Do Teeth Float?

This morning started like every other day, kids came in happy to be here and glad to see each other.  Then my friend came in and asked if I could pull his other tooth, that he was ready for me to "yank it out of my head."  That's what I tell them, I will pull a tooth (if they want me to) but it has to be hanging by a thread and then I'll yank it out of their head!  It sounds pretty ferocious I know but it's a colorful way to say pulling a tooth!  Before we pulled it, I said, "Wait!  Let me get the camera!"  Here's what happened next:

Not really!!  The above picture of the one with the pliers is completely posed, I promise!  I try to teach these kids lots of things, but how to pull a tooth isn't one of them!!   However, I've heard that Maggie, one of my sweeties from last year, not only pulls her own teeth but also those of her friends as well!! 


A few weeks ago, one of the reading groups read the following books and  asked if they could experiment with objects to determine whether they floated or not.  I said, "Great idea!" then put the idea back into my brain where it stayed until I saw the books on the shelf. 

For the science activity this afternoon, I divided the kids into 5 groups and had one person read both books to the others in the group.  There were 5 buckets of water with a variety of items to put in the water and see if they floated or sank.  The kids were to examine the items, predict what would happen to each in the water, then taking turns, place each item in the water, making observations, then record the results in their science journal.  The kids did a great job!  There were NO messes, they took turns, I heard discussion....I was very pleased!!!

Reading the books to the other group members:

Reading to his group:

The predicting begins:

These kids observe what happens to an item in the water:

They discovered plastic money floated when placed on top of the water, flat side down, but sank when placed in the water at an angle:


Observing a plastic dinosaur float in the water:

Recording her observations:

Kids naturally love science and hands-on experiments!  Throw in some water (and a few guidelines!) and you'll have captured the attention of 5 and 6 years olds!  This was a fun way to learn about what items float, why they float, a brief look at density, mass, and weight distribution, and why some heavy items float and light items sink.  Next, they asked to build a volcano!   Stay tuned.....

Top O' the Morning!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day from McMurphy!!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day from O'Tommy!!

What Happened?!!!

I went to Cloudcroft, New Mexico and had a wonderful, quiet, calm, no-mystery kind of weekend!  As a result, I was running late and could not find the keys to the classroom.  One friend asked the teacher next door if we could borrow her keys, but she didn't have hers.  He went to other teacher next door, but she didn't have hers either!  He then tried the OTHER teacher next door, and guess what?  No keys for her!  I emptied everything out of my school bag and found my hiding keys at the very bottom!!!   I unlocked the door, the kids turned on the lights, and immediately began commenting on the state of the room.  After I put my bag down, I got out my camera and began taking pictures of our room.  We saw our rainbow pictures on the floor and scattered about:

           

The containers holding the scissors, erasers, pencils, and glue were on the floor, tipped over and the stuffed animals were out of place and surrounded the action figures:

The contents of the Murphy bag were scattered about and all the books were open as if someone had been reading them:

Tommy was in Murphy's house:

The chairs were on the floor and all mixed up:

A small green hat was found on one stack of chairs:

Holding the green hat that was found:

Books and journals that belong in cubbies were all over the floor:

2 of many gold coins that were found under the messed-up items:

Murphy was sitting on top of books on the top shelf:

The crates were stacked up and a gift bag was inside:

Holding the pot of gold wind sock that was in the gift bag:

A small container was on my chair:

Holding the little leprechaun that was in the container:

 

WOW!!!  We couldn't figure all this out!  Maybe there IS a leprechaun at work!!!  Tomorrow, we will try to figure out a way to discover just who or what is causing all the chaos in our room.  I'm hearing "traps"  "special cameras"  "contraptions" so who knows what tomorrow will bring?   Stay tuned......       

   

Yet ANOTHER Strange Happening!!

We had an extremely busy day!  We had our daily writing lesson and made it through to the end without any interruptions from mysterious gift-givers!    We created rainbows and talked about the legend of the leprechaun and how he hides his gold at the end of a rainbow and should you catch one, he has to take you to his pot of gold.  I told them about Roy G. Biv, the order of the color of the rainbow....red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.  Unfortunately, I turned the colors around and started with red on the inside cure instead of the outside and after a quick correction from Will and Anna, I fixed my mistake and the kids made some pretty rainbows!

This is McDuff, the main character of a series of books I've read to the kids.  In the story, Fred and Lucy, his owners, treat him with vanilla rice pudding.  I love rice pudding and think the one I make is particularly delicious! 

I made 2 big pans of it to share this morning.  You can tell by the expressions who liked it and who didn't!

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

While we were eating the rice pudding, we heard a knock on the door and once again, no one could be found, but there was a package at the door!  Once again, we opened the gift bag and found another leprechaun wind sock and a shamrock wreath:

       

and bandannas for Murphy (who is thrilled!!) and Tommy:

After the excitement died down a bit, a very tiny bit, we went to lunch, recess, then back outside where we took our binoculars, science journals, and a pencil.  We'd made the binoculars yesterday out of toilet rolls.  The kids were amazed at how much more and better they could see through them!!! 

While outside, the objective was to observe 3 things and draw them in the journal, complete with circles around the items.....drawn as they'd be seen through the binoculars.  We walked around the playground, making observations and looking for leprechaun clues.  The outdoor observation was my assignment and the leprechaun clues were the kids' assignment!

 

 

 

   It was a busy, busy, busy day and one full of mystery!!!