What's the Matter?

We were excited to welcome a guest presenter in to our classroom this week to explain matter to us.  One of our parents is a scientist and he brought in science equipment to demonstrate the four phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.  Our presenter used different sizes and shapes of beakers to demonstrate that matter in a liquid state takes the shape of its container.  The beaker on the blue hotplate next to him contains Sammy the Snowman who went from a solid (snow), to a liquid (water), to a gas (water vapor) when energy (heat) was introduced.

The students are pretending to be molecules in a solid by holding hands (bonding) and staying close together.  Then they pretended to be liquid molecules by moving freely about the room.  This demonstrated that molecules in a solid are closer together than in a liquid.

Here he is letting gas, which was released when he mixed vinegar and baking soda, blow up a balloon.

Our presenter and his son.  Thank you for the presentation.  The students learned a lot and had a great time!

With our evaporation experiment it took a little over a week for all of the water to evaporate from the cup without a lid.  The cup that was covered still has most of its original water.  We even noticed condensation on the inside of the baggie and inferred that precipitation had taken place when the droplets fell off the baggie back into the water.  We made our own little water cycle!  Remember, our open note test will be on Monday.  Use the links or prezi from last week's post to review cloud, the water cycle, and weather measurement tools with your child.

The students did a great job writing and presenting their sandwich book reports.  Great reading everyone!

   


Our chapter 5 math test is on Tuesday.  Please review the pages sent home.  The test will cover expanded form, place value, and comparing two numbers.  Use the ConnectEd link and your passwords given out at the beginning of the year to access more review materials if you would like. 

 Monday is Transformation Day.  Your child may dress up as something they would like to be when they grow up.

 We have started writing to our pen pals!  We have a 2nd grade in Maine and in North Carolina that we will be corresponding with.  We worked on Valentine notes this past week to introduce ourselves to our new friends.