Spring is just around the corner!

Everyone was asked to bring in a 500 ml clear plastic container.  We were all wondering "why" do we need this?  Well Easter is just a month away and Ms. Quon thought it would be fun to grow our own Easter Baskets full of grass!

The cups were filled a quarter-way up with some potting soil.

Then grass seeds were sprinkled on top of the soil.

Finally we sprayed our baskets with water!  Now we wait!!

Hopefully we will see grass soon!

Physical and Chemical Changes of Matter

For the past month we have been talking about "matter".  Over the last 2 weeks we learned about ways we can change matter.  Are the changes "physical" or "chemical"?  We learned that a physical change means the "matter" is still the same ... it just might be a different shape or in a different state.  But in a chemical change, the matter changes into a new substance and cannot change back.  

We finished off the unit with 2 experiments.

In this first one, we made predictions as to what would happen when water was added to three different powders...salt, sugar, baking soda.  We made predictions - "it will melt", 'it will be sticky", "it will be gooey"!  Ms. Quon added the water and .... nothing.  The powders all dissolved.

In the 2nd part of the experiment we made predictions about what will happen when we add vinegar to the same powders.  Once we made our predictions we carried out the experiment in our teams!

First we added vinegar to the salt... not much happened.  

Next we added vinegar to the sugar - same as salt...it dissolved

Finally we got ready to add vinegar to the baking soda...

Bubbles!!

The more vinegar we added, the more bubbles we made!

Finally we added the rest of the vinegar and the bubbles overflowed the cup!  So exciting!  This is a chemical change! The baking soda mixed with the vinegar and made a new substance.

In our final experiment Ms. Quon demonstrated what would happen when we mix hydrogen peroxide, yeast, warm water, dish detergent and food colouring...

ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE!

Watch this video if you want to try this experiment at home with an adult

Have FUN and BE SAFE!

Spelling List 25

too
cool
room
noon
soon
food
need
feed
feet
week
green
sleep

Have a great Spring Break!!

Spring is NEAR!

"March brings breezes

Loud and Shrill

To stir the dancing

Daffodils"

We also took advantage of the sunny day and went outside to put some seeds into the garden box that we are sharing with Ms. Jarvis' class

Our garlic is coming up already!  You can see them popping their "green heads" out of the soil .

Both our class and Ms. Jarvis' class went out and put in some snow peas. 

Hopefully we will see some plants sprouting in early April! 

While we were outside, we found a couple of bulbs.  We aren't sure what they are but we thought it would be fun to bring them in and plant them and see what this  "mystery" plant will be!

We will let you know what comes up!

ADST Challenge - Building a Freezer

We have been talking about "matter" this past month, learning about the different states of matter and about how we can change the states of matter.  This challenge was to work in teams to build a freezer using a container of their choice and one or two insulators.

Some of the containers to choose from...

 Some of the insulators to choose from...

Let the building begin!

 All our freezers are done.   Now we wait.  After an hour, even our "control ice cube" (which was sitting in an open cup in our room), had still not melted much.

 2 hours later, we all checked our ice cubes in our freezers to see if anything was left!  Some bags were full of water!   A few others had small ice cubes left.  And a couple had ice-cubes that had only melted slightly!

 AND... the freezer that keep the ice cube the coldest...

We talked about why this might have kept the "warm air" away from the the ice cube.

Then, everyone took time to reflect on their project and what they learned.

Here are a few of our reflections...

Even though our 100th day of Grade Two was almost a month ago, we were still working on "all things 100".  Here are a few of our "Pictures with 100 Things".  We worked SO hard on these!

Dance With Anne-Michelle

For the past 8 weeks, we have been fortunate enough to have Anne-Michelle come and "take us away" to imaginary lands through her very unique dance program.  Our weekly classes are filled with stories, props, dress-up, music, creative movement, exercise and FUN, while building self-confidence and social skills.

Here we listen to music and then work together with others to create shapes...

 We can make shapes that are round and low...

We can make shapes that reach up high...

And we can make shapes that bend!

There were so many different dances!

And, we always get to make up our own dances as we listen and move to the music!

As this year's sessions came to an end with Anne-Michelle, we talked about what we loved most about dancing.  Here are some of our thoughts...

We ALL hope Anne-Michelle comes back next year!