This half-term, we have been learning about materials and their properties. Why do we make pans from steel? Why would gloves worn in winter with our coats be made of wool, while those worn to wash dishes are made of rubber? It all comes down to the properties they possess, such as rigidity, strength or heat conduction. It's vital to bring these studies to life through investigations and experiments, which solidify the learning in the minds of children. So this week, we've been investigating how much sugar you can add to water before it stops dissolving, last week we investigated the solubility of materials like oil, pepper and sand, and the week before that we discussed which materials we might use to make an umbrella. Naturally, things got a bit wet: the children poured water over different materials, and observed if I got wet. They took a little bit too much glee in that aspect of the investigation, if you ask me!