Space and rocket display day

We had a wonderful Space Day.

We invited our parents, our friends and the other classes in the school.

We were able to explain all about our solar system, the planets and life in space.

Afterwards we went outside to launch the big air and water rockets.

Here are some short videos of our space day:

Balloon rocket race.

Foam rockets in action.

Straw (paper) rockets.

Fizzy rockets.

More fizzy rockets.

Air and stomp rockets.

Fizzy rockets.

Balloon rocket race.

The big ones: Air rocket launch.

Water rocket.

More water rockets.

Still more water rockets.

Last rocket.

What Ms. Connolly's class said about our day:

We went to see Ms. McLoughlin's class launch rockets in the junior yard today. It was so exciting. We had to countdown from 10 to blast off!! We thought a rocket might land on our heads! It reminded us of senior infants when Ms. McLoughlin was our teacher. Even though Ms. McLoughlin was so busy , she still had time to wave at us and say hello.

Space Day

Our trip to space

You might think we spent the day in the classroom.

Well, we didn't!

Today we all built space ships and we took a trip to space!

We even landed on Mars and met some aliens (though talking to them was a bit of a challenge!)

It was really interesting zooming through space and seeing all the planets from our rockets.

So, if we are tired tonight it is really because of the travelling we did during our school day today.

Volcanoes on Venus

We know all about the planet Venus.

It has lots of volcanoes on it and is a very hot and very smelly planet with lots of poisonous gases.

We would hate to live there.

Today we learned lots about volcanoes.

If you would like to make a volcano at home these are the things you will need:

The gas that is made by adding vinegar to bread soda is Carbon Dioxide which is the gas that we breathe out each day.

We even got the carbon dioxide gas to blow up balloons for us!

Felt rockets

We know all our shapes.

Today we cut out rectangles, circles, triangles and squares and we put them together to make lovely felt rockets.

Clay rockets

We know the shapes in a rocket.  The main part of the rocket is made from a cylinder and the nose is made from a cone.  The wings are triangular prisms.  Our 3D rockets can even stand up by themselves!

We made some really nice clay rockets today.  They will dry over the weekend and we might paint them next week.

We would love to take a trip to space in these rockets!

Favourite planet data chart

Today we all chose our favourite planet and we made a great data chart of it.

Earth is the most popular planet in our class and Mercury is the least popular.

We enjoyed counting and comparing all the different choices.

Balloon rockets

We have been talking about space and rockets.

Teacher had some rocket balloons which we tried to fly straight across the classroom.

This was an impossible task....until.....

We stuck the balloon to a straw that was covering a piece of string.

Then we could get the balloon rocket to fly straight.

We even had balloon rocket races!

To learn all about Newton's Laws (which we saw in motion today) click on the picture below.

Fizzy rockets

Today we talked about different kinds of rockets and the fuel they use to power them.

We have no rocket fuel in class, but we made rockets using water and some fizzy Vitamin C tablets.

This was really exciting.

These rockets didn't fly too far, but the ones we held in our hands popped so high that some hit the ceiling.

Meteors, craters and the end of the dinosaurs

Teacher set up a sandbox planet.  It was made of sand with sieved chocolate on top.

There were dinosaurs on the planet.

Orbiting round the planet were some asteroids (the different sized balls).

When the asteroids came out of orbit some of them hit the planet.

They hit the planet as meteors and made huge craters.

The poor dinosaurs didn't stand a chance.

Some of the dinosaurs were killed by the meteors, others were killed by the dust thrown up as the meteors landed, and still others were killed because the dust blocked the sun and this caused an ice age.

This is what actually happened to the dinosaurs that used to live on earth!

We noticed that different sized asteroids made different sized craters.

We felt sorry for the dinosaurs but as one of us pointed out...it is a good thing that the dinosaurs are really gone because they might like to eat US!

Testing gravity

What makes us keep our feet on the ground?

It's gravity.

Teacher asked us whether a bottle would float or drop if she let go of it.

We had to guess the answer.

What do you think?

We guessed that gravity would pull the bottle to the floor.

Next teacher filled one bottle with water and left the other one empty.  

Now when you drop the two bottles which falls the fastest?

Watch the videos below and see are you right!

Did you guess correctly that they both hit the ground at the same time?

Surprising isn't it.

You should try this at home.