Hooray for Science

   This year I decided to do a week-long science camp to end the year. I had finished up my testing and could feel the atmosphere of the class starting to slip into summer insanity. I think I broke up 5 or 6 fights a day for a week before I realized that these kids were just plain tired. Tired of school, tired of each other and tired of learning. So...enter science camp.

Day 1 was all about matter and the 3 states of matter. We watched Bill Nye, sang some songs about science and acted out the molecular activity of each state of matter. Then we made Gack(cornstarch and water) and tried to determine if it was a liquid or a solid. We also tested some solid to see if they would sink or float and for the big finish, we used baking soda and vinegar to make a gas that would blow up a balloon on a pop bottle. The ooos and ahhhhs were music to my ears and suddenly my class was back!

Day 2 was all about changing matter through freezing. Of course we made ice cream in a bag, froze water as well as distilled water and compared then had a race to see who could melt an ice cube the fastest.

Day 3 was an investigation into mixing and creating solutions. The highlight of the day was making flubber by mixing borax,glue and water. We also made homemade lava lamps, our own bouncy balls and did an investigation into dissolving.

Day 4 found us in the kitchen, experimenting with heat and changing matter from solids to liquids. We heated up crayons, ivory soap(so awesome), popcorn, chip bags and marbles with some amazing results! The best part was when we heated p rocks and coloured on them with crayons. The crayon melted and we were able to paint the rocks with beautiful colours.

Science camp was a fantastic way to end the year. My students were all begging for more and although it was a lot of work to pull it all together, we had an awesome memory and I was able to get one more week of meaningful learning out of them. Now for the final 3 days of cleaning, beach day and GymBlast. I hear summer calling my name.