Chemistry in Science

Hello! My name is Keira Traverse, I'm going to be talking about our most recent science class. This class was one of my favorites. In class we learned about how pennies can turn silver nails to copper nails and what liquids could clean a penny. 

In the class we used vinegar and salt, vinegar, salt water, and soapy water to see which one was going to clean a dull penny, the salt and vinegar was the one that worked. We don't really know why, but we still had fun. Later we found out that vinegar is a weak acid. After that we put a lot of pennies in salt and vinegar and left them overnight. The next day we look at them they got kinda clean, but not fully. Then we got a silver nail, we put the nail in a bag and then poured the pennies and salt and vinegar in the bag with the nail. We left them overnight. The next day we saw something, the nails had turn copper but how? In the night, the copper on the coins came off and were spread in the water. Then the particles collected on the nail covering it in copper. The nail in this situation is like a magnet and the copper particles are like iron. Then on friday we were given sandpaper to sand the nail. We started to sand the nail and the copper was coming off the nail. The nail was copper plated, so when we sanded it the copper scraped off of the nail. And that was my science class. Thank you for reading, your fellow writer, Keira T. Thank you.

From the Desks of Halo and Lucy...

On November 7, 2019 we had a blow up planetarium in the gym. Mr. K came from the Springfield Museum. On that day the fifth graders got to go inside and learn about stars and constellations. It was dark in there and all we could see were stars and constellations and even the planets Saturn and Jupiter. We went in there not knowing a lot about stars, then we came out knowing a lot about stars and constellations. When you think about it there are a lot of stories about how the constellations are placed in the night sky. Mr. K set it up to look like we were outside looking at the sky, but we were indoors, and it did feel like we were outside. It looked like real stars, but they were pictures of stars. After he showed us the sky and told us about stars and what they were known for. He set up the same thing but it had lines connecting each constellation so we could see what they looked like. He showed us constellations like Aquarius, Cassiopeia, Leo, and Geime and lots more. It was lots of fun. We want to thank the JA PTO for bringing this program to our fifth grade.

From the Desks of Halo and Lucy...

Peter H. Reynolds meets JA on October 11, 2019. He wrote the books ISH, Sky Color, The Dot, Word Collector, Happy Dreamer, and Say Something plus tons more.) He visited our school with his brother Paul Reynolds. Both brothers also own their own bookshop.  It is called the Blue Bunny. Everyone was so happy to see this famous book author and illustrator. He also illustrated the pictures for Judy Moody.  We have had many authors and illustrators come visit Johnny Appleseed, but Peter Renalds is the nicest, kinds, and coolest. He is so kind to everyone and he wishes that everyone visits his Blue Bunny book shop in Boston.