Can an egg float?

In science we are learning about Properties of Matter. Properties of matter are the ways that we can describe and compare matter.

Some physical properties of matter are: weight, texture, flexibility, absorbency, transparency, and many others.

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We did a science activity to investigate the properties of:

 Solubility - if an object of matter dissolves in liquid, Buoyancy - if an object sinks or floats, and Density - how thick different objects of matter are.

"How can I make this thing float?"

We wanted to see if an egg could become buoyant. Normally they sink, so we wanted to see what would happen if we changed the water they were in.

We added salt to the tap water, one teaspoon at a time. Salt is soluble, so it dissolved easily in the water. 

Adding salt to the water

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After each teaspoon of salt, we put the egg back in to observe the result.

Observing the egg

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If the egg wasn’t floating, we added another teaspoon of salt and stirred it in. Then we tested the egg again. We recorded each teaspoon of salt that we added.

Recording the data

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Eventually, all the eggs began to float!

A buoyant (floating) egg!

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Observing the buoyant egg

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It floats!

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Then we recorded the final data, and wrote down why we think the egg began to float.

Writing about the results

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Here are the results:

Every group got their egg to float, but some needed more salt than others. Some groups got their eggs to float with only 4 teaspoons of salt, and others needed 8, 9, and even 10 teaspoons of salt!

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Why did the egg float in salt water but not tap water?

Why do you think different groups needed different amounts of salt to make the egg float?

Do you think you could use this method to make other things float? How about a marble?

Our special guest

Mr. Davo is originally from Ms. Wyatt’s class on the island of Tasmania, south of Australia.

From Tasmania to Connecticut

He has been travelling around the United States and Canada for several months, visiting schools, classrooms, and student homes.

You can learn more about Mr. Davo and his adventures on his blog: Travelling With Mr. “Davo” Devil.

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The first thing we had to do was introduce him to our two mascots; Juan Pablo and Perezoso. They quickly became good friends!

New Friends

Since Mr. Davo’s last place to visit was with Mrs. Watanabe and the Apache Junction School in Arizona, we were a little worried that he might feel cold here in Connecticut. Luckily we have a mini Sonoran desert right here in our classroom to keep him warm and remind him of his friends in Arizona:

Our saguaro cactus

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Then he read with some of us during our Daily 5 time…

Reading a Good-Fit book

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We introduced him to our mural of Clifford…

Meeting Clifford

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That was enough for our first day – we didn’t want to overwhelm him! We will give him a full tour of the school this week.

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Information about Tasmanian devils:

Tasmanian Devil

If  you’d like to learn more about these amazing animals, here are a few links:

Tasmanian Devil Information for Kids

Tasmanian Devils – Creature Features

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What interesting facts did you learn about Tasmanian devils?

What should we make sure Mr. Davo sees while he is here?

]]> http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/02/07/mr-davo-arrives/feed/ 5 http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/02/01/as-told-by-taylor-new-student-blog/ http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/02/01/as-told-by-taylor-new-student-blog/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:40:23 +0000 Jonah Salsich http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/?p=4429 We have a brand new blog by one of our classmates! Taylor has started a blog called As Told By Taylor: My story, my life, my words…

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Here is a a line from her welcome post, explaining what her blog will be about, “I’m so excited to tell all of you about my life and exactly the way I see the world from my point of view.”

She has a fantastic post about her part in an upcoming performance of The Sound of Music.

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Why not head on over to her beautiful blog and leave her a comment: As Told By Taylor

Below is a video with tips for how to answer “reading comprehension” questions. These questions want you to show that you understand what you read, and to explain your ideas about the reading.

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Here are the five steps that can help you answer reading comprehension questions:

R-R-D-D-R

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Now that we have gone over the steps, let’s listen to the story My Rotten Red Headed Older Brother by Patricia Polacco using the fantastic website Storyline Online and try to answer some questions.

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After you have listened to the story, try to answer one os these reading comprehension questions using R-R-D-D-R.

(Of course, you can just leave a comment about our video if you’d prefer!)

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1. Would you want to have Richie as a friend? Why or why not? Explain your answer using evidence from the story.

2. What was Tricia’s main problem in the story? Use details from the text to support your answer.

3. What was the theme, or message, of the story? Back up your idea with support.

(Leave your answer in a comment below, or just leave us a regular comment.)

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What was your favorite part of the video?

Do you have any other tips for answering reading questions?

Why is it important to be able to explain your ideas in writing?

Another thing that has been fun for some of us is following the football playoffs in the NFL. Two of our local teams, The New England Patriots and the New York Giants, have made it to the final four teams. 

Perezoso says, "Go Patriots!"

Even Perezoso the sloth is excited, and he never gets excited about anything (except sleep).

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We decided to use what we have been learning about multiplication to figure out how many points the two teams got from touchdowns and field goals.

Touchdowns are usually worth 7 points and field goals are worth 3 points.

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Here is a “Mathlete Show” video showing how we used repeated addition, skip counting, and multiplication to solve some football questions. The hosts of this episode are “Oreo” and “Billy Bob.”

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The Giants and Patriots will play separate games this Sunday, and if they both win they will face each other in the Super Bowl!

Who do you think will win the Super Bowl? Vote on our poll below and leave a comment with your choice.

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Here are some football multiplication questions for you to answer:

1. If a team scores 24 points, how many touchdowns and field goals would that be?

2. What would 6 touchdowns and 4 field goals equal?

3. Can a team score 42 points without scoring a touchdown? 

]]> http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/01/20/mathlete-show-multiplying-touchdowns/feed/ 31 http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/01/16/groups-of-things/ http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/2012/01/16/groups-of-things/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:34:52 +0000 Jonah Salsich http://jmsalsich.edublogs.org/?p=4358 We are starting to learn about multiplication in math.

Multiplication is really just a faster way to add together equal groups of things. Here’s an example from Jennifer:

7 groups of 3

Here are 7 Pikachus.

Each Pikachu has 3 bowls of food.

Because each Pikachu (a type of Pokemon) has an equal number of bowls, we can say that this is 7 groups of 3. You can figure out how many bowls there are altogether by adding 3 together 7 times:

3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 21

There are 21 bowls of food in all.

Multiplication makes it easier than adding up each 3. You can skip-count by the equal groups (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21), or better still, memorize the multiplication facts. We also call multiplication “times” because you are adding the same number a certain amount of times. So, 7 groups of 3 also means:

7 x 3 = 21

Here are more examples of turning equal groups of things into multiplication:

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With multiplication you can quickly find the total amount of equal groups of things.  We will use this a lot in math when we start doing serious skip counting, figuring out arrays, and then division.

Here is a multiplication picture-problem for you to solve:

20 groups of 10

Here are 20 wacky students. 

Each wacky student has 10 fingers.

How many fingers are there in all?

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Can you solve the equal groups question above?

What did you think of our multiplication pictures and sentences?

Can you think of other problems from everyday life that we can use multiplication to solve?

a stone mortar and pestle

The local Native americans grew three important crops – corn, beans, and squash. These were called “the three sisters” because they always grew together and helped each other.

(To learn more about “the three sisters” watch this voicethread on our Native American wiki site.)

Corn was the most important crop because they could grind it into cornmeal for breads, porridge, or a portable snack, and it would last through the winter. They used a mortar and pestle to grind the corn into cornmeal.

The women and children would work together to grind the corn

We wanted to see what it would be like to grind corn the way the Native Americans did, so we tried it with a small stone mortar and pestle. This would be what the children used, while the women used large wooden ones.

a HEAVY stone pestle

Here is a video of us using the mortar and pestle and talking about what we learned:

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Have you ever used a mortar and pestle to grind something? Would you like to?

How do you think flour and cornmeal is made now?

What did you think of our video?

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The  native people of this area lived right next to the Atlantic Ocean. They got lots of food and materials from the sea and the coast. During the summer they would move their villages to the shore for fishing, clamming and farming. Then in the winter they moved back into the forests to get away from the cold winter winds.

(For more information about their life through the seasons, click here.)

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How would they use this whelk?

At the aquarium we got to examine many of the animals and materials that the local tribes used.

We talked about how they would use these things for five different purposes: food, tools, clothing, wampum, and fertilizer for gardens.

Here is a slide show about what we learned:

Package From 2KM & 2KJ!

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In the package we found a beautiful book written and illustrated by our Australian blogging buddies, called “Santa’s Blogging Adventure“

Santa's Blogging Adventure

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The book is fantastic!

It is a story about how Santa has to find the true meaning of Christmas by visiting the blogging buddies of 2KM & 2KJ, including us, Mrs. Yollis’ class, Mrs. Watson’s 2/3′s, Mr. Avery’s class, and B4. At each stop he learns a different important aspect of the holiday season.

All of the other classes in the story also got a copy of the book. We were thinking of making a video of us reading the story, but Mr. Avery’s class had the same idea and they already did it! To listen to Mr. Avery’s class read this amazing story visit their blog post here.

Below is a voicethread that we made thanking 2KM & 2KJ for the wonderful present:

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Our buddies from 2KM & 2KJ are almost finished with their school year because it is summer time for them in the Southern Hemispere. We hope they have a great summer holiday!

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Thank you so much 2KM and 2KJ!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

The blog is called Maura’s Marvelous Menagerie. Click on the link or the picture below to visit the blog and leave her a comment. 

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Be sure to check out the slideshow from her New Zealand trip!

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Instead of leaving a comment here, head on over to Maura’s blog and leave her a comment.