We learned some tricky words today - particle, negatively charged, positively charged, attract, repell etc - and we talked about how opposites attract, how a negatively charged particle and a positively charged particle attract each other, and how likes repell each other. We then tested if we could see this by charging different things with static electricity.
We recorded our findings on a sheet and marked if we could charge a balloon, a wooden pencil, a metal spoon or a plastic comb with static electricity. The children cut small pieces of crepe paper and then tested if they could pick up the paper from the table. They 'charged' the different items by rubbing them against their hair and then moving them close to the paper. Some of the items - the wooden pencil and the metal spoon - gave no reaction at all.
We noticed that it was easy to charge plastic items with static electricity.
Our hair was charged with static electricity as well, after all this rubbing, so our hairstyles looked quite funny for a while. We now know that each single strand of hair stood up because it had the same charge as the others and therefore repelled the hair next to it!