Lucien read the news and gave us a great summary of what happened in Chile on April 22nd...only a week ago.  A large volcano, Calbuco, erupted.  It covered some towns in ash and also caused a pretty major lightning storm at the same time.  The pictures are amazing! Check them out here.  Glad we're all safe and away from volcanoes.  We all remembered that that cooled lava forms igneous rocks.  Chile will probably have a lot of new rocks in their future!  We also got to take a look at Chile on the map.  We figured out it's in South America and a pretty funny shape!

Avery taught us above the cave formations: stalagmites and stalactites.  She also taught us a cool way to remember the difference..."c" is for ceiling and "g" is for ground.  She is using solutions of baking soda/water and Epsom salt/water to make her own.  The formations will take about a week to form and we can't wait to see what they look like.  Thanks Avery!

Micah also shared his flip flop shark with us! He ordered it from Ocean Sole, the Kenyan company he told us about that turns washed up flip flops into art.

And...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUINTIN!

Yesterday, Micah shared an article that was just perfect for Earth Day.  Apparently, Kenya has a problem with flip flops washing up on the shore.  These flip flops are water pollution in the ocean and then litter on the beach.  The company turns these flip flops into the most amazing pieces of artwork ranging from small key chains to gigantic sculptures.  Turns out Micah was able to order a piece of art work and we are anxiously waiting it's arrival. Thanks Micah!  Today we turned the ideas in his article into a science experiment of our own.  Stay tuned for our look at water pollution.

Yesterday, Jack K. talked to us about the fulcrum on a lever.  He wanted to know where to place the fulcrum in order to lift a 2.5 pound weight with the least amount of effort.  Would you put the fulcrum in the middle or closer to the weight?  We each got to test it out ourselves.  Turns out it's much easier when the fulcrum is close to the weight and next to impossible when it's really far away.

Then we read a great book called From Me to You.  We wrote letters to each other giving compliments and telling our classmates why they are great and why we like them.  Here's the catch.  We didn't sign our names.  We wrote to a secret person in the class just like in the book. Tomorrow we'll exchange our letters and reveal who wrote them.  We had to get out our super secret concentration boxes so there was no peeking.

Today Ike taught us all about sound waves and how they travel through water at different frequencies.  Ike wanted to know what would happen if you tapped on glasses filled with different amounts of water with a spoon.  We guessed the glasses would either shatter or produce different pitches.  Turns out the spoon creates vibrations that travel through the water called sound waves.  The more water...the slower the sound waves travel and the lower the pitch.  The less water...the faster the sound waves travel and the higher the pitch.  Ike played Mary Had a Little Lamb for us on his glasses.  Turns out finding the right pitch takes lots of practice. Thanks Ike! Everyone really enjoyed the performance and the chance to try it out themselves.