Fall Semester of 2023

 Oops I'm getting really bad at this blog thing. Here I go anyway:

Okay so let's start with science because that's really why I'm writing this, so other moms can report about the science I've done.

I've had to travel from house to house with science since we didn't have a house until Halloween and even then it's out of town and not actually my house, sooooo....it's been interesting to take all my supplies and end up being late and then make someone else's house messy and then clean up. THANK YOU to the other mom's.

This year we're doing Chemistry. This of course starts off with learning about atoms. The first week we talked about how no one knows what atoms actually look like and how scientists found out about the atomic model. We talked about the atomic model having positive and negative charges and how messing with electrons creates static electricity. 

The next week we learned more about the atomic model. We learned what the atomic number and mass meant. and talked about the periodic table (by the way we're learning chemistry songs as part of this class and the periodic table by ASAP science is always watched.) We also talked about how atoms are mostly space and we even made atoms out of candy.

I think this was the week we talked about the different states of matter. I KNOW we talked about the different states of matter, I just don't have photos, so it's throwing me off.

I'm not sure why I did this class next, but the next class was about polymers. (I feel like I should have done it after teaching about molecules and such, but I guess I was just too excited to teach this class, because polymers is one of my favourite classes!!!) We learned about Polymer chains and how they can make this seem liquid and solid at the same time and how they can stretch and things. We ate jello (a polymer) and skewered balloons and plastic bags. We even made oobleck and slime. It was a lot of fun.

The next week we learned about the different elements on the periodic table. We learned how to give elements different tests to see which element they are. These tests involved magnets, electricity, hammering, and of course FIRE.

And if that wasn't enough, we also talked about how density could tell you what element it is, so we did a few density experiments including making density vials. 

The next week we continued to learn about density and we also continued to learn about the periodic table and why the table is set up like it was. We did a fun activity of playing periodic table Battleship, which, if you know how to play Battleship, I bet you can imagine what we did.

The next week we talked about molecules. OF COURSE I read "The Adventures of Adam the Atom" I love that book, and we made molecules out of candy. We also learned about chemical vs physical changes and made a cake and changed some things physically and chemically.

Th next week we focused on air and Oxygen. We showed how air pressure is always there and how oxygen is often in that air and rusting etc.

That last experiment didn't work and I was a bit bummed. It usually works. It's when you get the air really hot with water vapour and then immediately get it cold and it implodes the can. It was underwhelming. Science is unpredictable...wait...isn't that one of the points of science is to learn how to predict things?....well...whatever.

The next week we learned about water and the water cycle. We talked about the different forms of matter with water and here's even a picture of us talking about how pressure can change the state of matter faster. We also talked about how warm water is less dense than cold water because of how far apart the molecules are comparatively speaking. This is a week where I had too much to ask about!

The next science was our HALLOWEEN DRY ICE PARTY! My other favourite class of the year. I have to go all the way to Lethbridge to find dry ice, but the guy was SO SWEET! I told him that I was getting the dry ice for a school class that I taught, and he gave me the dry ice for FREE! 

We had so much fun! We learned about sumlimation, and we did smoke boo bubbles and blew up balloons and wiggle coins, and made the crystal ball bubble, and made ice cream and root beer, and we made liquid carbon dioxide which froze flowers instantly and of course we made a dry ice BOMB!

And then ummm for a class we learned about Carbon Dioxide, but I can't find any photos that day. We had limewater to detect the carbon and we played with fire again (we do that a lot, don't we?) and we talked about the carbon cycle. 

The next class we learned about Chemical reactions. Amy Bay came this day, so we got a lot of photos:

We talked about how temperature, light, surface area, concentration and catalysts can all effect chemical reactions. We also talked about catalysts and of course the funnest catalyst ever is mentos in Diet Coke! 

We also talked about endothermic and exothermic reactions. 

The next class we learned about metals. We talked about lustre, conductor, malleable, ductile, etc, and not very many people came and it wasn't my best class ever and I have no photos...sooo....moving on....

The next science class was about solutions and whether they are soluble or insoluble. It was kind of a physical mixture class again, but with a new twist. We made lava lamps out of oil, water, and denture tables. That was fun. 

Whew! I'm caught up with science! That is what we did in a semester. When I put it all down, I'm pretty proud of all we did! And a little intimidated to keep on going!

I'll update this post later, but it's really late, so I'm going to say goodbye and edit this post later so stay tuned!