M&M Math Fun!
We used M&M candies last Friday (March 10) for Math class! Woohoo! Chocolate galore. Everybody was excited, until they realized they couldn’t eat the candy until they were finished with the Math. LOL!
Students used their bags of M&Ms to write fractions, decimals and percents. Afterwards, they indulged in the deliciously of the chocolate. An added bonus was a bag of Mocha Nut M&Ms. Delicious!
Don’t Be So Dense!
Since it was Fun Friday, I decided that our class was due for an experiment. I looked up tons of experiments and found some good ones on density.
We were testing which liquid had the highest density. Students wrote their hypothesis and answered some questions on density. After going through the steps of the experiment, students had a much better understanding of density. Here are some pictures!
Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea
Our class just finished learning about Sacagawea in our Journeys book. Since we all enjoyed learning about Sacagawea and how she assisted Lewis and Clark on their journey to the Pacific Ocean, I thought I’d include some websites for further study.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/west/
http://mrnussbaum.com/lcflash/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/lewis_clark/prepare.htm
Children’s Day–May 5th
May 5 is Children’s Day, when families celebrate the healthy growth and happiness of children. It became a national holiday in 1948, but it has been a day of celebration in Japan since ancient times.
The fifth day of the fifth month was traditionally called Tango no Sekku and was a festival for boys. Girls have their own festival, called Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival), held on the third day of the third month.
On Children’s Day, families with boys fly huge carp-shaped streamers (koinobori) outside the house and display dolls of famous warriors and other heroes inside. The carp was chosen because it symbolizes strength and success; according to a Chinese legend, a carp swam upstream to become a dragon.
In recent years, as more people have moved into apartments and smaller houses, the carp streamers have also gotten smaller, and there are now miniature versions that are decorated indoors.
Also on this day, families often take baths sprinkled with iris leaves and roots. This is because the iris is thought to promote good health and ward off evil. Rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves and filled with sweet bean paste, called kashiwa mochi, are also eaten.
We celebrated Children’s Day in our classroom after reading the story ‘Hachiko Waits’ and after learning more about the Japanese culture.
We ate rice crackers of various sizes, nibbled on dried seaweed, drank hot green tea and feasted on mochi for dessert. It was a ton of fun and delicious, too!
Makin’ Bread and Butter
Ms. Wisenbaker and I thought it would be nice to make bread on a ‘Fun Friday’. She has a bread making machine that makes easy, delicious bread. I had an idea that we could make some homemade butter as well.
Nathaly helped Ms. Wisenbaker put the ingredients into the bread machine. Many of the class got up to watch the process including Nathaly’s pal Alexandra.
Next came the butter making. You simply take a clean jar with a lid and pour in heavy whipping cream. Replace the lid tightly and start shaking! As you shake the cream, the protein and fats in the cream stick together. The more you shake, the more fats and proteins stick together. At the end of 10-15 minutes, we had butter!
Make sure you pour off the liquid; this is buttermilk. It can be used to make delicious buttermilk pancakes. Yumm!
Here are Serenity and Yameli trying the butter while they work on their Math. (Don’t forget to click on the photos to view full size!)