Is It A Solid or a Liquid? & Thanksgiving Prediction Buddies

Is it Thanksgiving break yet?  Last week was absolutely crazy & I have been sick again!  This time with a fever & sinus infection that I at last gave in & went to the doctor for some meds.  I am so looking forward to some time off.  Last Friday my 4th & 5th grade science classes did a buddy project with the first graders.  First my fourth graders & their first grade buddies did a state of matter lab where they tested the properties of Oobleck.  We discussed what the molecules of solid, liquid & gas look & act like.  Then we tried the slow finger poke, fast finger poke, pour, bounce, form it in a ball and after each test we tried to decide if the Oobleck was acting like a solid or liquid. 

Oh boy did we make a mess & can you believe I forgot to take any pictures!  Every year I tell myself never again but it must be like giving birth you forget the "pain."  LOL  I think we are still finding corn starch in the most unusual places and I am still getting dirty looks from our school janitor.  LOL  I only wish I would have taken a few pictures. 

I did take pictures of the fifth & first grade buddy project.  This was really fun for the kids & the teachers!  This project is definitely a kepper.  First the first grade teacher read us a book about the Mayflower.  Then my fifth graders got their first grade buddies on the Scholastic Mayflower Virtual Tour in the computer lab & they toured the Mayflower together.  Next on to the science lab where we discussed prediction.  The first grade teacher found this buddy project on First Grade O.W.L.S.  We had a lot of fun first trying to make a boat out of clay that would not sink.

 

 

Boy was this tough.  The secret was the wider the bottom of the boat the better the boat floated but watch out for those holes.

Voila!  We got the boats to start floating with a few bears.

 

Then on to predicting how many bears our little boats could hold.  Hmmm? 5, 10, 15, 20, 100?????

The maximum bears our boats would hold was 19!

 

We had so much fun with our first grade buddies.  This was so much better then the Thanksgiving webquest that I usually have my fifth graders do.  Now I need to come up with a great first & fifth grade buddy project for Christmas.  No corn starch please!

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

November Currently YAHOOOO!

At last I figured out how to post Farely's ( I love that teacher & would love to work at her school)  Currently linky from Oh Boy 4th Grade.  OMG I even looked at another teacher's website for the directions on how to do Farley's Currently.  It said to copy and paste the image to your powerpoint program.  Guess what?  I do not have a powerpoint program on this cheap notebook, only a viewer!  UGHHHHHH!  So I tried to copy and paste the image to my Microsoft word and insert a textbox.  Nooooo I was left with a giant white textbox that I could not make disappear.  I even asked my 13 year old son.  No help!  Then I tried to download Openoffice program and that would not download, for some error message kept popping up!  I at last tried Paint and guess what?  It worked!  Whoot whoot!

Here is my first Currently!  Yeah for me!

Listening - My youngest giggling while trying to sneak up on her big brother and stick a cut out of the mail flyers' picture of Obama.  Ever since we have been buried with election flyers my two biggest kids have been getting a kick out of sticking pictures of Obama in weird places. 

Loving - Fall is definitely here is Ohio since the tropical storm Sandy blew through.  The only bad thing is that all the beautiful leave are gone due to that crazy wind.  But there is a fall chill in the air.  I just wish for some sunny skies. It has been grey and raining since Oct. 29th.  Booo! 

Thinking - I definitely need to do my lesson plans.  Enough said on that!  Ugh!

Wanting & Needing - More money in my paycheck.  After getting my job cut three years ago due to decreasing enrollment caused by many of my parents losing their jobs but after given the gift of getting another job right away.   I should not complain.  But it has been tough with a $6,000 pay cut and no raises from my current school for the entire three years I have been there.  Booo!  I worry I may have to quit teaching.  My family is barely scraping by.  I keep thinking I should try to sell things on TPT or Teachers' Notebook but just haven't gotten the confidence or the time to devote to that project.

Music - Ok this is my pet peeve.  My four year old has picked up the 13 & 12 year olds wonderful habit of turning the Ipad / Iphone up to maximum volume while I am trying to work.  I do like Katy Perry even though I think some of the lyrics are not appropriate for my 4 year old.  I just think I am definitely getting old.  Ha!

Ok now it is on the small side but I can't fight with it right now.  I have to go serve spaghetti at my school's annual fundraiser. Yahooo!  I hope they make a few bucks that they can pass on to the teachers.  I hope you come back soon!