Our Popcorn Enterprise

Here are some photos of our Popcorn fundraising on Wednesday. It was a very successful day with lots of money raised for the 'Coins For Bricks' project. We raised $240 but also learnt a lot about the process and production of popcorn. Thanks to all our parent help. We sold about 500 bags of popcorn at 50c per bag. Thanks also to Callum and Andrea from Cinema Paradisowho lent us the popcorn machine and donated the popcorn kernels (a whole bucket of kernels) and we used them all! Thnaks also to Wanaka Four Square who donated the extra when we ran out. With all our costs removed we made $240! Amazing considering the children are 7 and 8 years old! Fun but very busy day.

Technology - Making Popcorn Containers

How to Make Popcorn

Ingredients/Equipment:

Salt

Butter

Icing Sugar

Popcorn kernels

Pan

Popcorn maker

Method:

1.  Pour the kernels into the popcorn maker.

2.  Heat the popcorn maker.
3.  Wait until the popcorn has finished popping.
4.  Pour it into a bowl.

5.  Let it cool.

6.  Choose out of butter, salt and icing sugar.
7.  Eat it.
Neve (Year 3)

How to Make Popcorn

Ingredients/Equipment:
Popcorn maker
Bowl

Popcorn kernels
Optional - icing sugar, salt or  butter

Method:
1.  Put the kernels in the popcorn maker.
2.  Turn the popcorn maker on.
3.  Wait until you hear no more popping.
4.  Put the popcorn in a bowl.
5.  Add sugar or, butter and salt (optional).
6.  Eat the popcorn.

Caitlin (Year 4)

Making Popcorn

We made popcorn on Friday because we are going to writing instructions on Monday for making popcorn in a popcorn maker.  Here is the sucess criteria we came up with on Friday after looking at some models of procedural writing.

Success Criteria Procedural Writing - Making Popcorn

Write a goal/title e.g. How to Make Popcorn
List all the materials, ingredients, tools and equipment
Write the steps with doing words (verbs) at the beginning e.g. Add, Put, Turn, Pour, Wait
Number each step
Put the steps in the order they happen
Include all the steps needed
Use topic words (Popcorn words)
Add a picture to help the readers understand better
Try hard words in the margin
Make sure all capitals & full stops are confirmed
Check my work (proof-read)

How Popcorn Pops

The kernels are a seed and when you heat it up, the inside turns into steam. The steam pushes on the inside of the shell. The shell explodes and turns into popcorn that you can eat(diagram included in published work).

Roman (Year 3)

How Popcorn Kernels Turn Into Popcorn

There is a tiny bit of water in the kernel that heats up and steams and tries to boil, but the hull traps it in there. When the pressure gets too great, the kernel turns inside out and turns into popcorn. (diagram included in published copy) Jamie (Year 3)

How Does Popcorn Pop?

This is how popcorn pops. When the heat goes on the seed it makes steam in the seed and it gets really hot, like a classroom full of children! Then it explodes and turns inside outbecause it is too much for it. It turns into a fluffy piece of yummy popcorn. (diagram included in published copy) Harry (Year 4)

How Popcorn Pops!

The seed has a little water in it and the heat turns the water into steam. The steam is kept in the seed. The hull (shell) traps the steam and the steam pushes and pushes until the power is so great. The seed turns inside out and the starch turns into fluffy white popcorn and the hull is soft. ( Diagram included in published copy)
Otis (Year 3)

Timeline

Timelines help us to keep track of things that happen on certain days or in certain years. They help us understand history and tell us what happened when and how much time went between events.

WALT...place events on a timeline

80,000 BC - Cave men and women in prehistoric America received quite a surprise when they placed maize (early corn) kernels too close to the fire — voila — the world’s first popcorn!

•1492 - As Columbus set foot on American soil, popcorn was there, too! Native Americans who greeted Columbus enjoyed snacking on the fluffy white stuff and made quite a fashion statement with their popcorn necklaces.

•1620 - Popcorn played a starring role at the first Thanksgiving. Native Americans in Massachusetts brought bowlfuls of popcorn to the potluck feast!

•1700 - Colonial women made the first tasty breakfast cereal by pouring milk and sugar over popcorn.

•1885 - The first popcorn “machine” was invented. Until then, poppers were made to sit in front of stores to attract attention. But vendors wanted to be close to the crowds — especially the crowds near movie theatres. So poppers were made that could be pushed on foot, pulled by horse or mounted on trucks.

The Physical Properties of Popcorn

WALT... find out about the physical characteristics of unpopped and popped popcorn

We looked at unpopped and popped popcorn and answered these questions as a class.

Questions:
What colour is it?
What size is it?
What shape is it?
What does it feel like?
What does it smell like?
What does it taste like?
Have the physical properties of the popcorn changed?
If so what are the differences?

This is how popcorn pops!

Did You Know?

• Popping corn is different from ordinary corn; the kernels are harder and drier.
• Each kernel has a hard, yellow outer layer of starch called pericarp.
• Popcorn is made up of starch, fibre, vitamins and water.
• The white fluffy stuff is the starch that’s been cooked by the heat.
• The pericarp is hard fibre and fibre makes your poos float.
• When popcorn explodes it can expand up to 30 or 40 times its original size.
• People have been eating popcorn for about 7000 years.
• The oldest known popcorn was found, still fluffy white in a bag attached to the belt of a mummy in Chile.

Our Science Experiments & Fair Testing

Fair Testing


Conducting a fair test is one of the most important ingredients of doing good, scientifically valuable experiments. To insure that your experiment is a fair test, you must change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.

Scientists call the changing factors in an experiment variables.

We brainstormed all the different things we could change (vary or measure).  We then decided on two things we could change  eg light/dark and hot/cold.  We then decided on how we would measure what we saw happening.  Each of us asked a question and recorded this on our sheet.  Over the next few weeks we will watch what happens and record our measurements.  Lastly we will write what happened. 

We will let you know how things are going next week.

Science Investigation Worksheet

Big Ideas about Popcorn

• • 

  Kernels contain starch and moisture.

• When you heat the kernels, a change of state happens, in which the moisture changes into steam-this is a physical change.

• The popping of popcorn is actually a small explosion which occurs when the pressure of the steam is so intense it bursts the tough outer coating of the kernel.

Popcorn

Watch this You Tube video of popcorn popping. We have been learning about popcorn this term.  We have looked at the plant and its life cycle. We have also worked on fair testing and have plants in the light, dark, hot and cold.  We will let you know how it goes.   Next week we are moving onto looking at how it changes.  Room 15 and 16 made predictions on what happens when corn pops.  Lots of very good predictions!

From Seed to Snack

Technology(Production & Process)
From Seed2Snack

What is a flow Chart?
In a flow chart items are organized in a sequence.
Flow charts have different uses:

They may be a chain of cause and effect, explaining a process (e.g.a popcorn seed to a popcorn snack)
They may organise past events in a time sequence, recounting what happened.
They may show a series of steps, forming instructions.
They may be a sequence of reasons,in an argument.

Many flow charts are combinations of chains, forks, and loops.

Why use flow charts in the classroom?

To plan an explanation, a procedure (instructions), a recount (such as a news story), a narrative, or an argument.
To summarise an explanation, a procedure, a recount, a narrative, or an argument.
Examples of topics that suit flow charts include the water cycle, life cycles, how products are made, where a certain food comes from, preparation for a debate, how machines work, and so on. Flow charts are one of the most useful visual texts in the classroom.

We looked at 3 types of flowcharts...
Cyclic
Forked
Linear
Today we used a linear flowchart to show how the popcorn is produced, from seed to snack

BIG Ideas about Popcorn

• Kernels contain starch and moisture


• When you heat the kernels, a change of state happens, in which the moisture changes into steam-this is a physical change


• The popping of popcorn is actually a small explosion which occurs when the pressure of the steam is so intense it bursts the tough outer coating of the kernel

Popcorn

A popcorn kernel is actually a seed. Like other seeds, inside it has a tiny plant embryo (a life form in its earliest phase). The embryo is surrounded by soft, starchy material that would give the embryo energy for growing into a plant. A hard, glossy shell protects the outside of the seed.
The soft, starchy material holds some water. When the kernel is heated to a high heat (200c), the water inside the kernel turns into steam. The pressure from the steam causes the kernel to explode. The soft starch inside bursts out at about 40 times its original size, turning the kernel inside out. This creates the fluffy white area of a popped kernel.
The ideal popcorn kernel contains about 14 percent moisture. If the popcorn is much drier, it will not pop. Popcorn kernels should be kept in a tightly sealed jar so that they will not dry out.

Popcorn Inquiry

On Monday Maria Gill visited our school.  She is a New Zealand author and we have lots of her books in our school library.  We learned about native birds and their predators and how we need to look after our special NZ native birds.  She chose ten children to represent the predators and the native birds.  Visit her website at   http://www.mariagill.co.nz/

Watch out Birds!  Predators on the Hunt!

Maria Gill - Author

Evie with one of the Native Bird Puppets