Soap Boat -Holiday science

http://www.planet-science.com/categories/experiments/messy/2011/02/power-a-boat-with-soap.aspx

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingbasics/ss/surfacetension.htm

Just google soap boat for more if you run out of ideas.

Lunar Eclipse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuhNZejHeBg  this is a good quick explanation of what happens.

Shadow spin

Long and short sounds?

Sedimentation

How a cicada sings

Boat and siren more gas pressure

Warning take off headphones, hands on ears when you see the notice, the second half of this video is very loud, air pressure makes sounds.



Adrianne also brought a putt putt boat, the water vapourises to steam which as a gas tries to expand to fill a larger volume, but being contained instead becomes pressurised until it can pushes out the water, providing the locomotive force for the boat.




Sound is pressure waves in the air, sometimes sound waves are so loud we can feel them through our skin.

Why not google air pressure and see if you can find some youtube videos with more ideas about air pressure.

Compressure and pressure

Adrianne brought a rocket car for us at the show. I brought along my pump and we put it together. The compressed air forces the water (or air depending on what we put in) out the back.

Pulleys

Following on from lifting the rocks I decided last week to try out my new learning around pulleys and was soon joined by lots of helpers. The idea seems to be if you pull up twice as much rope you only have to pull half as hard. (See links on previous post.) So I set up what I hoped would be an effective pulley, modelling the trial and error nature of the experiment as I tested different setups. Then it was all hands on board to hoist each other up.

It still needs some work, but I'd like to set it up so a child can lift something with the pulley they couldn't on their own. One problem might be is there a difference between lifting and holding the weight. Maybe gears and brakes might have to be used?

How Cicadas sing

Close up cicada noise makers

Moths and Crickets

We seem to have a colony of wattle gall moths in with our crickets.

We've found a lot of our crickets splitting out of their old skin, leaving them soft and white till their new skin hardens. Cockroaches can also be found with soft white skin after a moult.

How crickets sing

The male crickets sing with their wings, rubbing them together.

Cicadas sing differently, look underneath them to see how they sing.

I'll try to get one without the glass for a clearer view.

Ants and Dragons

Lots of insect visitors today.
Several dragon flys nga kapokapowai flitted around the kindergarten after the rain today. We caught one for a closer inspection before letting it go to dart off.

When we opened the sandpit door, the ants -nga popokorua- had been busy over the weekend. Note how they lift up their abdomens to release a warning chemical smell to the others.

Working together they quickly carried the white pupae away.

Some of the pupae were darker, nearly ready to emerge as adult ants.

Some of the ants weren't as dark as the others, having just emerged and their skin still hardening, but even these new members of the colony helped with the evacuation.

We watched and discussed what they were doing.

See the eyes starting to form on the pupae.

See how they carefully carry them in their jaws.

Short dragon fly movie.

Hayley's Frog

Hayley and mum caught a frog on Friday, after a quick call to David for support on frog care.

They went out with Stefan to catch some crickets and butterflys. Our gutters were leaking (time to clean them) so Caleb gathered rainwater in buckets for the frog.

He started the day light green (see below) but by the end of the day was dark green.

Volcano

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Beautiful Beetle

We found this gorgeous beetle near our light trap.
If you held him in your fingers he would bite. He happily nipped away at my finger nail as I demonstrated this so no one would try.
Then I demonstrated the correct way to hold him, by letting him walk on you.
He was an up beetle. Some insects like to go up, some like to go down, he liked to go up.
After he'd walked on me for a while the children overcame their fears and had the courage to hold him too, soon he had quite a queue.
Eventually he got tired of playing with us and flew off to the Christmas tree. Passing him over.

Walking him hand to hand.

Up the arm and onto the hand again.

Have a go Jo.

Your turn Jack.

Caleb demonstrates how to hold him for a new budding photographer learning how to use the camera.

MUD

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Balloon Magic

Aidan brought in his boys book from home to try out some of the experiments he's been telling us about. Like this one were a statically charged balloon causes water to bend towards it. We looked it up, read it and tried it out. Since every one wanted balloons I got out some left over water bombs, but oh no it stuck to my nose!

After a lot of work we got them sticking to Aidan, it was really hard, they just didn't want to stick to him. Unlike me who just had to blow one up to get stuck.

We even tried balloon catch.

I love the kind sharing at the start of this video and the fun we had with balloons.

Aidan and his friends showed great problem solving as they changed his clothes and tried different solutions to get them to stick.

Spiders

Yesterday we found a spider with a beetle (eucalyptus tortiose shell beetle?) up our gum tree, today while we were working in the office a jumping spider caught and dragged off a huge blowfly that had come in from the paddock on the hill.

Just the bomb.

Josh found a green balloon, stuck it on the tap and started to fill it up. I helped him fill it fuller then tied off the end and watched to see what he would do with it.

He bounced it, tasted it, kicked it, chased it and threw it. Eventually it rolled down the hill and then it burst. We'd had so much fun I got him another one. As we filled it we were joined by others, fortunately I'd anticipated this and had a handful of balloons to pass around, but before we could finished filling them, "Lunch time" happened. We finished off our balloons, stashed them in the water trough and went in for lunch.

Then, as the children finished lunch, I headed off for my own break wondering what the balloons would get up too?

Wow did they ever get up to a lot. Jo must have wondered what was going on as the children, one by one, came in to ask her for a balloon till every one had one. Sharon helped fill them, getting soaked in the process.

When I got back the balloons were all over the place, being poured on, splashed with, fitted through holes, walked, kicked, thrown and dropped.

Being rolled up planks, down planks, along the ground, down slides and down hills.

Some water balloons were bigger than others.Sharon got very excited! We were all having great fun.

Some were stashed in bags to take home, some placed on carseats, some carefully and lovingly dried.

James asked his mum first if he could take his in the car (as did many others). She said yes and he was allowed. Janine stopped and wound down her window on the way down the hill "It has burst in the car," she told us with a wry smile, "it went everywhere." Good thing it was a hot day.

Harriet has told us (teachers too) that we all need to bring a change of clothes tomorrow for a massive water bomb fight, oh, oh, sounds like fun, I'd better go to the supermarket and stock up.