Pencil flake

Wednesday (31/03/2010)

a) Recycling lead.
Today we watched how big pieces of graphites being recycled. High temperature was needed
to break them. But what can we do as kids? Foo Soon said we could make a souvenir in a
bottle. Perhaps with some sand, stones, rocks and also pencil leads. Good idea!

b) Recording
We discussed about yesterday’s pencil lead experiment. A good scientist must record what they see and do. They recapped and I drew 2 bottle of pencil lead solution on the whiteboard. Then, I added a funnel to filter the liquid into a container. The final substance were small pieces of graphite and powder.

c) The breakable lead.
How do people recycle lead or graphite? Shi Jie reminded us that graphites are from the Earth core. Some can be recycled, some can’t Today, we watched a recycling factory that recycled lots of big pieces of lead found in televisions and brakes. High temperature was needed and then they were soaked. But what can our little hands do? Pencil wood can be recycled. Pencil leads made into souvenirs. Thus, we continued with our craft.
Yun Xin: Teacher, why does some lead break easily inside the pencil. Yun Wen said maybe a person hit the pencils on the wall. 2 reasons: low quality pencil leads and we drop the pencils too many times.

d) Craft: Pencil flakes
Each kid was given a sharpener and they sharpen blunt colour pencils. They took the pencil flakes to make shapes pasted on their traced drawing. Some made flowers, fish, sun, siren and etc.

e) Kids’ curiosity.
Devin: Teacher, why does Mona Lisa keep looking at us?
Teacher: It was because Leonardo was an awesome painter. The way he painted looked as if a real person. Thus, the shading of the eyes looked like watching you wherever you go. I drew a simple face on the board. They tried walking left to right and v.v. The eyes didn’t look at them. Today, computer software are able to produce these types of pictures easily.
The painting caused more than RM 2, 400 million.
Jun Hong: Teacher, than we can sell your this copy of Mona Lisa.
I laughed saying that that was only a photocopy not an actual one.