Science: Mentos and Diet Coke

Today in Science we talked about what could happen if we mixed Mentos and Diet Coke.

We first had a look at a small jar of Diet Coke and described its features (e.g. fizzy, bubbly). We then talked about what would happen if we put the Mentos into the Coke.

To start with we put one Mentos in the jars. There wasn't much reaction, although the Coke did fizz a little bit more. Also, we noticed that the colour on the outside of the Mentos washed off.

Next we decided to head outside to see what would happen if we put a pack of Mentos in a bottle of Coke.

We put half a pack of Mentos in half a bottle of Coke.
There was a small reaction.

So, we decided to put a whole pack of Mentos into a whole bottle of Coke. There was a much bigger reaction.

Our next step was to write down our findings in our Science books.

When we got back to class we had a closer look at why the Diet Coke reacted the way it did.
The reason is because the CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) is looking for a way out.

All the carbon dioxide in the soda – all that fizz – is squeezed into the liquid and looking for a way out. It’s drawn to any tiny bumps that it can grab onto. Those tiny bumps are called nucleation sites: places the gas can grab onto and start forming bubbles.

We watched a youtube clip about Diet Coke and Mentos, and found out that Coke Zero has an even bigger reaction!

A Smarties Investigation

A Smarties Investigation

The steps we took:

1) Open our Smarties.

2) Figure out how many we have.

3) Separate them into their colours.

4) Create a table showing the colours and how many of each colour.

5) Find the mean, median and mode of the Smarties box. 

Our Investigation Posters:

After we found the mean, median and mode of the Smarties, we created a poster, showing the results we got in a graph. 

We all had the freedom of choosing which graph to create. Some of us chose to make a pictograph, others made a bar graph. A few people even made a line graph!

We wrote about the mean, median and mode, and also wrote some 'probabilities'.

I will put some photos of our investigation posters on here when they have been finished!

Nearly the holidays!

This term has been so incredibly busy. Year 5 did very well, despite getting quite tired with the music festival and school production rehearsals.

We managed to finally finish our art - it took a long time! If you look at the actual pieces of artwork from different angles, the picture changes - unfortunately you can't see that in the photos!

Here are some photos of our amazing artwork:

The Year 5s are ready for a well deserved break! As am I!

Te Ika a Maui

This week we made a picture book and created a photostory using the pictures:

Maori Language Week

This week it was Maori Language Week.

Year 5 and 6 have learnt how to ask and reply to 'how are you?' in Maori.

"Kei te pehea koe?"

(How are you?)

"Kei te _________"

A possible answer to that question is:

pai (good) or hiamoe (tired). We could have also used riri (angry), hiakai (hungry), or pouri (sad).

In English we listened to the myth "Te Ika a Maui" and have created a book retelling the myth - this will be made into a photostory. 

We have also started to learn to use Rakau sticks - we need to make sure we listen to the song 'E Papa Waiari' carefully to make sure we are in time.

A challenge we faced was making sure we always started to our right (so we would start at an opposite direction to our partner). Another challenge was when we were passing our rakau to our partner - we had to make sure that when we 'threw' the rakau, it wasn't flipping through the air. 

Cross Country

We all had a fab day at Cross Country in Week 3. We were very lucky with the weather.
Kereru did very well and were great at persevering, even when they got tired!

We're went to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

On Tuesday in week 2, we went to Auckland Zoo.
We were so excited because last time we planned to go it was cancelled.

Luckily it was beautiful weather all day!

We had a very interesting leader show us around parts of the Zoo.  We went into the Forest and saw a lot of different, native birds.

Our favourite was definitely the Kereru - one of them was absolutely huge!

The bird songs were lovely to listen to as well.

We then went into a room where we were shown different types of traps that catch pests.
A few of them made a loud noise, which was quite scary.  The leader, Kristy, also showed us different pests that had been caught and stuffed (taxidermy).

We saw stoats, ferrets, rabbits, and possums.

Although these animals don't look dangerous, they are very bad for our native and indigenous animals and plants.

The next place we went to was the 'island' where we saw lizards and a Tuatara!

Miss Halcrow had never seen a real Tuatara before.

At the end of the day we were all very tired!

A Blog about Dogs

On Friday, Jahn from Year 6 brought his puppies to school.
Jasper and Chewie were two very cute and very fluffy Maltese/Shih Tzu cross.

Year 5 was very happy to go and meet these two gorgeous puppies. They were very cuddly and sleepy and they really enjoyed all the attention they were getting.

We had to be careful with them, because they are just little and need to be handled with care.

Jahn's mum told us that they were the size of her finger when they were born.  There were 5 puppies in the litter altogether.

These types of dogs have hair instead of fur - this means they do not moult and they are also perfect for people with dog allergies!

We really enjoyed meeting the puppies and we were all tempted to keep one as a classroom mascot!

                                 

                                   


We all got a turn to hold Jasper and Chewie.  Miss Halcrow wanted to take one home but they already have new homes to go to!

This Week in Year 5

This week we did some experiments in Science.

We used a torch to see whether light could travel through different objects. For example, material, plastic board, a glass jar, and coloured paper.

We found out that the light travelled through most of these objects, except for the black coloured paper.

In Science on Friday, we looked at reflecting.We shone torches at different objects to see if they would reflect.  We were amazed at how the CD's reflected light!

On Monday, we joined Year 6 for STEM.  We had to work with a partner to make a tinfoil 'float'.  We then had to balance coins on it and see how many it would hold before it sank.

We had to think of different ways to make the 'boats'.

In English, we have been reading and writing myths.

Why Droughts Happen

Poseidon was storming down to Egpyt to confront Ra for his foolishness.  For non stop, day and night, Ra had been shining his sun in his face.  Poseidon couldn't see and couldn't watch over Greece to see if the other Gods were messing around.  He had had enough, he was willing to fight Ra till he stopped it once and for all. 

"Ra!" Poseidon roared.

"What?" Ra asked.

"Why must you shine your sun in my face?"

"No reason, I just get bored watching over Egypt, so I decided to annoy Greek Gods with my sun" Ra replied.

"Ok, I'm about to beat you so hard it might have cosmic consequences. So let's take this fight to the Earth" Poseidon exclaimed. At that moment Poseidon clicked his fingers and they teleported down to Earth.

They teleported into two human bodies. One called Jason,  one called Luke.

Poseidon was in Jason's body, Ra in Luke's.

Poseidon got his trident out and started stabbing Ra like a hunter stabs his prey and summoned Cerebeus.

Ra enchanted the sky so it wouldn't rain and soon Poseidon evaporated into the sky and Ra could run away.

So, whenever there's a drought Poseidon and Ra are fighting and Ra enchants the sky. 

By Rory Brabant

Here's Corbus and Alex performing the play "The Fairy Godfather" (based on a myth):

We have had a busy, but exciting week.