October 24, 2011 Science News

Deer Park Shore Parents,

Hello again from the Science room! The children and I have had a lot of fun together over the last few weeks. We’ve gone over the parts of the microscope and took a look at some interesting things under the microscope, including a fruit fly! We also talked about apples as we celebrated the birthday of Johnny Appleseed. We read apple books, looked at the parts of an apple and discussed why apples turn brown when cut, also known as oxidation. We learned how the citric acid in orange juice can stop oxidation.

We stepped outside for a week and did some explosive chemistry! The children were very excited to watch the ever popular soda/Mentos geyser. We definitely reached some new heights this year much to the delight of our young scientists. Ask the children about the balloon blowup and exploding Ziploc experiments that used the reaction of baking soda and vinegar to achieve the desired results.

As we said goodbye to September and welcomed October and the beautiful season of fall, we discussed what was beginning to happen to the trees and leaves. We talked about how important leaves are to the trees and to us and the functions of the different parts of the leaf. We read the books Leaves and Why Do Leaves Change Colors and learned to classify leaves by shape. Finally, we went on some nature walks and collected some beautiful leaves so that they could be pressed and preserved.

Last week was Fire Prevention Week and all the children enjoyed a visit from Fireman Rich from the Dix Hills Fire Dept. In Science we discussed why we stop, drop and roll rather than run if our clothes should ever catch on fire. We decided to do some experiments to find out why. First, we saw that a lit candle will go out if a jar is placed over it. Next we did the same experiment but placed the candle in a tray of water first. We watched as the jar sucked up the water as the candle went out. Lastly, we used a hard boiled egg with birthday candles in it and watched with excitement as the egg was magically sucked up into the jar as the candles went out. We concluded that fire needs air to burn and that running would only make the fire on our clothes grow bigger so always stop, drop and roll!

Next up…some spooky Halloween science! We’ll keep you posted!  

Sincerely,