We also looked back over our memories from the past 100 days. We brainstormed many! Each student selected 8 favorites. The photo shows all of our memories on display. We are certainly excited to create more second grade memories!
We discovered that the 38 degree refrigerated bottle only poured about a teaspoon of syrup during 15 seconds. The room temperature bottle poured about a 1/3 cup. The 80 degree heated bottle poured about 1 1/3 cups! Wow! Heat makes things move faster.
Our display board is attached. So, if you need something to pour easier, and faster, add a little heat!
I am a couple of weeks behind in getting this post up. During "Wacky Wednesday" of Catholic Schools Week, the weather was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was 65 degrees -- in February. Wow! I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make ice cream, in coffee cans, and explore physical changes and chemical changes. We partnered with the other second grade class to conduct this experiment.
We mixed half & half, sugar, and vanilla extract for our ice cream mix. This all went inside a small coffee can. We nestled our ice cream can inside a large 3 pound can. The ice cream can was surrounded with ice and rock salt. Then our second graders worked their magic: they partnered up and rolled the three cans for 10 minutes. We had ice cream!
Back in the day when there were metal coffee cans, the ice cream did get harder. Plastic does not work the same. We discussed the different properties of metal and plastic. Metal is a conductor and does an excellent job of getting colder than plastic. This means harder ice cream! No one was disappointed though, as the taste was approved by all.
Students designed Valentine bags from shopping bags that I had collected over the years. The party featured Valentine card delivery, a craft project, and a game of Conversation Heart Bingo. Students enjoyed a sweet treat and juice for their snack. The day sped by, and we enjoyed some time together!
Each student selected two light colors and one dark color for their crayon melt. This was an easy and fun way to explore reversible and irreversible change. When we turned the heat off, the liquid crayons became solid again. Our "new" solid crayons, did not look like they did before!
The computer uses a plastic filament. It is threaded into a heating coil, and extruded onto a heated plate. Don't worry, it is only 210 degrees. :) The printer prints one layer at a time. After multiple layers, and 5 hours later, the snowflakes were ready to take home.
Did you know that this technology is being used to "print" replacement bones? For example, if a new hip is needed, this printer could create it. Not only that, specific measurements to that human's needed hip can be taken, and one can be printed -- identical -- to the worn out hip bone. WOW!!
We have explored reversible and irreversible change through a number of experiments. We tried changing an ice cube into a liquid. This is reversible. We tried making toast, but burnt the second slice. We discovered that we can't change it back. It is burnt forever! This is irreversible change.
We tested out chocolate chips. What happens when we heat chocolate? It melts! It changes from a solid to a liquid. We chilled the chocolate and discovered that it changed back to a solid. This reversible change was quite delicious.
We learned which beads to hold for each prayer, while meditating upon the Glorious Mysteries. We alternating sitting and standing as we moved through each decade. This was the perfect way to begin our week!