Nature Walks and Forces and Motion!!! by $ophia

This term we have been going on nature walks, usually around our neighbourhood, and once we did one on Burnaby Mountain.

Trying to make fall!

 When we were on Burnaby Mountain, we explored the frost and how we affect it when we do different things.

When we went to the swings we learned about air resistance, one of the forces of nature.

I made this cute little "Sophie Da Vinci" video you can see above about air resistance and how I could feel it pushing down on me when I was one the swings.

When we go on our walks, sometimes we see something very interesting... ANIMAL PRINTS!

Spotting racoon tracks

Like racoon prints, dog prints, deer prints, cat prints, and one time a BALLERINA-A-SAURUS! Actually it was just me and Eleanor doing twirls in the wet gravel in Pax's soccer field. But we imagined it was dinosaur that liked to do ballet and we created a whole story about a ballerina-a-saurus trying to destroy a McDonald's.

The tracks of a ballerina-a-saurus

Reading about the Japanese Aboriginal Totem Poles on Burnaby Mountain - yay Social Studies!!!!

Actual dog tracks

Also when we were on Burnaby Mountain we looked at the fog and also some of the weather patterns that have been going on. Eleanor was noticing for Grade 2 science the water and air and earth stuff.

On a nature walk at Rocky Point Park in Port Moody, we spied a jelly fish!

We were exploring the wonder of magnets. This shows Eleanor using a magnet to pick up iron filings, and me and Eleanor crazily pointing at a home-made compass we made with a magnetized sewing

needle.

The Land Of The N'kmip by Sophia

I went to a resort on a First Nations reserve in Osoyoos.  In Osoyoos, because of the desert mountain ranges, it makes a small microclimate that allows all the grapes in the vineyards to grow. 

This is me at a beach down the street from the resort.

This is me talking to an old lady at an old First Nations village where everything is old. Behind her is a very old pit house, which is a house that Okanagan people lived in in the winter.

This is the old sweat lodge in the village. 

This is an old teepee in the village that they lived in in the summer.

This is he old lady driving us back to the resort in a very new golf cart.

The thermometer (DON DON DON!):By Sophia$

A little wile ago we decided that we wanted to make a homemade thermometer out of a bottle and a few other things.

For grade 4 Science I needed to do weather and part of doing weather is you need to be able to measure it.

First we filled a glass bottle with cold water. it had to be glass bottle so it would read the temperature more accurately and when the thing would compress it wouldn't shrivel up into a dried out worm!

We put in a whole bunch of red food colouring, to make the water actually visible. and then stuck a straw in and sealed it with play-dough so it was airtight.

Then we poured cold water to make the water in the straw go down and so the water wouldn't dribble all over the counter we put the bottle in a bowl.

Then we taped a paper scale marked from 1 to 12 to the back of the straw so  we could tell when the temperature was higher or lower by the amount of water that was in the straw, because the water would go up or down the straw based on the temperature. it wasn't in degrees, but it was good enough.

 (we didn't have a picture for this part so that is why I'm dictating it to you)

Then, one day the weather got very warm, and the water in the thermometer expanded and bubbled up through the straw, there there wasn't enough water any more for the thermometer to work. Then I took the play dough off the top, because I thought, "well, now this thing is useless." And then a little while later, my Mum told me our city was expecting a cold snap, that means sudden cold weather.

 It's something to do with a thing called the "polar vortex", which apparently is some wind which makes everything colder, sort of like Elsa from the movie Frozen.

Then a few days later, I looked at the thermometer and the weirdest thing had happened. A little bit of a cylinder of ice had formed. Of course, I know that is what happens when things freeze, that the water expands, and there was a little bit of gushy ice at the top that looked like a tiny bit of exploding lava.

(Now this next part I am going to tell you is from the pictures below. P.S. The last part happened yesterday, Tues. Feb. 4, 2014. Today is Wed.)

This morning as soon as my Mum came in to wake me up, my brother and sister came in too, and they said, "Come! Quick! Something has happened with the thermometer! I can't tell you what it is! Come and see!"

Sure enough, when I got to the window, the entire thing had exploded. That's what happens when water is inside a glass bottle. All the water was pushing against the sides.

This thermometer was effective, for the while that it survived. When you have a homemade thermometer, bring it inside if there is going to be a cold snap! Use an actual thermometer to measure the temperature instead!

THE END!!!!!!!
(DON DON DON!!!)