh, standing, “If I face this way, north is here. If I turn, north is the way I face.” A murmur of agreement here.

OK; where is north then. Can you point to north? And, perhaps unsurprisingly, a forest of fingers point in my general direction. But also somewhat unsurprisingly, there are also murmurs when I, facing them, wonder if north for me can be in the opposite direction. Is north in front of me or behind me? Can north be in two different directions at the same time?

“No; north is a certain way,” concludes Amelia.

“What certain way?” asks Ryoma. Good question.

And a compass; what does it actually do? Well, it points north. North and only north. In a certain way. Anyone know why?

Dylan again. “It is because of the treasure buried.” Hmm. Too many computer games perhaps!

"It is because of something in the earth,” confirms Sharukh. But definitely not treasure!

"There is a magnet in there,” Tommy tells us emphatically.

And so, in a very roundabout fashion, we make our way via TomToms and museum guides, past street maps and buried treasure to the magnetic core of the Earth and the fact that a compass is a tiny weak magnet that is attracted to the huge magnet that is our planet. And that this fact can help us find our way.

And we set out to show it. By remembering firstly, something we had learned about magnets in our unit on materials. That a magnet has a ‘south’ end (or pole) and a ‘north’ end. And that these two opposite ends stick (or are attracted) to one another. And it wasn’t too far a step needed to link the North and South Poles of the Earth to the north and south poles of magnets, and work out that maybe the tiny weak magnet in a compass would be attracted by and point towards the opposite pole of the huge magnet that is our planet. Let’s not here get bogged down by the confusion of the fact that a magnet’s north end points to the North Pole (no, no, no!)

Instead let’s get our hands on some tiny weak magnets that are compasses as well as some somewhat stronger plastic-coated magnets and investigate how they work. Let’s find out, for example, that even though it might appear that this compass is pointing towards the west…..

when we swivel the compass around towards the letter N, the needle stays in place (my goodness how exciting that was!)

Let’s suspend a somewhat stronger plastic-coated magnet from a piece of string…..

to see if that too will point towards the north (which we confirm for ourselves is indeed in a certain direction).

And just for fun, let’s think about what might happen if we were to put different ends of a somewhat stronger plastic-coated magnet near (but not too close to) a tiny weak magnet that is a compass. And then let’s check to see if we were right.

And now that we are ‘experts’ on how they work, let us plan a map-following trip where we can put them to use. More of which later.

Drawing on the white chalk with the black board

2009-05-15T08:14:00.000+02:00

By now, Barney and Stig (remember?) are good friends and Barney is spending as much time as he can in Stig’s now beautifully smoke-free cave. Yes, the smoky problem has been solved with an ingeniously executed chimney system, made using those ‘ruined’ tin cans and an upside-down bath tub, of all things. And Stig has also been introduced to matches and learnt the ease with which it is now possible to light a piece of paper (imagine the fun we had acting that out with a partner!) race outside to see the smoke curling up out of the new chimney, before careering back inside again to repeat the exercise. Over and over.

Anyway, on a subsequent visit, Barney discovers that Stig has been creative, using a piece of charred, blackened board to draw on the white, chalk walls of his cave. He has drawn a hunting scene, with stags fleeing in fear from humans brandishing flint-tipped spears.

So of course we had to have a go ourselves. Though not on the walls. We did use burnt wood though. Or charcoal to be more precise.

First, we taped a piece of paper to the desk (you’ll see why later).

Next we had enormous fun taking a perfectly good piece of drawing charcoal and bashing it to smithereens with a wooden spoon (improvisation; it was all we could find!) We needed charcoal powder you see.

Then we squished up a paper towel, dipped it into the charcoal powder…..

before using it to turn the white paper a soft pale grey. Our chalk wall.

Next we learned the technique of using drawing charcoal; there is a special way to hold it to stop it snapping (drawing charcoal is thin and brittle).

Then we used a combination of charcoal…..

and chalk to create our very own ‘authentic’ cave painting.

In spite of some impressive black hands…..

I think that if you come to the classroom to take a closer look, you too will be amazed, not only by our hunting scenes, but also by the perfect white frames around them.

Out and about…..

2009-05-15T07:23:00.000+02:00

Having sat just inside the school fence, looking out at what we could see in our local area, of course we had to get ‘out and about’, to view it from the other side as it were! So, with binoculars slung round necks…..

and the school cameras distributed fairly among groups of children, off we skipped one not-so-sunny Tuesday afternoon.

You see, we had earlier agreed that one of the ways we could find out what there is in our local area was to ‘go for a walk’ (with other suggestions being ‘ask someone’ and ‘look at a map’ (more of which later).

Anyway, ‘go for a walk’ we did. Albeit a brief one*. First we peered closely at the Mission of the United States of America (‘click!’)

We also spotted a bus stop (‘click'!’)…..

one on each side (‘click'!’) of the road (‘click'!’)

There were lots of other useful signs telling us about museums (‘click!’) and parks (‘click!’)…..

tennis clubs (‘click!’) and restaurants (‘click!’ ‘click!’ ‘click!’)

Unfortunately, some of the signs that the teacher didn’t spot, were the darkening blackness of the clouds, the opening of umbrellas (sadly, not ours!)…..

and the drips and splashes…..

of fat drops of rain.

Run

for

it!

PS Perhaps luckily as it turned out, I only had a tiny point-and-shoot camera with me; hence the rather poor quality of (most of) the pics. Some of the photos taken by the children were of rather better quality…..

Something of a diversion…..

2009-05-14T17:38:00.000+02:00

…..with a nod to two previous units (but perhaps I’ll leave you to work out which).

A rustling red plastic carrier bag was thrust into my hands the other day. It happened shortly after our impromptu traditional maypole dance ‘performance’ the other day. How would it be, it was wondered, if we had a look at another folk tradition. A Russian one this time.

Not being one to turn down such an opportunity, I opened up the bag. It appeared to be full of decorated spoons. Very prettily decorated spoons. Shiny golden spoons. But spoons all the same! Shiny golden wooden spoons, as we quickly guessed, having heard the sound they made as they knocked together inside the bag.

We were given a clue. For this tradition, the spoons would have been used two at a time (so not for supping soup then!) How so?

‘Maybe,’ suggested Tommy, ‘they filled up the two spoons with rice and used to shake them like maracas.’

‘Or,’ Shahrbano thought, ‘they hit solid things with them to make a noise. Or they hit them together.’

Quentin, never one to miss an opportunity for a run-around, had this to offer. ‘They might have used them to juggle eggs. Maybe they threw the eggs up high and caught them in the spoon.’

‘Oh yes,’ agreed Aabis. ‘Or an egg and spoon race. But,’ he continued, ‘that might have broken the eggs.’

‘Perhaps they held the spoons in one hand and knocked them together like Spanish dancers. You know; like castanets,’ suggested Amelia.

And you know, that’s not far wrong.

There is a special way of holding the two spoons in one hand so that they are ‘back-to-back’.

Then, depending on how you cup…..

or flatten…..

the palm of your other hand, you can change the pitch of the sound made as you hit it with the two spoons together. Easy!

First get the grip right.

Then see what different sounds you can make.

You might even be able to make sounds by knocking the spoons together on a different part of your body.

With thanks to Ryoma’s mum for the introduction to a rhythmical Russian tradition.

Through the fence

2009-05-07T17:49:00.000+02:00

Having ensured that we were familiar with our immediate ‘inside-the-school-grounds’ surroundings, we decided to take a closer look at what we could see as we looked outwards from within the boundary. A sunny Thursday saw us head outside across the football field and towards the fence, clipboards tucked safely under arms. Our task? To sketch some of the things that we could see; some of the things to be found in our local area.

The grass was suitably dry after a good few days without rain, so it was OK to sit as we worked…..

with clipboards balanced on knees.

So, what can we see? Turn to the left…..

execute a hasty but artistic scribble and…..

there it is, recorded.

Change the focus a bit; look more closely…..

and you might even spot a real live orange growing on a tree in a pot.

Take a bit of time so that you get it just so.

Why not make a few more…..

changes…..

of position?

And now, what next? Next, we will take a closer look at the view from the outside. Let’s get out and about in our local area.

Our Final Unit of Inquiry – a note for parents

2009-05-06T21:31:00.000+02:00

As May begins, so we begin our final Unit of Inquiry of the year. In it we will add to what we already know about Our Local Area. The Transdisciplinary Theme is: ‘Where we are in place and time’ and the Central Idea is that ‘Our local area is unique’.

During the unit we will pursue the following lines of inquiry:

· What is in our local area

· Mapping in our local area

· Finding our way around our local area

Questions such as What is there in our local area? How can maps help us find our way around our local area? How are things connected in our local area? How can we help others enjoy discovering what is in our local area? will be posed.

As we work towards answering such questions, we will pool what we already know about our local area, find out how maps work, use different maps to locate specific places in our local area, make our own maps that we as well as others might use and most importantly, get out and about in the fresh air as we discover more of what our local area has to offer.

During the unit a range of skills will be developed; from Social skills where children will work in a co-operative group and accept shared responsibility for the completion of a shared task; Research skills where children will collect data from a variety of sources; Thinking skills where children will analyse information and come to conclusions; Communication skills where children will recognise that maps are a way of presenting information; and Self-management skills where children will behave in a safe and responsible way when outside the school environment.

The main emphasis of course will be on social studies, but there will also be opportunities for work across the curriculum, including using different tools to measure distances in maths and sketching to record what we see in art.

Why not come with us on our journey as we learn about and then share some of the treasures of our local area?

Welcoming in a new month – in traditional style

2009-05-01T16:00:00.000+02:00

We were so proud of our recently-completed and ready-to-play 'feely' games and we were itching to share them with someone. And who better than our mums and dads? So a hastily-written ‘if-you-happen-to-be-passing-tomorrow’ kind of an invitation was written and children raced home clutching them in hot sticky mitts (well; kind of!) “Come to collect me a little bit early” – was the gist – “and pop up to the classroom for a quick round of ‘Find it; Feel-it’ before home-time.”

And we really did, right up until the very last moment, intend that to happen. But then a bright, warm, sunny May Day afternoon got in the way.

You see we had tried out our new class maypole in PE the previous week – and it was such fun, that we just had to have another go. Possibly even at plaiting this time. Mid-way through the morning we trouped outside, lugged out the maypole and the music player (and even arranged for an extension cable) to the daisy-strewn grass…..

and set things up.

And do you know what? Things went so well (not too many knots or tangles) that we thought maybe our mums and dads might like to see us dancing round the maypole too. After all, it was such a bright, warm, sunny May Day afternoon.

And so, at the end of the day, with a group of slightly bewildered-looking mums and dads and a sister or two squatting on the edge of the sandpit, standing or sitting on the daisy-strewn grass in the shade, we eased ourselves into a more-or-less straight line, cranked up the music…..and skipped towards the maypole to collect our ribbons.

With girls facing clockwise…..

and boys in the opposite direction…..

we then skipped our way through an immaculate rendition of The Barber’s Pole.

And we even wound it back again to where we had started!

Feeling just a little bit proud of ourselves, our ears ringing to the clapping of parental hands, we crossed our proverbial fingers (well I did!) and had a go at weaving. All those unders and overs in time with everyone else’s overs and unders. All those opportunities for going horribly wrong. And do you know what? Well just take a look…..

at what we managed!

Joe’s House

2009-04-25T19:52:00.000+02:00

We had a very exciting proposal put to us the other day. Amelia’s mum has been writing a book for children. It is a book about children’s rights; specifically the right of all children to have somewhere safe to live with their family. It is called Joe’s House. This is what the front cover of the book will look like (the book has not yet been published).

The book tells of Millie (that’s Amelia!) who lives at number 42 Bridge Street (which is where Amelia used to live in Portugal – although of course the street would have been rua da ponte in Portuguese). It describes her journey to school each day, with her mum and her baby sister Lottie (yes, you’ve guessed it – Lottie is really Amelia’s sister). Can you see Millie’s dad watering the plants on the balcony?

Millie’s walk to school each day takes her past Mr Pastry’s cafe at number 36, Mr and Mrs Apple, the grocers, whose shop is at number 32 and Mrs Grey who lives at number 30.

In the book (and yes, in real life too!) Millie has quite an imagination. On Monday morning, for example, she was a rabbit, bouncing along the road to school.

We hadn’t got all that far into the story (Millie the rabbit had just bounced past Mrs Grey from number 30) when we reached a rather odd-looking page.

It had words, but no pictures. Hmm!

As I said at the start of this post, the book hasn’t yet been published. This is because it isn’t quite finished. It has all the words it needs, but some of the pages don’t yet have their illustrations.

Lisa (that’s Amelia’s mum) explained to me that she was thinking about filling in the gaps in the story with pictures done by children. Possibly even the children from Class 2i!

Well of course, we couldn’t let that proposal pass us by, now could we?

But first we would have to read the story again even more carefully. The first ‘problem page’ we came to told how Millie (the rabbit) held mum’s hand as she bounced past the BIG dog from number 25.

Well, you would, wouldn’t you.

On with the story, to the part where Millie the rabbit bounces past Joe, sitting as usual on his park bench.

Joe is a little boy who has no home. He ‘lives’ in the park. Amelia told us that Joe really exists, although in real life he is a homeless man and not a little boy.

On Tuesday, Millie was a lion on her way to school.

As she passed Joe, Millie said, ‘I’ve been thinking – Joe could come and live with us, in our spare room.’

On Wednesday she was a mouse. ‘What are you today?’ asked Joe.

‘A mouse of course,’ squeaked Millie.

On Thursday, Millie was a beautiful butterfly.

She fluttered past Mr Pastry, Mrs Apple, Mrs Grey…..

and the big dog…..

before spotting Joe.

Friday was dress-up day at school. Millie wore her snow princess outfit.

She wasn’t even afraid when she went past the BIG dog at number 25.

After all, she had her magic wand with her!

‘What are you pretending to be today?’ Joe asked her.

‘I’m not pretending. I’m a real Princess,’ replied Millie.

‘Where’s your castle?’ laughed Joe.

‘I don’t live in a castle; I live at boring old number 42.’ she replied.

And so to the last page of the book. Another blank one. At the other end of the park Millie said to Mum, ‘I’ve had another thought. Maybe Joe doesn’t want a house. Maybe he wants a castle instead!’

And maybe you could paint a picture that would fit those words.

From winter to summer in two short weeks

2009-04-24T23:30:00.000+02:00

Having spent the last Friday evening before our Spring Break huddled round the fire in multiple layers of assorted clothing, following a return to sub-zero temperatures, imagine my surprise on our return a mere two weeks later. Erstwhile bare trees…..

are now clothèd all in green (ho ho). The mauvaises herbes are all poussing like mad.

And the school garden is virtually unrecognisable.

Tulips…..

and narcissi…..

are nodding their pretty heads. The allium gigantium…..

looks fit to bust and Chloe’s sparkly tee shirt…..

is glinting in the sunlight.

Those radish seeds we planted? Almost ready to be munched upon.

The garlic? Heading skywards.

The well-watered herbs obviously relished their pre-vacation soaking…..

and the transplanted (by another class) chard…..

and cabbage seedlings are glistening and shiny with health.

But we had work to do. Trenches to be dug and marked out in preparation for the planting of flower seeds.

And a challenge. In the form of a handful of bamboo canes…..

and the biggest ball of string I have ever seen…..

which need to be turned into ‘tepees’ for runner beans to spiral up.

What to do? A team effort is definitely required. Someone to hold the canes steady…..

while lots of hands work with the string…..

winding it round and around…..

and around!

And just look here. OUR runner beans, that we planted in the classroom in September, and which survived both the winter and spring breaks; temperatures which were too hot and too cold; being given too much as well as too little water…..somehow, against all the odds, had a sudden spurt of life and have now been transplanted outside and teased up one of the cane tepees.

One final thought, though. I hope we have spiralled the beans in the right direction…..

Solving a couple of problems with glass jars and tin cans

2009-04-21T18:46:00.000+02:00

Well, we now know what (or should I say who?) a Stig is. Stig lives in a dark, smoky shelter in a corner of the chalk pit. He collects and re-uses the things that have been thrown away into the bottom of the pit. Ask someone in Class 2i to tell you how he used the mudguard of a bicycle and the tube of a vacuum cleaner to collect his drinking water!

One day, Barney gathered together some things that his grandmother no longer wanted; glass jam jars and empty tin cans.

He thought that Stig might be able to use them for storing things. He was quite annoyed therefore, when Stig, fascinated to discover how to use a tin-opener…..

proceeded to take off all the bottoms of the tins. “You’ve spoiled all the tins now! You can’t keep things in tins with no bottoms!” What was the use of a lot of tin tubes with no ends?

Remembering what it was like in the shelter (dark and full of smoke) we wondered how the tin ‘tubes’ and empty glass jars might be used to solve those two problems.

Aabis thought about the problem of the cave being dark. Maybe Stig and Barney would ‘put the cans out in line from Stig’s house and then the light of the sun will come in and it will go in the glass which is held up on a rope, and reflect.’

Quentin suggested that they could ‘take two sticks, make a fire and put the jar over the fire and make a light.’ I wonder…..

Ryoma would put a candle in one of the jars. A similar effect - perhaps!

Amelia was rather more creative in her thoughts. ‘Put a jar in the roof, catch some glow worms and put three in each jar.’

Dylan would make a hole in the side of the cave and put the jar in the hole so that the light shines through.

Tommy had a similar plan for making the cave brighter. ‘Dig a hole to outside through the wall. Put glass jars in the hole…..then get some fire and melt the jars to make a window.’ Hmm!

He also felt he could solve the problem of the smoke. ‘Put the cans together and the smoke goes up the tube through the roof.’

Shahrbano too felt that they could ‘take the cans and glue them together to make a chimney.’

Martin and Virginia also would use the tins to solve the smoke problem. They would make a hole in the roof, stick the tins together and put them in the hole to take the smoke out.

Of course, you will have to read the book to find out how close we got to the way in which Barney and Stig solved the problems. What I will say, however, is that some of us weren’t far wrong!

Trouble in the vegetable rack

2009-04-03T17:18:00.000+02:00

Thursday evening; hunting in the dark recesses of the vegetable rack for a clove or two of garlic, to perk up the dinner. What did I find? Green shoots.

I suspect that the dark had confused the garlic into thinking that it was underground and needing to ‘pousse’ or sprout. Which, although it meant that I had to be a bit more creative with my flavourings than planned that evening, gave me ‘food for thought’ for the next day’s gardening tasks. Perhaps it would continue to shoot, send down roots and fatten up in time for some later dinner if we were to plant it.

So, let’s poke some of the sprouted cloves into our newly-prepared seed beds…..

and water them well!

And while we are at it, we had better make use of our prepared (raked and carefully measured) beds and a sunny afternoon, and get some seeds planted too. Radishes, carrots and onions.

Some seeds are tiny so they need to be sprinkled onto the soil from a cupped palm.

And then watered. Well.

Other seeds are big enough to be poked into the soil one-by-one.

And then watered. Well.

And while we have got the watering cans out…..

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give the rest of the garden a bit of water.

After all, there hasn’t been much rain lately.

A different kind of strength

2009-03-31T19:54:00.000+02:00

A weekend purge of my supplies cupboard (very therapeutic; thoroughly recommended!) turned up a forgotten supply of scritchy-scratchy sandpaper. Which was crying out to be put to some use.

What could be better than to use it to test the strength of paper? But hang on; haven’t we done that already?

Well, yes – and no. Yes, we have found out the strength of paper. But this is a different kind of strength. This time we will be seeing how may times a strip of paper can be rubbed against a piece of sandpaper before it tears, or wears out.

Again we will test our familiar three kinds of paper; pink A4 writing paper, newspaper and paper towel.

Each strip of paper will be rubbed back and forth across a piece of sandpaper (which has been taped over a block of wood to make it easier to hold).

A careful note will be made of the number of rubs needed to wear out each type of paper.

At the same time, a careful observation will be made of what happens to the paper as it is being rubbed across the sandpaper. Look what happened to this piece of pink A4 paper:

How was that different from what happened to the paper towel?

And what about the newspaper?

Now ask yourself; did each group get the same results?

Why do you think this was? Quentin told us that he and his group rubbed their strips of paper across the edge of the sandpaper block. They rubbed really fast! Their paper strips wore out after just a few rubs.

Tatiana and her group were still rubbing away when everyone else was finished. They rubbed across the top of the sandpaper block and quite gently.

Now, I’m not sure about you, but I certainly know who to ask the next time I have any woodwork that needs sanding!

Preparing the beds

2009-03-27T16:00:00.000+01:00

Under the watchful gaze of the friendly scarecrow, our winter wheat is continuing to flourish.

Behind his (her?) back, all is busyness, as 24 eager Gardener’s Apprentices…..

learn that today’s task is to ready the raised beds for Spring planting. What, though, lies behind the mysterious shadow (a welcome moment of sunshine, that!) in the red plastic bucket?

And why would we need to use a measuring tape as well as a rake?

A peek inside the bucket revealed coils of string and scissors. Hmm.

What exactly would we be doing? Well, the beds would have to be raked…..

and any remaining large stones removed. Fat worms, though, would stay firmly put.

Meanwhile, the dimensions of the beds (the length and the width) would have to be measured.

String would be cut to size…..

and tied…..

criss-cross across the bed…..

in order to mark out the planting areas.

Sweet William plants…..

and fuzzy-leafed sage…..

are ready to plant. Seed potatoes…..

and peas, radish, lettuce and carrot seeds….

are on next week’s task list.

What is a Stig?

2009-03-27T15:00:00.000+01:00

There was somebody there – or something. But what? What do you think it could be?

Tommy, who had sneaked a peek at the picture on the cover of the book, thinks that ‘one of the boys threw a piece of flint; it cracked and it hit Barney. Barney did not see them.’

Sharukh had the idea that it was something; ‘lots of pieces of chalk and Barney thought that was a person’.

Leon thinks a somebody. ‘I think he saw a person.’

Aabis, remembering what we had said about people digging for chalk, thinks ‘it was a man that was about to find a crystal’.

Thomas picked up on the reference to old man’s beard. ‘I think it was an old man with a long beard,’ he tells us.

Tatiana thinks that ‘Barney saw a bear because animals live in caves like bears’ (sic).

However, Virginia thinks ‘it is three ghosts and I think that he saw a shadow’.

Shani too liked the idea of something fantastical. ‘I think it’s a witch that tied Barney up.’

Raamy thinks ‘he saw the shadow of a monster’. A pretty scary-looking one at that!

Chloe wasn’t sure. ‘I think there was a troll, because trolls live underground.’

Or maybe a ‘rabbit because rabbits like to dig’.

Owen thinks ‘it was the bicycle because maybe when he fell in he hit the bicycle and then it flipped up and went out of the pit’.

Sivert too had the bicycle in mind. ‘I think he saw an old tree and an old bike.’

What do you think it was? Was it a somebody – or a something? Was it a Stig (whatever one of those is)?

Into the chalk pit

2009-03-26T15:00:00.000+01:00

We began a new ‘read-aloud’ book on Thursday. A book that was written quite a long time ago, by a man called Clive King. A book called ‘Stig of the Dump’.

A preparatory discussion cleared up that by Dump, the author meant a place where rubbish was left; rubbish like wrecked cars and old bicycles; empty oil drums…..

and glass jars.

But try as we might, we couldn’t decide what a Stig might be. Time to begin I think.

The opening chapter introduces us to Barney, a boy who was staying, along with his older sister Lou, with his grandparents. He is bored and planning a visit to the old chalk pit; somewhere that incidentally, he has been warned about going too close to. Somewhere with hidden dangers…..

But Barney being Barney (and I suppose boys being boys) decided to ignore those warnings as he ventured rather too close to the edge of the pit…..

where the tree roots were exposed and the chalk was all dry and crumbly. And where, if he looked carefully down towards the bottom, he could make out what looked tantalisingly like the propeller of a plane and perhaps the buckled wheel of a bike.

And then suddenly, before he had time to think, he was tumbling over and over, down to the bottom, bouncing from branch to branch, getting tied up in strands of ivy…..

and a tangle of old man’s beard on the way.

Luckily his landing was softened by a bed of moss.

When he opened his eyes he seemed to be lying on some kind of platform, with his feet secured above his head. And as he peered into the gloom he realised that there was somebody there – or something.

Another look at paper

2009-03-26T14:00:00.000+01:00

We were wondering; is the strongest paper also the one that sucks up the most water (or most absorbent)?

Virginia thought back to when we had looked at different kinds of paper using a microscope. She remembered that the fibres of each piece of paper left holes and that paper towel had bigger holes than A4 writing paper. She also noticed that paper towel is thinner than A4 writing paper. She thought that meant the water would probably go into the holes (a bit like in a sponge).

And how would we test to find out whether she was right?

We would take three identical (same width, same length) strips of the paper we used before (how strong is paper?)…..

those being newspaper, paper towel and A4 writing paper - and attach them to a strip of masking tape. This we would stick to the back of a chair so that the ends dangled downwards.

Next we would rig up a dish of water beneath the paper strips so that the ends dipped into the water.

We would leave the paper strips in the water for exactly one minute (which of course we timed accurately with a stop-watch).

Then we would measure how far up the paper the water had crept in one minute.

The newspaper:

The A4 writing paper:

The paper towel:

Then we would record our results in a table.

Which type of paper did we find was the most absorbent? Why do you think this might be? Next time you wash your hands, think; which paper would I choose to dry my hands with?

Inside the rag-bag

2009-03-25T15:00:00.000+01:00

A delve inside the rag-bag revealed a plethora of fabrics.

We found fabrics made from different materials; from cotton and silk; from rayon and polyester. There were fabrics of different colours, but most importantly fabrics of different textures; fabrics that felt different from one another.

For we had decided to use some of the scraps to make a game. A feely game.

I am sure you have at one time or another played the game ‘Memory’, where cards are placed face-down on the table and you have to try to guess where two the same lie by turning them, two at a time, face-up to have a look. And as the game progresses, so you begin to learn where the cards are and are able to rely on your memory to find matching pairs.

Our games would be similar, but instead of relying on memory (an increasingly bad idea as far as I am concerned) players would rely on the feel of each card.

So different fabrics were chosen…..

according to how they felt.

Rectangular pieces were cut out in pairs…..

and stuck onto pieces of stiff card…..

until a ‘set’ of around a dozen cards had been made.

The next job is to write the playing instructions, so that others will be able to enjoy playing the game. Watch this space!

Taking a closer look…..

2009-03-20T19:30:00.000+01:00

Goodness it was cold on Friday. A biting bise wind. But gardeners go out in all weathers; and so, therefore, did we, albeit briefly.

Our task was to find out a bit more about soil; specifically, what goes on underneath the surface. What might we find lurking there?

Armed with magnifying glasses…..

and child-sized trowels and forks, we squatted down on our haunches (well, they did – I don’t think I have those any longer!) and so the hunt began. Soon excited squeals were to be heard.

‘I’ve got a worm!’

‘Eeee – a worm; eugh!’

‘Another worm!’ All carefully put back into the garden (quite possibly soon to be ‘found’ again by another ‘hunter’!)

And then, ‘Roman pottery!’ Hmm!

And, ‘Look roots!’

Followed by, ‘I’ve got a plant. It was buried!’

As well as, ‘Rocks! Rubbish!’ All of which went into the wheelbarrow.

The only disappointment I think was that we didn’t find any snail eggs. That and the fact the the millipede was too fast for my camera – all those legs, you see!

What’s it for – rice?

2009-03-20T17:30:00.000+01:00

When asked to think of things we could eat that were made of rice, we came up immediately with with sushi (well, we would, wouldn’t we?) followed by rice crackers, rice crispies, spring rolls (apparently the wrappers are made from rice) and – with a little help – rice pudding (well, I though of that one; remember the blob of jam in the middle? Remember stirring it round and round to a vibrant pink mess?)

And then we thought of other things that rice could be used for. Rice paper and – glue?

So began our ‘investigation’ of that versatile grain, thanks to two wonderful mums (those belonging to Ryoma and Leon).

Rice paper. Now when I was little, my mum used rice paper when she baked macaroons and biscuits. It was edible (though not especially tasty!) Not so the rice paper we would use. This was made, not from the seed of the rice plant, but instead from the stem; perhaps in the way that conventional paper is made from the stem (or trunk) of a tree. Definitely inedible.

We got to paint a picture…..

or write, Japanese-style (although actually this is Chinese, isn’t it Owen) on some rice paper.

Our finished designs would then be mounted scroll-like using rice glue to attach the paper to two pieces of wooden dowel.

First though…..

we would need a wooden pestle…..

with which to pound the sticky cooked rice in a clay mortar.

Jolly hard work it was too. But soon it was suitable gooey.

Ready to be spread onto a piece of wooden dowel…..

on which we would stick our masterpieces.

And quite possibly our fingers too!

After all that effort, a little (!) sustenance was surely required. Let us have a go at making ‘rice bowls’. Similar in a way to the sushi we made. A square of cling film…..

a dollop of rice…..

and your choice of tasty things…..

to sprinkle on top.

But this time, ‘chop’ or ‘cut’ the rice with a plastic knife or spoon…..

to mix in the tasty flavours, before wrapping it in the cling film and squashing it carefully into a pyramid shape (a task which I found impossible, but which the children of course mastered easily!) Oyishi! As Quentin (who managed at least three, and that after having eaten three helpings of lunch!) will testify.

And as if that wasn’t enough, we got to try out something completely different. Hot rice cakes. They come partly-cooked and individually-wrapped in cellophane.

They need to placed in a special grill…..

and ‘toasted’…..

until nicely browned on one side.

The special grill is then turned over to toast the other side.

When they are ‘done’, they should be dipped (quickly) into soy sauce…..

which they soak up really fast; before being lifted out…..

clamped in a piece of nori…..

and eaten. Texture? Crunchy on the outside; incredibly stretchy within. Deeply savoury. Satisfying.

Oh, and we invented a great game to play while they were toasting. Japanese Whispers. A bit like Chinese Whispers. But with a Japanese flavour. And even a few Japanese words. Like fork.

A rather disappointing trip…..

2009-03-19T20:04:00.000+01:00

We gathered in five chatty groups in the classroom immediately after break today, ready for the sunny stroll down the road to the glass and ceramics museum. Clutching our clipboards tightly to our chests, off we went. Across the road and along the stony gravelly drive, past the fountain (with the exceedingly lively spray) up the cool stone steps, through the massive wooden door and into a vast echoing room. At the entrance of which was a sign; NO PHOTOGRAPHY.

And I checked; not even the merest snap of busily sketching children would be allowed. How terribly disappointing. How would I record the awesome treasures on display? What on earth even would be the point of this post?

And then I glanced across at one of the groups. Children were sitting cross-legged on the floor or lying on their tummies; they were balancing clipboards on their knees. (Almost) nothing was heard apart from the scritch-scratch of pencil on paper.

Before my very eyes…..

a flock of exotic birds appeared…..

perched…..

or preening…..

some even displaying the beauty of their feathers.

Round another corner the sight was pretty much the same. But this time I was able to feast my eyes on delicate porcelain tureens,

elegant vases,

and painted bowls.

There were fancy teapots…..

and gold-painted jugs.

There was even a pistol perfume dispenser made from glass.

I’m not sure quite what my favourite item was. Possibly the intriguing table with long tongues for legs.

Or maybe it was the cow with the wavy horns and the sideways look.

But no; on reflection, it has to be the grumpy tortoise with a curly snail perched high up on his shell.

Disappointing? Not a bit of it!

With grateful thanks to Sivert and Harrison, Tommy and Viivi for lending us their mums and dads. And of course to the mums and dads themselves!

Blinchiki

2009-03-13T21:49:00.000+01:00

Fortunate ones among us will recognise the word blini. Tiny bite-sized Russian pancakes, often served with soured cream and a dollop of the finest Beluga caviar on top. A rare mouthful indeed.

Don’t worry though. The sturgeon population will not be further endangered by our endeavours. For we will be making BIG blini. Blinchiki as they are known. Or to be more accurate…..БЛИНЧКИ

So. How to make БЛИНЧКИ.

You need two eggs.

Which you break into a bowl.

Mix them with a whisk.

Then add a cup of milk.

Next, add a cup of flour, sprinkling a bit in at a time and stirring it well.

Then a pinch of salt…..

a quarter of a cup of oil…..

and a bit of water. Now you need a ladle of the liquid batter (that’s what it is called now; batter)…..

and a smoking hot pan (c a r e f u l !) into which you have poured a splash of oil. Carefully wipe the oil round the pan with a wad of kitchen paper.

Swirl the liquid batter round the hot pan.

And watch it like a hawk as it cooks. What is happening?

As bubbles puff up underneath, and as the edges begin to peel away from the sides of the pan, it is ready to flip over…..

so the other side puffs up and goes spottily brown.

Slide the cooked blinchiki onto a plate, and gradually build a huge pile. Slather each generously with oozy butter and crunchy sugar…..

and then b e f o r e you taste them, think. What is the batter like now? How has it changed?

What’s that? Too late? GONE. Oh well.

With thanks to Ryoma’s mum…..

and Dasha’s mum too.

Getting our hands dirty

2009-03-13T21:08:00.000+01:00

Wellies were the order of the day as off we tramped;

partly to take a look at how Little Red hen's wheat was coming along…..

(to which the answer is, ‘Just fine’!)

Partly to check on what is growing apart from wheat…..

(look closely; what do you see?)

But mostly to get our hands dirty. First of all we gathered, shoulder to shoulder, around a set of 4 wooden boxes, each containing what at first glance looked like dirt;

although on closer inspection each section appeared to contain something different from the one next to it. And yes, so it proved to be. A handful from one section…..

felt sharp and gritty, whereas one from the next…..

was much stickier.

A fistful from the third section…..

was damp and bitty, whereas the final handful…..

was richly black and crumbly, soft to the touch and wonderfully sweet-smelling.

They were:

(gritty) sand
(sticky) soil from the garden
(damp) compost
the (crumbly) perfect mixture

Our job was to use (gritty) sand, (sticky) soil from the garden and (damp) compost to make a (crumbly) mixture that would be perfect for growing things. It needed to be just the right crumbly texture; a little bit sticky but not too tightly packed. We would need a big plastic bucket and some child-sized tools.

Put about the same amount of (damp) compost…..

and (sticky) soil from the garden into the bucket…..

plus a couple of trowels-full of (gritty) sand.

Mix it really well.

Feel it…..

to make sure it’s just the right crumbly texture…..

before scattering it on one of the prepared flower beds.

The perfect mixture.

Alien Invasion

2009-03-12T21:52:00.000+01:00

Deep in the darkest reaches of outer space; past the shiny foil moons of Saturn…..

and the sparkly tinsel stars of the Milky Way…..

something rather worrying is happening. An odd assortment of different materials is being amassed and sorted:

Snipped and chopped:

Sprinkled and glued:

Coiled and fluffed:

Scrunched and twirled:

In preparation for a terrible invasion of Earth. Before our (googly) eyes…..

Alien beings…..

are coming…..

to life.

And I fear they carry with them some hitherto unknown disease, fatal to the human race…..

B e v e r y a f r a i d !

What’s it like – fabric?

2009-03-12T07:55:00.000+01:00

Take one rectangle of fabric.

Look closely at it; you can use a magnifying glass if you like.

See how the threads loop under and over one another in a criss-cross pattern?

Now see if you can pull just one thread away…..

and with careful fingers separate out the fibres.

Fibres are twisted together to make the threads that are woven into fabric. We can get fibres from a cotton plant or from the ‘coat’ of a sheep.

They can come from the cocoon of a silkworm or they can even be made from chopped-up and melted-again plastic drinks bottles!

Take a look at the label on the clothes you are wearing. You should be able to tell what material the fabric is made from (and so where the fibres came from).

That golf ball…..

2009-03-11T07:54:00.000+01:00

Well I wasn’t sure that we would ever manage to get inside a golf ball. However, thanks to one hard-hitting dad, whose powerful shot led to the ball being partly cut by the golf club; and thanks to Harrison who persuaded said hard-hitting dad to finish the job off properly with a saw…..we now know that the inside of a golf ball looks like this:

Its smell told us that it was probably made from an oil product; some kind of plastic. It is a very dense, hard - and surprisingly bouncy substance. Boing!

Testing the bounciness of balls

2009-03-10T07:52:00.000+01:00

Having been hugely surprised by the bounciness of Quentin’s golf ball, today we tested the bounciness of some different balls. What, we wondered, would be the properties of the bounciest. What is it that makes a ball bounce high?

From an exciting selection of balls gleaned from the gym…..

each group chose 5 different balls. These we poked and prodded to see what was the same about them and what was different. Some were squishy and some were hard. Some were big and some were small. Some were heavy and some were light. Some were orange and some were blue…..

We used what we had observed to predict which one of the five would be the bounciest. Then we tested each ball, making sure that what we did was the same for each ball. We needed to keep our tests fair.

We held each ball at the same level…..

before letting it drop to the ground.

Then we watched carefully to see how far it rose after the first bounce. We marked the spot on our chart;

(from this photo you can see that ball number 2 bounced the highest).

Next, we used a metre stick to measure the height of each bounce;

(from this photo you can see that ball number 2 bounced up 55cm.)

Finally we constructed a table for our results and recorded the height of each bounce.

So, what it is that makes a ball bouncy? If you had to make the bounciest ball, what would you make it like? Would it be squishy or hard? Big or small? Heavy or light? Orange or blue? Would it be like a tennis ball or like a golf ball?

A surprisingly bouncy ball

2009-03-06T19:41:00.000+01:00

It all began when Quentin was to be seen surreptitiously playing with a golf ball. Not normally the thing to do when we are mid-discussion about something else entirely. But never let it be said that I let a teaching opportunity pass me by.

So a golf ball.

What’s is for? Harrison, our resident golf pro, tells us that golf balls are meant to be hit really hard.

And what’s it like?

Hard (very hard confirms Raamy). Shiny. Bumpy (dimpled). Made from metal?

Let’s ask Virginia, our temperature-tester extraordinaire. Compare it with a known piece of metal. Does it feel the same temperature? Warmer? Colder?

Quite definitely warmer. Which means that it is not metal. So most likely plastic.

Now, if I hold it out in front of me and just let go, what do you expect will happen? Will it

land on the ground and roll away?
bounce a little bit?
bounce a lot?

Most people thought that because it was so hard it would just bounce a little bit. So it came as a gasp-worthy surprise when it bounced back almost to my hand. How could that be?

Leon thought that maybe it was ‘air inside it’ that made it bounce so high.

Thomas agreed. He told us he thought it was ‘hollow inside’.

Ryoma said he thought it was ‘heavy’ so it fell to the ground really fast.

Quentin thought it was because it was ‘hard’ that it bounced so high.

Owen thought it may have ‘something inside’.

Something especially bouncy, perhaps?

Well, there’s only one way to find out. We will have to cut a golf ball in half and take a look at the inside. What do you think we will discover?

The mystery of the reappearing salt

2009-03-06T19:00:00.000+01:00

Do you remember our investigation into dissolving? How we stirred the same amount of some different materials into the same amount of water using the same number of stirs?

And do you remember how the salt disappeared or dissolved in the water?

Well, we kept the beaker with the clear salt solution, and by the next week, the level of salt-water had gone down. Some of the water had evaporated.

Another week passed, and the water-level had gone down even further.

By the end of the week, there was barely any water left at all. But there was some white stuff on the sides of the beaker…..

as well as some tiny cubes of something at the bottom.

A brave tester confirmed that the white stuff tasted salty. Could it be that we had managed to get the salt back out of the water it had been dissolved in?

Do you think we could do the same with dissolved sugar?

An Indian legend

2009-03-06T17:39:00.000+01:00

As well as being able to pop corn kernels in a modern electric popcorn maker; or in a microwave, an oven or a frying pan, you can probably use pretty much any other method of heating up the kernels in order to make the moisture inside turn to steam so that they explode and turn inside-out.

The American Indian people would hold an ‘ear’ of corn over a fire on a stick.

Or they might throw a handful of kernels directly into the fire and wait for them to explode and fly up into the air. Some even buried the kernels in hot sand, which they stirred round and around.

As the moisture inside the kernels got hot, so the popped corn rose to the surface of the sand.

Something else we discovered when we were finding out about popcorn - using Tomie de Paola’s informative ‘The Popcorn Book’ -

was that long, long ago, the American Indian people had a legend; a story to explain the science behind what happens when popcorn kernels are heated. They said that inside each popcorn kernel lived a little man, a demon.

When his house was heated up, he got so mad…..

that he blew up.

As Shani explained, they thought, ‘when you heat popcorn, the steam is the man getting angry’.

The wonderful illustrations, by the way, are by Viivi.

At the movies…..

2009-03-06T16:00:00.000+01:00

At the movies, or so I am told, you just ‘gotta’ munch on popcorn. Well, we would be sort of going to the movies this afternoon (to compare and contrast our book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes with the film version, The Iron Giant). So, we had better find out some more about popcorn.

We had some so-called ‘popping corn’. A bag of kernels from a maize plant.

What next? Can you eat it like it is?

Well, as Thomas happily confirmed, yes, you can. But it is rather hard and not particularly nice. And not at all like the popcorn we know and love. How do we turn small, hard, shiny, round, yellow kernels…..

into white, fluffy, cloud-shaped popcorn?

Well you…..

‘put in in the microwave’

‘fry it’

‘cook it’

‘use the oven’

And yes, you can do all of these. But what do all of these have in common?

‘Heat!’ Thank you Amelia.

So you have to heat the popcorn. What does heating do?

Time for a little research perhaps.

We found out first of all that popcorn is best stored in an airtight jar in the fridge. That this was to keep in the moisture. And another word for moisture? Yes, water.

So there is water inside. And what happens when you heat water? No, not smoke! You get steam.

So imagine what happens inside a corn kernel when the moisture or water inside turns to steam…..

!!!$%*&**%$£**!!!

An explosion. As Shahrbano so succinctly put it, ‘Popcorn explodes when it gets hot and the water inside needs to get out.

Thomas told us, ‘The popcorn will pop because the steam inside pops it and turns it inside out.’

And so, let us see if we can explode some popping corn. First tip some seeds into our popcorn maker.

Turn it on so that hot air blows out of the vents and onto the kernels. As the hot air blows, so the kernels spin round and round.

As the moisture inside gets hot enough to turn into steam, the kernels begin to pop.

Gradually the popcorn machine fills with white fluffy inside-out popcorn, which it then ‘throws out’…..

into the bowl below.

White, fluffy, cloud-shaped, inside-out popcorn; perfect for an afternoon at the movies.

Litmus test

2009-03-05T20:40:00.000+01:00

Well of course the excitement over the (acid) vinegar and the (alkaline) calcium gave us the perfect excuse to try out a special kind of test using something called litmus paper. It comes in two colours, pink and blue.

Blue litmus paper turns pink when you dip it into an acid.

(And even though we didn’t have any, pink litmus paper turns blue when you dip it into an alkali.)

We were going to test out some different materials to see if we could find out which of them were acids. Among them baking powder…..

and milk.

Tear off a little piece of blue litmus paper and dip it into the beaker of washing powder…..

bleach…..

or milk.

After each test, put the piece of litmus paper on your table of results.

We found that out of the things we tested, vinegar and milk were acids.

We were a bit surprised about the milk, but on reflection, it was some I had discovered lurking at the back of the staffroom fridge…..it didn’t smell too good!

Oh and the bleach. That was interesting too. It seems to have taken the colour away from the blue litmus paper. Luckily it didn’t do that to our clothes.

Trouble in the shower

2009-03-05T17:19:00.000+01:00

It all began with an (even!) earlier than usual arrival at school the other morning. Time there was to fit in a run down the hill to the Lake. And back. Time too to fit in a hot refreshing shower on my return. Or so I thought.

Oh my goodness. The first problem was the water; chilly to say the least. Brrr! And then there was the amount of it; a few pathetic needles, jabbing at me. Ouch! What on earth could have been the problem? Time I think to take a closer look at the shower head.

Ah ha! See those three or four pin-pricks of light? Those are the only places that the water is able to get through. The rest of the holes seem to be plugged up with something. Can you see?

What can it be? Where can it have come from? Let’s have a think. What is the only thing that goes through the shower? Yes; water. So it must be something that was in the water.

During its travels, (rain)water (which is acidic) passes along, through and between rocks. The rocks in these parts are made from limestone. The rainwater dissolves some of the (alkaline) minerals (called calcium) in the limestone and unfortunately this gets into the water that comes out of our taps. And showers. When the water dries, it leaves these minerals behind. After a time these block up the holes in the shower head.

So. What can we do to get rid of it? Maybe we could use an acid. Something like vinegar, perhaps..

Pour some (acid) vinegar into a jug.

Pop in the (alkaline) shower head. And listen…..

What do you hear? A fizzing sound. Now watch…..

What do you see? Bubbles. What can be happening?

Well, when an acid and an alkali are put together you get a chemical reaction. The fizzing and bubbling are the chemical reaction. The (acid) vinegar is dissolving the (alkaline) calcium.

And after a short while; well take a look.

One calcium-free shower head. Which works.

A treat!

Now, just one more little problem. My kettle seems to be taking simply ages to boil…..

How strong is paper?

2009-03-04T19:18:00.000+01:00

Paper is pretty easy to tear, isn’t it? Scribble something down; a mistake perhaps. And it’s so easy just to rip it up and throw it away.

Well you’d think so. So be prepared to be surprised. We certainly were.

Take three strips of paper, making sure they are the same size.

A strip each of (pink) A4 writing paper…..

of paper towel and of newspaper.

You will also need a plastic bag…..

some sticky tape, a big clip and more plastic counting teddies than you could possibly imagine.

Have you worked out what we are going to do yet? Yes; we are going to stick one end of a strip of paper to the table…..

attach a plastic bag to the other end (using the big clip)…..

and then gradually add teddies, one by one, until the paper tears. Or at least that’s what we thought we’d be doing.

But hang on a minute. Let’s think about what we expect will happen. Which paper do you think will be the strongest, or hold the most plastic counting teddies before it tears?

With one brave exception, everyone thinks that the (pink) A4 paper will be the strongest.

So, one by one, let’s start adding…..

teddies.

Well, the first surprise came when one of the plastic bags tore. Which meant that the strip of paper was stronger than plastic!

The next surprise was when the big clip slipped off, spilling all the teddies onto the floor. Which meant that even a big clip can’t hold on to so many teddies

The third surprise was that we ran out of teddies! And we have got a LOT of teddies!

And then (as the children in the classroom all the way downstairs and along the corridor will attest) YES!!! The first strip of paper tore. Phew.

Next the mammoth task of counting all those poor teddies…..

before recording the results in a table.

What type of paper do you think was the strongest? Were our guesses correct? How many teddies do you think it took before our strongest strip of paper tore?

Why not try a similar investigation? You could even try using some different types of paper. And here is something to think about; I wonder; does it make a difference whether you cut the strips of paper crosswise or downwards?

With apologies to all of those hard-working children in the other classes who must have wondered what on earth was going on in Class 2i on Tuesday afternoon!

Fast Blueberry Muffins (at least they would have been if we had remembered to turn on the oven)

2009-02-27T17:00:00.000+01:00

What changes, we wondered, would we notice after heating (or cooking) something. Or at least that is our excuse for indulging in a little ‘therapeutic’ baking on a Friday afternoon.

Our ingredients list had been thoughtfully divided into ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ things. The dry things were flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. The wet things were oil, egg and milk. Solids and liquids.

Take 1 1/2 cups of flour. Dump it into a bowl.

Scoop up 3/4 of a cup of sugar and add that to the flour.

Carefully measure 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

Add that to the bowl along with 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

That’s the solids taken care of.

Now the next stage required us to read the directions…..however, in her excitement (and mild panic at the fast-approaching end of the school day) yours truly did not even particularly notice that there were directions. So we just measured out and added our liquids:

1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil…..

One egg…..

and a 1/3 of a cup of milk…..

These we stirred…..

before adding one cup of fresh blueberries.

Now scoop spoonfuls of the mixture into paper cases.

Stand back to admire your work (as well as notice what the mixture looks like before it makes it to the oven).

A quick glance at the watch (phew; 20 minutes to go – and 20 minutes needed to bake them). Gallop down the stairs, skither round the door of the ‘kitchen’ and carefully open up the oven.

Which is cold. Certainly not the 180 degrees centigrade needed for baking muffins. Oh dear.

While we wait (a tad longer than we had anticipated) let’s recap what our uncooked muffin mixture looked like. What was it like?

yellow
sticky

And after baking? What do we expect it to look like then?

brownish
dry
maybe higher

Good news. Not too much after the official end of school, children were to be seen carefully clutching (fingertips only – they are rather hot!) sweet-smelling just-cooked muffins. I am not sure how many of them made it all the way home before being greedily devoured, but for the record, this is what they looked like.

Brownish, no longer sticky, definitely higher. And in addition to the children, I and Mrs Williams and Raamy’s dad and Ryoma’s mum and Evie’s mum (goodness; Evie isn’t even in our class!) can all vouch for the fact that they were (definitely were!) quite, quite delicious.

And they really are, as long as you remember to turn on the oven, Fast Blueberry Muffins.

PS Now, although it quite clearly mattered that we omitted to pay attention to step one (turn on the oven), it didn’t seem to matter that we skipped out step three of the directions (which, for the record was ‘Put the oil, the egg and the milk into a jug; gently mix and pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients).

What’s it like – mud?

2009-02-27T16:11:00.000+01:00

What’s it like – mud?

‘Sticky,’ says Amelia.

‘Flexible,’ adds Aabis.

‘Dirty,’ says Meghna.

‘Breakable,’ Shahrbano tells us.

Eh? Time to organise our thinking a bit.

When it is dry mud is breakable and hard. When it is wet mud is soft and flexible.

Have you ever played that game called ‘Stuck-in-the-mud’? You know the one I mean; where once you are caught, you have to stand still as if you are stuck in the mud until someone releases you? Have you ever thought why we call it that?

Picture the scene. You are out on a soggy day; wellie-clad feet sploshing through the muddy puddles. The mud is deliciously dirty; wet, soft, sticky, dirty mud.

You stop for a rest perhaps. What’s it like now – mud? Dry, hard, solid. Oh dear - you’re stuck fast…..

I have a much tastier version of ‘Stuck-in-the-mud’ for you to play. First of all you need to get some water boiling.

While it is heating, have a little look at some chocolate. What’s it like – chocolate?

cool
hard
dull
solid
a bit like dry mud really!

And what do you think will happen when we heat it? How will it change? What’s it like now – chocolate?

warm
soft
shiny
liquid

To play the game you need your very own warm, chocolaty puddle.

And some Gummi-bear players.

Now you have to ‘trap’ the bears in the ‘mud’. They need to be stuck fast.

Push them in…..

one…..

by…..

one.

Keep your eye on that chocolate. What’s it like now? Still…..

warm
soft
shiny
liquid

So how will we get the teddies to stick? How can we make soft, shiny, liquid, chocolate change so that is hard, solid and dull again?

Owen thinks, ‘we should freeze it. Put it in the freezer.’

‘Put it outside where it is cold,’ suggests Aabis.

‘Yes, put it outside,’ Martin agrees.

Well yes, we could. But what about the chocolate before we melted it? What was it like when we opened the packet? Is chocolate usually cool, hard, dull and solid when we buy and eat it? Or is it a warm, soft, shiny liquid?

So, if we leave our chocolaty bear-trap puddles in the classroom do you think the chocolate will go back to how it was before we heated it? Hard, solid - and dull?

Well, did our bears get stuck fast in our puddles? Inside the classroom - at room temperature? Carefully lift the foil up and see…..

What’s it like – clay?

2009-02-26T16:00:00.000+01:00

Clay is a natural material. It is dug out of the ground. It’s a bit like dark, sticky mud; the type that grabs onto your wellies and doesn’t let go!

When it is damp and cool, clay is soft and easy to use. It can be pushed…..

rolled…..

squeezed…..

twisted…..

moulded…..

and pressed…..

into any shape.

But hang on; what happens after you have been handling it for a while?

As you use it, the heat from your hands begins to make the clay dry out, which makes it much harder and difficult to use. You may even have to wet your hands a bit.

That’s odd; quite the opposite from plasticine, which needs to be warm when you use it.

But clay is meant to go hard eventually; that’s what makes it such a useful material. Clay is changed into pottery by heat. Why not pay us a visit and take a look at the way in which the heat of the classroom has changed our soft, cool, damp clay?

How are the things we made different from the ‘pottery’ you see here?

How to make jelly

2009-02-26T15:00:00.000+01:00

As well as investigating how things change, we have been learning about different ‘genres’ or types of writing. For example, how to write instructions. Like how to make jelly. Step by step.

This is what we actually did.

open a packet of (solid) green jelly
put the jelly into a jug
boil some water
pour that into the jug with the jelly
stir until it has dissolved
add some cold water so you have 500mls in all
pour the (liquid) jelly into two bowls
put them into a cold place to set (or turn back into a solid)

I wonder if jelly-making would work using our instructions rather than the ones written on the packet…..Why not come to the classroom and take a look at what we wrote? Indeed, why not try out our instructions the next time you make jelly?

Anyway, jelly safely made and set (quite perfectly solid yet still satisfyingly wobbly)…..

the next step was to try to answer one of our questions; namely….

Can we turn solid jelly back into a liquid again?

This would involve doing two things. Firstly taking a taste.

And as you enjoy the cool, sweet, lime flavour, think to yourself, ‘is the jelly in my (warm) mouth a solid or a liquid?’ And I think we are all agreed that unless we loved it so much that we just gulped it down in one wobbly spoonful (!) it melted into a warm sweet lime-flavoured liquid. Mmmmm.

Next step.

Leave the second bowl of solid jelly in a warm classroom over night – and see what happens. A quick survey reveals that two children (Shahrbano and Martin) think it will ‘stay solid’; Quentin, Aabis, Owen, Thomas, Tommy, Shani, Dylan, Sharukh and Harrison think ‘it will turn back into a liquid’. The rest of the class remain unsure. Which is OK.

Because as we are fond of saying in Class 2i, there is only one way to find out…..

By the following afternoon, Thursday being a decidedly warm day, our solid jelly had turned back into a liquid.

Now; I wonder what would happen if we put it back into a cold place again? Can you keep on turning jelly from a solid to a liquid and back again for ever?

PS Remember our Jelly Race? And how Harry Hot Water had managed to melt a jelly cube in around 4 minutes…..

but that poor old Katie Cold Water didn’t see to have got anywhere?

Well, even after giving her an extra long weekend to work at it, she still hadn’t got anywhere. It would seem that in order to melt or dissolve a jelly cube, water needs to be hot not cold.

Meringues maybe

2009-02-25T13:20:00.000+01:00

When we made ice cream we cracked eggs and separated the yellow yolk from the ‘white’ or albumen.

Remember how we whisked the ‘white’? Let’s take another look. What is happening when you whisk something? What are you doing to it? Look closely; what do you see?

‘B u b b l e s !’ Yes, whisking puts bubbles in and the stretchy, sticky egg ‘white’ traps them.

The more you whisk…..

the more bubbles get trapped…..

until it has changed from a clear slippery liquid…..

to something that looks quite different.

Like:

‘mashed potato’

‘snow’

‘cotton wool’

Will those bubbles stay there forever? Let’s look again after 15 minutes. What do you see?

Ah ha; there is some liquid that seems to have ‘leaked out’ of the foam. Now put your ear really close to the foam. What do you hear? A kind of fizzy hissing noise; bubbles popping perhaps?

Do you think that if we leave it in the classroom overnight, all the liquid ‘white’ will have leaked back out; that all the bubbles will have popped? Will it have gone back to how it was before we did all that whisking?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the heat of the classroom has had the effect of a cool oven; it has dried the white foam until now it is hard; it breaks into powder when you touch it. The once-liquid part has also dried to a crisp transparent film a bit like when glue dries.

Maybe we have invented a new low-energy way of making meringues…..now where’s the (whipped) cream?

Fried or boiled?

2009-02-24T17:00:00.000+01:00

Take one freshly-laid egg (feather optional).

Tap it gently to crack the shell, and slither it out onto a plate.

What’s it like? What are the properties of a raw egg?

slimy
slippery
soft
see-through
transparent
wet
nearly liquid

What about if we heat it? Will it change – and if so how?

Well, there’s only one way to find out (as we are so fond of saying!) Let’s get some butter bubbling in the pan. Slide in the egg and watch what happens.

What’s it like? What are the properties of a cooked egg?

a bit harder
no longer see-through
opaque
solid
has bubbles

Now; here’s something to ponder. If we leave it overnight, what will happen? Will it

stay the same
go back to how it was before we cooked it
change in another way

Take a look; here is our egg after a night in a (warm) classroom. What do you notice?

What’s it like – sugar?

2009-02-24T16:22:00.001+01:00

Take one bag of sugar.

Pour a little heap out in front of you and take a closer look; use all your senses.

Take an even closer look using the microscope.

What’s it like – sugar?

solid (even though you can pour it)
white
dull
opaque
looks like ice cubes
sweet
crunchy

What do you think will happen when we heat it? Will it stay the same or change in some way? Well there’s only one way to find out!

Dump some into a pan (whoa that was fast Quentin!)

Place the pan on the hob and heat.

Now be very careful; it is going to get H O T ! But keep a watchful eye on it. What do you notice happening?

What’s it like – sugar?

yellowish-brown
lumpy
stuck together
solid
dull
opaque
sweet…..

Keep watching; keep stirring…..

What’s it like – sugar?

darker brown
shiny
opaque
a liquid

Now – pour it out into a slippery greasy pan…..

and allow it to cool.

What do you think will happen? Will it stay the same, go back to how it was before we heated it or change in some other way?

What’s it like – sugar?

translucent
hard
a solid
brittle, like glass

What’s it like – sugar?

Oh and I did have one more question. What do you think will happen if you leave it in the classroom overnight? Sadly though, we didn’t get to find out. It was very sweet you see…..

What’s it like – jelly?

2009-02-20T16:28:00.000+01:00

Take a couple of packets of jelly. Blackcurrant for preference (as that’s far and away my favourite flavour).

Marvel in the jewel-like colour and bouncy, chewy texture. Marvel too in the taste if you’d like to!

Lose yourself in reverie temporarily as you dream of birthday parties and balloons and lashings of ginger beer…..

Oops – now snap back to the moment.

What’s it like – jelly? A sticky, stretchy, translucent and sweet solid.

More to the point; what’s it for – jelly?

Well in the UK, we make our jelly using solid concentrated cubes like this. We add hot water to melt the jelly so that it becomes a liquid, before ‘setting’ it in a cool place, turning it back from a liquid to a solid again.

Question. Will jelly melt in as quickly in water that is not hot? Let’s see.

You and your partner will need these things:

· one cup of cold water (let’s call her Katie Cold Water)

· one cup of hot water (Harry Hot Water)

· two jelly cubes

· two stirring spoons

· one stopwatch

This is a RACE Tommy. A race between Katie Cold Water and Harry Hot Water. To see who is able to melt the jelly soonest.

This is what to do.

· put one jelly cube into the hot water

· at the same time put one jelly cube into the cold water

· stir each 20 times

· press the start button on the stopwatch

· as soon as a jelly cube dissolves press the lap button on the timer and record the time

So; what did we find out?

That jelly melts fastest in hot water – to find out how fast, look at our results table where we have recorded the times.
That a jelly cube dropped into cold water (poor old Katie Cold) had not even started to dissolve by the end of the school day.

We noticed some bubbles had attached themselves to the jelly cube.

And perhaps, if you look really closely, just the hint of a tinge of pink to the water.

Sadly (!) a planned demonstration rather-too-close-to-the-school-for-comfort put paid to Friday’s observations, so we will have to wait until after the weekend to see whether poor old Katie Cold managed to ‘melt’ her jelly cube.

Do you think she will have managed it by then?

Let’s indulge in a bit of sculpture

2009-02-19T15:22:00.000+01:00

Take one soft warm ball of pre-kneaded plasticine. Now, delve into that big inviting plastic bucket of metal nails and screws and metal keys and hinges and metal bolts and brackets and nuts. And wire and paperclips and split pins.

Take a big handful of all things metal. And let your imagination run wild as you sculpt your very own creation.

Maybe you like the idea of an abstract forest of screws.

Perhaps you would prefer to create something more realistic; an animal. A rabbit, maybe.

Or an animal that comes more from the imagination.

What about something that might have come from outer space?

We were lucky enough to have a spell of the most glorious sunshine during the photographing stage of the proceedings.

If these pictures have intrigued you, why not pay a visit to the Class 2i art gallery?

Plasticine – what it’s like

2009-02-19T14:46:00.000+01:00

Take a look at this…..

What’s it like?

Well (apart from its greenness) it is cool and quite hard, although if you dig your fingernail into it, you will leave a mark.

Ok. Now roll it into a ball.

Not easy, is it? But beaver away. Squash and squish it.

Roll it round and round.

Pull it; tug it; stretch it.

Roll it into a long snake.

A longer snake.

An even longer snake.

What do you notice about its texture now? About its temperature? (Remember how one of the places most sensitive to temperature is just above your lip.)

Are the properties the same now as they were when we began?

No – now the plasticine is warm and soft and no longer cool and hard. Easy to squish into a ball.

Incidentally. The word plasticine has a bit of a clue. But have you ever thought about what materials plasticine is made from?

Plastic; a man-made material made from oil. Plasticine; a man-made material with petroleum jelly (petrol; oil) as one of its ingredients.

So, what’s it like – plasticine?

Apart from being something that makes your hands go red…..(or blue or green)

More to the point; what can it be used for?

What it’s like - plastic

2009-02-19T13:49:00.000+01:00

In our classroom we have wooden desks and tables and wooden cubbies and pencils. We have metal pencil sharpeners and paper-clips and scissors. We have glass windows and a glass jug.

However, we have plastic rulers and buckets; plastic baskets and dice; plastic counters and cogs; plastic bricks and stopwatches; plastic timers and glue sticks; plastic, plastic and more plastic.

When we looked at our collection of wooden things, we noticed that most of them were brown. Our metal collection was made up of things that were a shiny silvery colour. The glass things were transparent or tinged with green.

Plastic things, on the other hand, were all the colours of the RAINBOW

Plastic, it would appear, comes in many different forms and guises; shapes and sizes.

Plastic can be transparent like glass and hold water, like Raamy’s puzzle.

It can be soft, flexible, translucent and waterproof like Chloe’s raincoat.

It can be hard, dull and opaque like Sharukh’s transformer.

It can be shiny, rigid and brittle like Meghna’s recycled racing car (can you see what she made it from?)

It can be cut like a diamond and make light distort, like Amelia’s kaleidoscope.

Find some different things made of plastic. Ask yourself:

Is it flexible, stretchy or rigid?

Is it transparent, opaque or translucent? Is it hard or soft?
Is it strong or weak?
Is it heavy or light?
Is it shiny, reflective or dull?
Is it breakable or bouncy?

Sometimes plastic can trick you into thinking it is something else entirely. Remember our ‘glass’ mirror…..

and our ‘metal’ CD?

The perfect place for a picnic?

2009-02-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

Picture the scene if you will. You are out for a drive in the countryside; on your way to the beach perhaps. Lunchtime must be near if that grumbling tummy is anything to go by! Of course you don’t want to eat your sandwiches on the beach; no sand in the sandwiches for me thank you very much!

And then you spy a perfectly rounded hill; green with new grass. The ideal spot.

Park the car, lug the picnic hamper to the top. Spread out the tablecloth and unpack the goodies. A roast chicken; chunk of cheese. Lie back with a freshly plucked stalk of grass between your teeth as dad puts the stove on to boil for tea.

Aaah…..

Aargh! What was that? The earth is shaking. And now a crack appears. The crack widens as the kettle disappears into the hole. The fingertips of a giant iron hand appear, clutching at the sides of the hole.

Run, run, run! Don’t…..

look…..

back…..

whatever…..

you…..

do!

Investigating some different solid materials – and finding out about suspensions and solutions along the way…..

2009-02-17T10:58:00.000+01:00

We started out with six different ‘white-coloured’ solids and six different ‘brown-coloured’ solids. We wanted to find out, by observing carefully, what might happen if they were stirred into water.

Our ‘white-coloured’ solids were

sugar
salt
washing powder
cornflour
white powder paint
chalk

Our ‘brown-coloured’ solids were

instant coffee
ground coffee
sand
brown sugar
brown powder paint
sawdust

We wanted to measure (by observing) what happened when each material was stirred into water.

We would need to keep everything else the same

the same amount of the material
the same amount of water
the same number of stirs

This is what we did (the method)

pour water into a beaker up to the line
add one spoon of the material
stir twenty times
look to see what happens

These are some of our observations of the ‘brown-coloured’ materials

the sand sank to the bottom

the brown sugar grains and the instant coffee granules ‘disappeared’

(they turned the water brown)

most of the sawdust floated

some of the ground coffee floated and some of it sank

the brown powder-paint turned the water brown (and a bit of it floated)

We recorded our observations in a table

These are some of our observations of the ‘white-coloured’ materials

the washing powder bubbled and turned the water ‘milky’
the white-powder paint and the cornflour turned the water ‘milky’
some of the chalk sank and some of it turned the water ‘milky’

the salt and the sugar grains ‘disappeared’ (the water was clear)

We recorded these observations in a table

A few days later, however, some things had changed.

The sawdust had mostly sunk (we wondered why this was; but when we remembered that one of the properties of wood is that it absorbs water, we thought that maybe the sawdust had ‘sucked up’ enough water to make it ‘heavy’ enough to sink)

Everything else, except the salt, the white and brown sugar and the instant coffee, had sunk to the bottom of the beaker; the water had gone back to being clear. The materials were no longer ‘in suspension’. This means they are ‘insoluble’ materials; they do not dissolve in water.

There was still no sign of the salt, the white and brown sugar and the instant coffee. They were ‘in solution’. They are ‘soluble’ materials; they dissolve in water.

What it’s like - glass

2009-02-06T17:37:00.001+01:00

Take a look at these cufflinks that belong to Amelia’s dad.

They are made using Roman glass. That means it could be more than a thousand years old!

Yes, glass has been an important material for thousands of years. And it is still really important today.

Thomas told us that glass is made by melting a special kind of sand in a really hot fire.

Some of us are lucky enough to have visited a glass factory in Venice. There you can see a lump of hot molten glass which has been stuck onto the end of a long pipe, being ‘blown’ to shape, rather like blowing up a balloon (though I bet it probably needs a bit more puff!) There they make delicate, breakable things like wineglasses.

Glass can be coloured and used to make ornaments, like these:

Tommy told us that his glass elephant was made by cutting a lump of molten glass into the right shapes.

Most glass though is made in a factory like this bottle-making factory where molten glass is shaped by machine. These useful things would also have been made in a factory. Do you recognise them?

What makes glass a good material for things like these?

Glass can be made into beautiful jewellery, like this pendant, brooch and necklace:

Glass can even be made into toys. Marbles have been around for many years; our dads probably played marbles when they were little. Their dads probably did too! In fact, even the Romans played marbles. But probably not with these ones.

Look around you. Where do you see glass? Can you imagine a world where there was no glass?

The Iron Man – the story continues…..

2009-02-04T21:44:00.000+01:00

Well of course he came back. The signs were there; tractors chopped in half, teeth marks scratched in the metal. Soon there was nothing metal left. What, worried the farmers, would he start on next. Animals? Humans?

So of course something had to be done about it. And fast. This is what we would have done.

Mark ‘will make a really big and strong cage’.

Tatiana too; she will ‘make a cage and put some metal on the road and also put some broken cars and things made out of metal in the cage and after close the cage’.

Tommy also liked the cage idea. ‘I think (I) will make a cage and put metal in it and I will shut the door. I will make it out of trees.’

Shahrbano ‘will make a trail of metal things. The trail will lead the Iron Man to the sea.’

Leon ‘will put metal things on the road and put rope. The Iron Man will fall down.’

Aabis ‘will make a hole in the road and I will put a rope (across). When he comes he will fall in the hole.’

Dasha tells us, ‘you have to tie him around and then you have to put him in the water so he breaks’.

Raamy will ‘get a ladder and make a hole in his back. I will take the electricity out.’

Thomas gets straight to the point. ‘I will get a sling shot with a giant rock.’

Harrison ‘will make a cake and I will put a bomb in it. Boom! Boom!’

Sivert had lots of ideas. He might ‘make a metal cake and put a bomb inside.’ Alternatively he would ‘cut some trees down and throw it at him’.

Amelia chose the poisoning route. ‘I will put a bit of metal with some other material mixed in it so he wouldn’t know and he would die because he is an iron man.’

Martin ‘will put metal on the road then he will run to the metal and I will put a rope then I will tie his legs then a helicopter will stop by so I will tie the rope to the helicopter; then the helicopter will take him (and) throw him into the water.’

Still thinking about ‘going up’, Ryoma ‘will get a parachute and take the Iron Man up’.

Owen, on the other hand, ‘will take everything metal and hide it from the Iron man. Then he will go back into the water.’

Great ideas all. But in actual fact, an enormous trap was made; first a deep, wide hole was dug. It was covered with branches and the branches were covered with straw and the straw with soil, so that when it was finished it looked just like a freshly ploughed field.

Then the bait ( a rusty tractor) was placed on one side of the trap. The idea was that the Iron man would spot the tasty-looking tractor, start to walk towards it and…..you get the idea!

But of course, nothing is that easy and the Iron Man did not fall into the trap; not that night, nor the following or even the one after that.

Trust our brave ‘hero’ Hogarth to come up with the solution. I say brave…..he tempted the Iron Man across the ‘ploughed field’ by clinking a nail and a knife blade together ‘Clink!’ ‘Clink!’

Crassshhh! The Iron man disappeared into the pit, was covered over with soil which was piled on top of him until a rounded hill was formed. In time grass grew on the top. Surely that was the end of the Iron man. Surely he would never be seen again…..

The coming of the Iron Man.....

2009-02-02T21:06:00.000+01:00

"The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far he had walked? Nobody knows. Where he had come from? Nobody knows. How he was made? Nobody knows."

So begins the gripping story of The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes. Eyes were huge and round at the thought of the giant, swaying in the breeze on the brink of the cliff; stepping out into nothing; tumbling down the cliff, over and over, until he is smashed into pieces on the jagged rocks below.

Imaginations ran riot as the first chapter ended with the Iron Man, having rebuilt himself (save one lost ear) wading out to sea and disappearing beneath the waves, leaving nothing behind but a trail of bubbles.....

Imaginations went into overdrive as we were 'let loose' with sheets of tin foil.....

and all things metal.....

so that we could create our own versions of this fearsome giant.

We even got to delve inside Momo's big plastic bucket of nails and screws and broken locks and spare keys and bolts and bits and bobs; what treasures were to be found!

And so we snipped.....

and smoothened.....

and crumpled.....

and glued.....

until our terrible giants emerged.

Piece by shiny piece.

One.....

by.....

dreadful.....

one.

Why not come to the classroom to see the rest of them some day?

On second thoughts, best not.

What's it like - snow? (more thoughts)

2009-02-01T08:51:00.000+01:00

Take a close look at this.

Slightly odd, I agree. A plate of, what is it - snow? What do you think will happen to it if we leave it where it is - on a plate, in the classroom?

No hesitation; no waverers. 'It will melt,' the unanimous answer.

And so it did. After not much more than thirty minutes (we are lovely and warm up there!)

Snow melts.

OK then, what do you think will happen if we put the plate of melted snow back outside near where we found it?

And here is what we think:

Sharukh, Harrison, Sivert, Shouq, Tatiana and Martin all think it will stay as water.

Aabis, Tommy, Viivi, Shani, Leon, Chloe, Shahrbano and Thomas all think it will freeze and turn to ice.

Raamy thinks it will go up into a cloud.

Virginia, Mark, Meghna, Dylan, Ryoma, Owen and Amelia all think it will turn into snow again.

Quentin wasn't sure. And do you know what? I'm not sure either.

Although having said that, it is snowing again as I write this.....

What do you think will happen?

What's it for - wood?

2009-01-30T10:23:00.000+01:00

(or 'Maybe this classroom should become a stuff-free zone')

We know that wood is not stretchy. Neither is it magnetic. It feels warm to the touch and it is opaque. Plus, it can be soft or hard (just ask Meghna about that!); it can be heavy or light; it can be flexible or rigid. And probably a lot more things besides.

But what can it be used for?

What, for example, can this be? 'It smells,' explained Shouq.

And indeed it did. It sent us off of a deliciously scented tangent; past cinnamon and camphor by way of hickory and sandalwood.

Then Tatiana showed us this:

'It's a chair. It's warm and not flexible,' she explained.

'I think it's made from a hard wood,' Meghna thought aloud. 'That means it comes from a deciduous tree,' with certainty.

Chloe showed us some light, flexible wooden stuff.

'Its for putting stuff on cakes and stuff,' she told us. Useful word, stuff!

'I have a wooden spoon,' began Martin.

'It's a bit flexible and it's soft.'

'Coniferous tree.' Meghna again.

'My giraffe,' said Leon,

'is hard and not flexible and it comes from Africa. It's a decoration,' he said.

More decorative stuff now. 'This is a wooden owl.

I got it for Christmas. It feels smooth but the branch feels rough,' Tommy said.

'My elephant,' began Sivert,

'is made from a different wood. I think it's a hard wood.'

Meghna? 'Deciduous trees have hard wood,' emphatically.

Aabis too had an animal. Part toy, part decoration.

'It's from Pakistan,' he said. 'They took the small bits of wood that were left and they carved them with their hand.'

Next up, an alligator toy from Viivi. 'From Italy,' she said. Made from a very beautiful wood, isn't it. I wonder what tree it came from.

Another 'toy'. This time from Thomas.

'My dad made it. I think it's a soft wood.'

Battle-scarred, dented.....

Meghna thought that meant it must be a soft wood. Coniferous of course.

Harrison brought us another toy. A puppet:

He also had a box (that once held rather fancy chocolates):

And a bit of his very own handiwork:

'I did the nails,' he told us. 'It was difficult. I had to hit them hard with a hammer.'

'It's for doing sushi,' said Ryoma of his mat.

'It's bamboo. It's flexible and smooth.'

Still in the kitchen (well, kind of). Shani showed us this beautiful bowl.

'It's from Africa. Kenya,' she clarified. 'It's a light wood. It was carved.'

This was carved too. 'It's a cup,' said Viivi.

'It holds water. It's waterproof. It comes from Finland.'

'My drum,' said Dylan, 'comes from Africa.'

And now, a musical note to end on. 'This is my violin,' Meghna told us.

'I don't know what wood it's made from, but I think it's from a deciduous tree.'

'Hard wood,' the chorus.

Do I need to summarise? Perhaps.

Coniferous (evergreen) trees have soft wood.

Deciduous trees (which lose their leaves) have hard wood.

Both kinds of wood are useful for different things. What things do you think might be best made using a hard wood? What things do you know that are made from soft wood?

As we have seen, wood can be used for making things smell and taste good; for furniture. It can be used for kitchen implements; for decorations and toys; for containers and for musical instruments.

Useful stuff wood!

What an elephant is like - no really!

2009-01-28T18:25:00.000+01:00

When did you last see a real live elephant? What; have you never seen one? Well, not to worry, because in our class we know exactly what they look like. We have been busy drawing them using the very best descriptions from the most reliable sources.

Take a look:

Again:

And again:

What do you mean you've never seen an elephant before that looks like that? Surely everyone knows that:

An elephant has a trunk; long and rubbery like a snake

It has tusks; sharp and cold like a knife

Ears; smooth and flat like a leaf

Legs; round and hard like a tree

Sides; high and wide like a wall

And a tail; long and thin like a rope

Well - how would you draw one if that is what you had been told?