Making Rocks!

This week 2BP made a Sedimentary rock using sand, water and epsom salts. We had to do lots of stirring, dissolving and pouring and our rocks are now baking on the window sill in our classroom. It will take a few weeks for the water to evaporate from the solution and our Sedimentary rock will be ready!

Crossing the Red Sea and Sorting Rocks

This week we followed the story of Moses as he lead God's people out of Egypt to find a land of their own. We heard how the people crossed the Red Sea safely after the waters were separted into two parts. 2BP played a board game called "Crossing the Red Sea". If you were travelling well at night because of the light God had given you took an extra turn. But if the Pharaoh's chariots came too close you had to miss a turn.

We also learnt how to sort a large group of things into smaller groups this week. 2BP practiced with coloured straws, rice crackers, popcorn and finally rocks from our class Rock Collection. We discovered that rocks can be sorted by colour, shape, size, weight, surface, hardness and type.

Fairy Bread, Rock Collections and Mining!

In 2BP this week we learnt how to cut Fairy Bread into quarters. Of course we had to eat it when we finished - a quater at a time until the whole piece of bread was gone! Did you know that two quarters is the same as one half and four quarters is the same as one whole?

We also profiled the rocks in our class Rock Collection. We used magnifying glasses to look carefully at the rocks and then using a Rocks and Minerals chart we profiled our rocks by look, feel and type. What great scientific work 2BP!

And to finish the busy week off we had a parent visit the classroom who is also a Miner. He bought in some special mining equipment including a hard hat/light and a safety vest. We learnt about the type of rocks mined at the mines in Mt Isa and how hard it can be to find rocks with copper and lead in them.

Measuring MASS

This week in 2BP we investigated the MASS of different objects in our classroom. We had to use a Pan Balance and compare how much they weighed against flat and long maths blocks. Did you know that Mrs B's pencil case weighed as much as 5 flat blocks and 5 long blocks! WOW!!! And we also discovered that a table and the Earth would be heavier than us!

Geologists at work

This week in 2BP we all turned into GEOLOGISTS! We had name badges and white coats to really make us feel the part as we investigated a number of objects in our classroom. Students were given a worksheet and had to walk around the classroom looking at objects like bricks, fabric, paper, plastic, rocks and rubber. They had to discuss each item with other Geologists and decide if the object was a rock or not a rock. Great fun and super work by 2BP Geologists!