Today we had a Professor come to our class to teach us about light and shadows. He had a lot of cool things that he brought – they all had to do with light. One machine had a prism that bends the light and shows all the colors of the spectrum. He brought a spark maker. Bzzzz. It sounded like a huge swarm of bees. It made the tubes of the Spectrotubes glow, and showed us that you can identify different gases and chemicals because of the color of light they will give off.


We learned that light gives off heat. I didn’t know that stars can be hotter than the sun. There is also invisible light. Ultraviolet light is hotter than infra red. Did you know there are two types of heat, because there is ultraviolet which is really hot (you can get a sunburn) and infra red is just hot. When you look at certain kinds of light you can burn your eyes. Did you know that the border of a postage stamp glows under ultraviolet light? That’s how the post office checks it is real.

We also learned light is so fast it can travel 1000 miles in a fraction of a second, and can go around the world. Wow – that’s fast! A red laser pointer would shine farther than a green one would because of the length of the color waves. Professor Weichmann is hilarious too. He made a stove for the poor people who didn’t have it. He told us about some of the things we could learn and do if we take Physics in University.

It’s almost time for another special Millgrove tradition – the Literary Café! Every year, our wonderful Mrs. Smith organizes this event to celebrate the great authors at Millgrove. Mrs. Davies graciously gives up the music room so that Mrs. Smith can create the appropriate atmosphere, complete with food, music, beverages and candlelight (battery powered). Students select a piece of their best work to share at the mike with the class, and we all enjoy.

This year, 4H is scheduled for Wednesday, June 13. Any donations of snack foods or drinks for the audience to munch on are much appreciated. Please, no dips or messy foods like chips as that creates too much of a problem. Squares, donuts and cookies work best. Thank you for your support of this highlight of Grade Four!

I’m sure your child slept well on Monday night! We had a great day at Woodhaven running, jumping and throwing in the various Track and Field events. The sunny weather was perfect, and the wind meant we stayed cool and there were no bugs! Seeing so many students completing all those events was amazing, and we are very appreciative of the hours of effort put into organizing the day by the Woodhaven staff, and that they continue to extend an invitation to Millgrove to join them.
I know that many of the Grade 5 students I talked to remembered this event from last year as a real highlight. I’m sure that our Grade 4′s agree.