Magic Matches!

Roll up! Roll up! Have any of you ever heard of jet powered matches? Well you have now!

YOU WILL NEED.

·        A container half filled of water. A washing up bowl is best.

·        Around six or seven matches.

·        Some dish washing liquid.

Instructions 

·        Put the matches in the container of water in a circle

·        Do not light the matches

·        Pour a little drop of dish washing liquid into the container in the centre of the matches.

·        Then boom! The matches fly off to the sides!

And now for the boring part:

The reason that the matches pull away is because the surface tension (top layer) of the water is tense and tight and when the detergent touches the top layer it breaks the surface tension and causes the matches to pull to the sides.

 

By Xavier Mohr.  

Egg-cellent Egg-speriments

Heard of ships in a bottle and ever wondered how they fit them? Well, have you ever heard of an egg in a bottle? With four simple steps you can conquer the egg in the bottle!

THINGS YOU NEED:

Bottle big enough to hold an egg on the top
An egg
Matches
Small piece of paper
Pan
Water
STEP 1: Put the water in the pan, put an egg in the water and wait until boiled. Peel the egg.
STEP 2: Get the paper, match, bottle and hard boiled egg out.
STEP 3: You need to do this fast so light the paper then put it in the bottle, blow the match out not the paper and put the boiled egg on the top of the rim.
STEP 4: Now watch and wait for the magic to happen.
And now for the boring part: The only reason this trick works is because the burning paper burns up all the oxygen inside the bottle making the air pressure outside the bottle much larger causing the egg to get sucked into the bottle.

By George Reddish

                                                                  Balloon Blowing

Do you go dizzy when you blow balloons up? Well if you do follow my simple steps and you will be on your way to be having a scientifically blown up balloon.

You will need
A balloon
A 600ml soft drink bottle
A tall round container
Warm nearly hot water

Instructions

1. Take the lid off the bottle.
2. Grab your balloon and place it over the top of the bottle.
3. Fill the container half way with the warm nearly hot water.
4. Place the bottle inside the container.
5. Hold the bottle near the top and wait.
6. Take  the balloon off, shutting the air in and tie up.

Now the science bit

Since the bottle has been placed in hot water, it makes the air inside warm which makes it expand. It then fills the balloon with the expanded air.

By Cheyann.

On Sunday 12th of May 32 runners from Fordell School were up before eight (how did I manage that?) and were at Kowhai Park at 9:30am for the five kilometre Round the Bridges Run. The race was due to start at 9:55 and everyone was frolicking around like lambs in a field. At 9:45am my friend Stephanie and I went around to a tent that had lots of free stuff. We each grabbed a handful of lollies, stuffed them in our pockets and ran to the start line. My goal was to beat my brother.

"5...4...3...2...1...GO!" The loudspeaker crackled and we were off!

I stayed with John for the first kilometre and a half but then, as I got more and more tired, he quickly disappeared from view. Suddenly Steph appeared and we got talking. We pulled the lollies out of our pockets and our stash quickly disappeared.

"Stuff this," Steph grumbled, "as long as we keep John in view we should be able to walk and then catch him up!" I was hot and bothered so I agreed to it. But as John got further and further away we still didn't start running. Out of the blue Mr. Walker (my principal) appeared behind us.

"Come on girls!" he cried. So we were back to running. We managed to keep going for a while but we were out of breath. Still we were able to find enough breath to talk to each other though. Finally we clip clopped off the bridge and were through the finish line. We had done it!

I didn't manage to beat John though but that is okay. We left before the prizes were drawn but Fordell School still managed to win a printer, ink cartridges and paper. But for the children who ran there was also a pass for 30 people to have a free swim and a pass for 30 people to have a free game of mini putt.

Although I didn't beat John I was still proud of my effort. Dad shouted everyone an ice cream on the way home. It was a great day and well done to Fordell School!

Puking Patrick

It was a bright sunny evening in Ashley Park, birds were chirping, kids were chatting and Patrick was cramming gherkins into his pie hole. He shuddered in revulsion as he picked up his second tasty treat, another gherkin! " Oh not again," Patrick muttered under his breath, simultainiuosly stuffing the gherkin down his throat. He could hear the chomping of the other competitors eating the delicious delicacies they had been served. Patrick risked a glance to his right and was suprised to find Jimi struggling to choke down his meal. That gave Patrick a strengthenig of will, but it wasn't enough. Jimi swallowed down the last of his gherkin and sprinted off. Eventually Patrick managed to finish his, now, not so tasty treat and sprint back towards his team causing them to win Fear Factor.





By Joe Reddish

'Orrible Onions

Jourdan!

The rules of fear factor were simple. Run. Spin. Eat. Only it wasn't as simple as it sounded. You could have been lucky and eaten chocolate. Some received some even tastier treats such as celery, wasabi peas, gherkins, sardines, raw egg or dry weet-bix. But in Jourdan's unfortunate case, it was  'Orrible  Onions.

Now here's Jourdan! In fear factor he had to eat half an 'Orrible Onion.
In this photo you can well and truly see the similarities between Jourdan and the onion. I was a bit luckier because I had to eat a gross gherkin. I still had trouble holding it down!

By Patrick Tobin.

Intermediate Swimming

The tyres of Mrs Tobin's car schreeched as they stopped at the Wanganui Splash Centre's carpark. We rushed out of the car and headed towards the Splash Centre. I ran straight to the changing room, got changed and sat down ready for our warm up.

After warming up we sat down awaiting the first race. Joe, my younger twin, stood at the diving board. 3, 2, 1, GO! He set of with a bang switching places from 4th to 2nd. Finally he was first with only half a length to go. 10 meters, five metres he won.

Time for my race the 200m backstroke. The shrill sound of the starting whistle filled my ears. 1 length gone,  2, 3. the last length was awaiting me. We were going at an amazing pace. Suddenly I heard the sound of the WIS swimmer screaming "Yes I won the backstroke final". I knew it was a race between us two in the pool. My hand hit the back wall with a crash, I looked behind my and instantly I knew I had come second.

all the other races went by like a flash with Cheyann winning her races and Patrick winning his 4 length medley. We won the medley relay and the freestyle relay.

At the end of the day we were all proud with our efforts.

By George Reddish