Our whole class had a zoom and a blast day!

We did some experiments and discovered how to make a rocket. We got a cannister and filled it with vinegar.Then we filled the lid of the cannister with bicarb soda.   

After that we  immediately placed the lid back onto the cannister and turned the whole thing upside down. When the soda and the vinegar mixed together, it made a chemical reaction and started fizzing and then… then…

IT POPPED!

This is because a gas called carbon dioxide was made. The pressure of the gas made the cannister pop away from the lid. And that is how to make a rocket blast off.

Tune in for more!

   Some people got splattered with the vinegar and bicarb soda. Yuck!

BLAST EACH OTHER AWAY!

This post is about another experiment our class did.

It was about blowing up a balloon to it’s limit.

We had to fill up a bottle with vinegar and then we placed some bicarb soda in a balloon.

 Next we placed the balloon on top of the bottle and watched what was about to happen.

We hypothesized that the mixing of the vinegar and the bicarb soda would cause a chemical reaction to happen. This chemical reaction would make Carbon dioxide which is a gas.

The gas would build up inside the bottle, go into the balloon and blow up the balloon!

Our hypothesis was correct! The balloon actually blew up to it’s limit!

Wow! It was a scientific procedural  success!!

By Nadine

On the 19th of June the BSPS (Belmore South P.S) debating team won their first debate for 07 against Hampden Park P.S. The Home side’s (BSPS) team for our second debate was………………………

1st speaker: Clement

2nd speaker: Natalie

3rd speaker: Me ( Yilmaz )

Team advisor: Martin

 When Clement got up he looked very confident and he was fairly good too, I think that he was only because he didn’t have to do any rebuts.

Natalie was just fantastic she was confident all the way through not only her speech but through the entire debate she didn’t let anything get in her way. 

When it was my turn to say my speech I wasn’t ready because I hadn’t got any rebuttles to use against the negative until Martin finally found a weakness in  their teamline he gave it to me and I got up and walked up to the mark. 

At the end of the debate the adjudicator told us our mistakes, he told us that both sides had backed up their arguments very poorly. When the adjudicator told us that we had won their was a soft wave of “YES’s” amonst the crowd!!!!! We had WON our first debate for 07!! After the crowd left all the debaters, coaches, chairperson, timekeeper came into the computer room which I am in now. We had some juice and biscuits.

Our next debate is against Campsie P.S, the topic is that “Society should listen to children more often”.    

  By Yilmaz

A Disappointing Loss ! 

Yesterday the Belmore South P.S debating team travelled to Campsie P.S for our third debate of the year. The topic for the debate was “society should listen more to children” and we were the negative which means we were saying that society should not listen more to children.

The first speaker for us was Clement. Our second speaker was Natalie and our third speaker was Martin. Our team advisor was Gloria.

We were really good and we did our best. Everyone thought we should have won, Martin thought that the adjudicator had a grudge against us! (I think he thought this because the adjudicator has adjudicated 2 of our debates and we lost both).

After the debate the adjudicator (the person who judges the debate) had some advice to make ourselves better at debating.  Campsie school were nice and prepared some snacks for us to eat.

We had loads of fun at the debate and even though we lost, everyone is thinking positively and we are looking forward to our next debate which is against Strathfield South which will be held at our school.    

  By Ramiz and Gloria

Would you like to save a planet?

Well now you can!

A dear little seashell planet needs your help – a larger, bird shaped planet is hurtling towards it …….

Help Sammi – a cute little gnome in white pyjamas – and the main character in the game “Samorost”, to save his planet from impending doom by thinking and working your way through a series of mysterious environments.

Read our thoughts and experiences on our individual blogs.

We have been writing sentences, paragraphs and thoughts about the game. We would love to hear what you think ! Have fun and leave a comment.

The Belmore South Debating team has been picked for ”07”.  The team is made up of 4 x year 6s and 2 x year 5s. Martin, Clement, Natalie, Gloria, Ramiz and  Yilmaz. All of us are in the Allstars, Martin and Yilmaz are pros from last year. Hopefully we will win our second debating title.

Our first debate was against Harcourt Public School, we lost. I was team advisor, the one that writes notes to help rebutt the other team.  The audience from their school was laughing, that made my friends nervous. Thats probably why Gloria spoke so fast and didn’t get enough points. That was SLACK! Luckily at the end of the debate, the adjudicator told us our mistakes. So now we can learn from our mistakes and we will do better next time! 

Our next debate is against Hampton Park Public School. It will be held on 14th June. I hope we win, I heard they were pretty good last time, and my friends nearly lost last year.

I hope we can beat them. If we can’t ,then I don’t think we can make it to the finals. This time Clement is first speaker for the affirmative team, Natalie is second speaker, Yilmaz is third speaker and Martin is team advisor. I hope we win after our first loss, the debate will beheld at our school.

By Clement & Yilmaz

Last week  a very special person came to our school. Her name is Alison Lester!!! She is an author and she has written many books like: Are We There Yet?  Magic Beach, Clive Eats Alligators, Clive Dances to the Didgeridoo,  Snow Pony , Quick Sand Pony and many more.

 A number of kids worked with her and she showed us how she did her books. She said that she had steps and this is how she does them:  

• She sketches her pictures,
• Starts her writing,
• Does the colours for her pictures,
• Does the cover,
• Checks if her editor approves.

She is a really good drawer and she says that it isn’t hard to make your own book you can just make anything you want. You can keep your work as a book that you made or you can see if anyone likes it and sell it to them. We had to write about either food, school, games and sport.

We had to draw a picture of us doing what we chose to write about: for example say Iwas writing about food I would say “Sokeina likes to eat hotchips and chicken for lunch.” Then iI would have to draw a picture of me eating chicken and chips. The teachers said that Alison Lester signed a few things for us and there going to give us those things hopefully in a few weeks.

By Sokeina  

MrsP says: Check out the book Alison Lester is showing us!!!!!!!!     

A scientist from the CSIRO came to school to do some science activities with us. We had a woman scientist which proves not all scientists are men. Her name was Kylie.

We had 4 activities but my group only did 3. The first one was making a fruit battery. My group chose an orange as the fruit; it was that or a potato. We were given a battery and some metals. There was copper, zinc, aluminum and iron. We had to figure out which metal would produce the most electricity. Scientifically it is zinc and aluminum that would produce the most electricity.

Our second activity we chose to do the disappearing sugar. We had to figure out which sugar would dissolve the fastest. Our hypothesis is that the smallest sugar crystal would dissolve the fastest. We had to put it in a bowl with the same amount of water every time in the bowl. There were 3 kinds of sugar crystals; small, medium and large. The bowl we used was a special bowl because the sugar had to be dissolve by stirring so there was a special place were the bowl was suppose  to be put. We also had to put a small magnet inside the bowl so when we turned the speed up on the magnetic stirrer it would spin. The fastest was of course the small sugar crystal.

Our third activity was gas release. We had to figure out which gas pushed the air out of the beaker the most. There was Eno and Sal vital. We had a tray half full of water and a beaker we had to fill up to the top. I had covered the top of the beaker and turn it upside down into the tray then took out my hand. Then we stuck a tube up the beaker carefully. The tube was connected to a glass beaker. Then we put water into the glass beaker then put Eno. Then we cover it with a cork. And the water from the beaker started to push out because the gas put into the glass beaker pushed the water out. After we had finished the gas release experiment we found out that Eno was most effective.

 Gloria

What is CSIRO you ask??  

       Well, CSIRO stands for                    

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Did you notice the word SCIENTIFIC?? Bet you have, Yes CSIRO is about science, for more information,

go to some great hands on experiments here!

We’ve  had two lessons already. The first session, we had Kylie helping us. We did experiments about potato calculators, dissolving sugar crystals, swinging pendulums and checking stomach gasses.

During our second session, we did chemical science with Prue. My group did something about electricity, detergent and food colouring, made clear slime, dried up water and loads more. There were so many activities that the group I was with didn’t get the chance to finish every activity. The best was  the slime part because we got to keep it. You can stretch it, bounce it and do loads of things with it!

 I just can’t wait ’till the next CSIRO session!!!

Nancy