Friday, Friday, Friday..

Friday is always a two edged sword. On one hand, it  is FRIDAY and the weekend is almost upon us! We order lunch out on Fridays, too, so that is a huge thing to look forward to. On the other hand, I have before school duty on Fridays. I have to be there 15 minutes before normal reporting time and stand outside in the 5th grade area to watch the kids as they arrive to school. During this time of year, it's actually quite pleasant to be outside for half an hour, but in the dead of winter it is miserable. I really, really hate cold weather (clearly I live in the wrong city!) so it's especially torturous. Either way, it's over- bring on the weekend!

Linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday again this week!

1. Today, we made a class banner to hang up at the 5th grade luau after school. Since the kids will be leaving our school to go to middle school in just a few weeks, it's just a little special night for them before they are promoted. I had been struggling to think of ideas when it struck me last night- owls! Our class theme is owls, and I hung a sign on the door that says "it's a hoot in 307" before school started. Perfect fit! I got some iron on transfer paper (waaaay more money than I expected for 30 transfer sheets!) and printed an owl for each little darling. Here is the finished product last night, fresh out the 4 hour ironing session:

There was a couple feet of blank space open below, too. My cherubs each decorated one of their owls however they wanted. It turned out adorable! 

 I decorated mine when it was about halfway done, and left them to finish. Imagine my surprise when I came back and they had drawn a crown on it. LOL!

2. We had a fundraiser for the One Fund today. It was great! Everyone wore their Boston gear and paid $1 toward the One Fund. We had all the sports teams represented! I rocked jeans and Red Sox shirt. The kids kept telling me how strange it was to see me in jeans. I thought it was funny- what is so different about jeans? ha.

3. Speaking of Boston, Boylston street has turned in a makeshift memorial. You can't believe all the flowers, sports team hats, and sneakers that have popped up. It's pretty remarkable.

4. I did a great science experiment this week on density. It's the age old "less dense liquids float" experiment, but I added in some food coloring. I set it up with an empty mason jar, and the cups of liquids labeled only as "liquid 1," "liquid 2," and "liquid 3." 

The top liquid is vegetable oil, the middle is water, and the bottom is corn syrup.

This experiment was a part of a States of Matter station rotation. I had 6 miniature experiments set up for the kids to rotate through. First, they found out if air has mass by weighing an empty balloon and an inflated balloon. Next, they watched colored ice cubes melt. The colored water sinks to the bottom because it is colder than the surrounding water. Then, discovered that takes up space as they tried to push an empty cup to the bottom of a glass container. Then, they discovered that items had different densities by measuring the mass of 100 ml of 5 different substances. Next they learned about mixtures and solutions by mixing water and sugar and then mixing different colored rocks. Finally, they did the density experiment. It was pretty involved to manage all that movement, but the kids really loved it and they got a lot out of it! We had a great couple days.

5. Finally, I discovered something (kind of obvious in hindsight) when setting up for my experiment stations...

You can't color vegetable oil, no matter how hard you mix! Ha. Like I said, I should have realized it in hindsight since oil doesn't mix with water, and the food coloring is water based. One of those laugh at yourself moments!

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