Over the few weeks prior to Super Science Saturday I asked for any student volunteers to join me in the Art room at lunch as I wanted the exploration station to be as student oriented as possible. A small group of 4th grade girls stepped up and joined me for lunch for 3 weeks in a row where we brainstormed ideas, possible activities, and made visuals for our exploration station. As 4th graders had recently been learning about magnets in their science class, we decided to organize a booth integrating magnets and painting, and soon the “Magnetic Masterpieces” Exploration Station was created. With student input, previous knowledge, and a little research of my own we created posters explaining how simple magnets work as well as visuals explaining color theory and color mixing.

They day of Super Science Saturday I was met by my group of volunteers to help get things going and we set up 2 stations for visitors to make “Magnetic Masterpieces.” A piece of thick paper was taped in between 2 tables and another in between 2 chairs and those allowed our Artist/Scientist visitors to create a work of art using only magnets and various pieces of metal to move the paint around the paper and create their masterpiece. Using the high powered magnet on the underside of the paper, visitors were able to move the various metal jewelry, paperclips, bottle caps, screws, hair clips, etc. that were on top of the paper and move those items in and out of the paint to mix colors and create an interesting composition.

While our visitors were creating their “Magnetic Masterpieces” my Wonderful 4th grade helpers, the visiting artists, and I discussed color mixing, basic color theory, composition, and how magnets actually work! Everyone got a little messy, but everyone had a great time and created some really awesome “Magnetic Masterpieces”!

I want to give a special thanks to the 4th grade girls who volunteered to help me on the only Student run Exploration Station! It was the volunteers who pointed out that I am technically still a student

Check them out on our recipe page!

The exhibition synthesizes the essential elements of the PYP program and sharing them with the whole school community. It is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the student profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the program. All parents and members of the school community are invited to attend the exhibition tomorrow, May 7, during the opening hours from 9:30-12:00 and 13:10-14:30.

and we don’t get to pick that part.

we do get to choose what we do with it (our gene’s and talents…)

now at each level of development we learn different things and certain things are more important than others…you know like as a five year old, you love your dad, even if he’s a jerk and hits your mom(this did not happen to me, just for the record, I’m just saying, this does happen) you love your parents no matter what, and when 13 comes and you start thinking, you wonder, and by the time you’re 26 you might have forgotten kids love their parents, just cause, …but they do…

now the best selling books of all time are written at a fifth grade level,,and that’s because in the mind of a ten year old everything still has a bit of (actual) magic to it but it also has meaning, purpose…Harry Porter, the Alchemist, the little prince(okay so maybe not that one)…look them up…all magic or spiritual journeys or limbo stories about how we all die in the end someday..

It’s my personal philosophy that you were born in the US for a reason, or in Iceland or your country…for a reason. This is a very fifth grade perspective, but I really do think you are in the community you are in(even locally) for a reason and if you move super far away..I hope it’s because you felt “drawn” there(Some people do show up in the wrong place, wrong time period even!)

My home is 1660′s to 17something’s in Austria in and my prime age is 87 and it’s always November 26th-28th, I’m a philosopher and it’s snowing outside But I was put here…so there must be a reason, follow the tracks of your history back and think where it might take you, but I do think 3rd(mom and dad are good no matter what) and 5th(I’m here for a reason and it’s going to take me “there”) is a good place to start

Looks very 70’s to me. Anyway, the Fine Arts Dinner last Friday entailed dinner and performances by the students. And – bonus – we were in the gym. The dinner consisted of pork and chicken along with dinner rolls, a salad, and some other stuff I don’t remember. Oh, and homemade cake pops. The pork was surprisingly good. The chicken was expectedly dry. Salad? Good. Cakepops? Awesome. Bails had four.

After dinner we were treated to selected songs from the school’s production of Grease. I thought this was fairly brave. Not on our part for listening but on the teacher’s part for having a whole boatload of 5th and 6th graders take on Grease. The girls came home after the initial performance and said they loved it! So much that they wanted to go out and rent Grease so they could watch the movie. I figured nearly all of the sexual innuendo would go over their heads but what really surprised me was that they hadn’t already seen it. I mean hasn’t everybody pretty much seen it? I was just 8 when I saw it back in the summer of ’78 when it originally came out. Completely warped my idea of what high school was going to be like until I watched Porky’s. Which again skewed my theories on how my high school years would unfold. Until finally I saw Sixteen Candles and Red Dawn which got it all straightened out. Notwithstanding my expectations for the years in between and including 1984 and 1988, I guess it shouldn’t come as all that much of a revelation that someone has not seen Grease. I recently learned that there are actual Americans roaming this great nation of ours that have never seen Star Wars. I’m completely serious.

How do you go through childhood without the Empire and the Rebellion as reference points? Without Luke, Darth Vader and Han Solo anchoring your definitions of good, evil and smartassery?

But then again I just had a conversation at work with some early 30-somethings about who Tony Manero and Sonny Crockett are. Or were, I guess. They, and I’m not exaggerating, had no idea. None. I had to say “Don Johnson” to even get a nod of recognition. Rico Tubbs? Blank stares. Rick and AJ? Nothing. Carmine Ragusa…aka The Big Ragoo? Crickets. Joanie loving Chachi? The Regal Beagal? TJ Freaking Hooker!? It’s like I was talking to an empty depressing wasteland. A wilderness void of any knowledge gathered from the Carter and Reagan administrations.

Regardless of the alarmingly high rate of Gen Y idiocy at my place of employment, it didn’t change the fact that I spent my Friday evening at an elementary school watching 11 year-olds sing “Summer Loving” and “Beauty School Drop Out.” To be completely honest, the kids did a great job. Far better than I could have done. I mean if I had the guts to actually sing in front of people about girls when I was 11.

The girl who sang “Beauty School Drop Out” really could sing. Afterwards, we were treated to performances by the orchestra and the band. The 6th grade orchestra, the 5th and 6th grade orchestra, the 6th grade band, the 5th and 6th grade band, the school’s chorus and then there was the well-meaning teacher who felt the need to fill the time between performances with comments. Well, they are probably more accurately described as annotations. Because every 5th and 6th grade musical needs footnotes. To be as polite as possible, they were unnecessary. Like anything said by Joe Biden. I mean all you have to do is introduce who is performing. Done. We don’t need backstory. I’m already trying to follow the 2nd round of the NFL Draft on my phone and I want to avoid distractions. Robert Woods and Kevin Minter both went off the board before the Steelers picked. So I was thinking they might take Keenan Allen or even reach for Jonathan Franklin. Proving once again that the Steelers are smarter than me, they took LeVeon Bell! Great pick. Sadly though Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore is a freaking draft genius. Dude just keeps making the Ravens better.

Being at the school was a distinct change from where I watched the last half of the First Round of the Draft however. Have you ever been to Twin Peaks? It’s a restaurant. They market their “Eats, drinks and scenic views.” The scenic views are the wait staff and bartenders who wear really short shorts and what is essentially a bikini top with a lumberjack pattern. Or the same pattern Lamar Alexander wore during his failed 1996 bid for the GOP presidential nomination. And their beer is chilled to 29 degrees. So its really cold. However, and I’m just spitballin’ here, I don’t think anybody is going to Twin Peaks for the coldness of the beer. But when you pretty much leave the location determination to two of the single guys in the league, this is where you end up.

So here’s the thing. I’m married with three daughters. Which means I’m living with four women. In college that would have been freaking awesome. Now? Not so much. I don’t really have a bathroom and nobody shares my appreciation for Fletch quotes. Now you add girls in their late teens and early to mid 20’s barely dressed. Me in college would have thought this was the best damn Friday night ever. Now? Its just dudes in their mid-40’s flirting and taking pics with girls in their late teens and early to mid 20’s. Tad bit creepy.

I also was told that the hostess was too young to serve alcohol which meant she was probably 17. My oldest daughter is 13. I’ve often said perspective is a wonderful teacher. And my perspective is that I am mentally unprepared for teenage girls. Mostly because I remember being a teenage boy.

Which brings me back to the Fine Arts Dinner. As I’ve become an adult, a husband and a father I’ve learned, often the hard way, that lapsing back into being a teenage boy becomes less acceptable. Not everyone thinks farts are funny, the versatile uses for the f-bomb aren’t appropriate and selfishness is regarded as you being an a-hole not simply part of the maturation process. As they are doing the silent auction, it became apparent that these fine educators had never done a silent auction or anything remotely related to one in any way. So it took far longer than it needed to take. While I’m standing there holding a couple music books, my phone displaying what is now the 3rd round of the NFL Draft and a violin, I keenly observed, in a totally self-congratulatory kind of way, that I’m am so much better at being a grown-up than I used to be. Back my late 20’s this kind of thing would have led to an impressive display of self-absorption and annoyance. I actually said, “Hey, I am way better at this stuff than I used to be. If this was 1999 I would be bitching up a freaking super storm.”

Instead I write this blog.

In the interest of full disclosure, teenage me, college me and Dad me do share at least one thing in common. Miller Lite. After getting back from the dinner, my neighbor is in his garage repainting his cabinet doors. He’s pretty handy and far more ambitious than myself. He asks how the dinner went. I respond by walking up his driveway, past the him and his cabinet doors, right to the fridge in his garage. It was then when I decided to liberate several Miller Lites from said fridge.

Rest of the night went pretty well.

This year the kids are working through the Veritas Press Self Paced online history course – 1815 to Present. They wrapped up their second to last week – week 29 today. They’ve really enjoyed it and learned a LOT. There are 31 weeks in the class, but we’ll be dropping the last week. I’m ready to move on! We changed our The Hiding Place for a few Horrible History book as well as some assigned “free” reading. Big is working through Huck Finn and Little tore through Tom Sawyer in less than 3 days. That kid kills me!

This week in science the kids are working through the final technology lessons with BJU 6 online science. This has been another HUGE success this year for both me and the kids. They technically have 2 chapters left, but we’ll be doing those next week without the videos.

Math is math and we continue to work on! Big is about halfway through Saxon Algebra 1/2 and is doing super with it. Little is working through Horizon 6… The math is absolutely no issue – but we’re continuing to tweak how to get him to write neater. It drives me nuts when problems are wrong because they can’t read their own writing…. Or if they can’t check their work and find errors… For about a week now he’s not been allowed to write in the workbook, but instead has had to rewrite the problems in a wire bound notebook that has graph paper in it to help him line everything up and work on keeping his problems neater. It’s helping, but the boxes are still a little small (he’s young for his age so the font isn’t super age-appropriate for him). We’ve also tried notebook paper turned sideways and that seems to help a little. I’ve also printed some “math paper” from online but the boxes were either HUGE or the same as the notebook. We’re also working on lining multiplication up to the right, and long division to the left – but that’s a lot to remember.

I know that this is a HUGE point I have to make and a hill I have to die on right now, but it’s so awful. “Do it again.” “Neater.” “I can’t read this.” I know it’s even more frustrating for him than it is for me, but I cannot relent on this one. He’s not far from Saxon Algebra 1/2 and then it’s all transposed. I will NOT write his work for him (meaning copy them from the workbook into his notebook for him and then let him do the work from there). He’s in 6th grade math – he can do it himself.  I will NOT allow him to scribble his work on a white board. He needs to learn this and I need to stand strong – encouragingly and kindly – but math must be legible and easy to read. I know we can do this – I just want to be kind and helpful in the process.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Do you have experience with helping young students write neater for long math problems? I’d love tips!

To start, you’ll need the following for each student:  1 disposable water bottle, 1 12-inch dowel rod, 1 4 x 4 wooden block.

You will also need:  scissors (or an exacto knife), masking tape, scrap cardboard, a drill (with a bit the size of your dowel rod), newspaper, flour, water, a hand-mixer, mixing bowl, cheap toilet paper, joint compound, vegetable oil, Elmer’s Glue-All (NOT school glue), modge podge, sponge brushes, tissue paper, large google-eyes, Aileen’s Tacky Glue, and sequins.

First things, first.  Remove the outer wrapping, lid, and ring from the water bottle.  Drill a hole in your wooden block and push one end of the dowel rod into it.  If it’s loose, add a little glue-all to it to help it stay put.  Using your scissors (or exacto knife), cut a SMALL slit on the side of the water bottle.  Push the other end of the dowel rod all the way into the bottle.  If it’s loose, use a piece of masking tape to secure it.

Cut out fish parts from the cardboard, like the fins and tail.  Tape those to the water bottle.  Rip SMALL pieces (about 2-3 inches) of newspaper, and set them aside.

Here you can see the skeletal structure.

In a mixing bowl, put about a cup of flour, and add enough water to where it becomes the consistency of pancake batter.  Dip a piece of newspaper into the batter and pull it through your index and middle fingers to wipe it off.  Press it to the water bottle, and smooth out any wrinkles.  Once the water bottle and cardboard pieces are completely covered (make sure to look under it!), let it dry.  Add another layer of paper mache.

This is the first layer of newspaper on the fish. See the dowel rod? When we first started the project, I used bamboo skewers, not even thinking about the weight of the sculpture. Duh! Anyway, after getting real dowel rods, having them cut down to thirds, and re-drilling the hold in the wooden block, all was well in the world of Mrs. Darby’s art class.

To create the paper mache clay, remove the toilet paper from the roll, and soak it in a bowl of warm water.  Squeeze the water out of it, and pull it apart in very small chunks into a mixing bowl.  Add 3/4 cup of Elmer’s Glue-All, 1 cup of joint compound, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and a 1/2 cup of flour.  Mix on low for about 20 seconds, then mix on high for about 30 seconds.

Here is the big bucket o’ paper mache clay, ready to go!

Once the fish is dry, smear on the paper mache clay in a VERY THIN layer, smoothing it out as you go.  I made sure there were tubs of warm water at each table for when the kids were done.  I didn’t want to pour that down the sink.  Let the fish dry.

Abby puts on a thin layer of paper mache clay. This helps to fill any gaps missed and to smooth out any weird spots. Notice the new, thicker, stronger dowel rod?

You’re finally ready for the colorful part!  Cut small pieces of tissue paper and adhere with modge podge (I made ours by thinning white school glue with water).  Let dry.

When you’re ready to add color, saturate the area with modge podge with a sponge brush. Then add a piece of tissue paper and cover the area with modge podge to seal it.

This one’s ready for the next step:  Embellishment!

All the tissue paper is on! Now to add the details…

Add the google-eyes and layer the sequins like scales in some areas.  Done! 

This project took us about 6 class periods to finish.

The kids sat, desks spread out throughout the classroom, concentrating on their work. Work they didn’t want to do. Didn’t have to do. If only they’d simply behaved. Work they were doing as a punishment for their uncooperative behavior.

The teacher also sat writing notes, ideas about upcoming lessons. Her back was aching from hunching over. Her eyes scanned the room, watching the kids. She wondered why a last ditch incentive didn’t curb their misconduct like it did with most of their peers. Peers who were in another room enjoying the reward of staying focused, putting in their best effort. Why does it seem to be a joke, a given right to misbehave with this group of kids?

She reflected on herself as a youth. A young girl who simply followed the rules, followed directions and was respectful to those around her, especially the adults. Especially her teacher. Not these kids. They defy everything, say they don’t need to listen, and Who cares! And she knows that is a big part of the problem. Who does care? Anyone? Is there an effort to teach them to be productive and valuable individuals? Or does it not matter? Just give these kids whatever they want and assume everything will turn out okay.

The teacher knows, though, that it won’t be okay unless someone besides herself, at this moment, during this year, and more importantly, throughout their life, sets boundaries and maintains some sort of structure in their lives. Everyone plays a role in the growth of each child. Everyone involved.

The kids are tired, she notices, just like she is. Some of them look up, look at her, but then quickly bow their heads, returning to their work, defeated. She wishes she can change everything, make them understand the importance of responsibility; but, they just roll their eyes at her, not accepting her explanation.

For the moment, they are quiet here in the quiet room. Working because she told them to, because they have no choice, because she has expectations. But, when the bell rings, alerting them that their day is done, the kids spring from their seats, and once outside, return to their shenanigans.

Tomorrow is another day she tells herself. A chance to try again.

Here is our Jamestown Project presentation for you to refer to when needed.  Remember, teamwork!  Help each other out and see if you problem solve with your classmates.

One interesting aspect about this unit was seeing how they naturally formed writing groups and partnerships. There were groups that wanted to write in a specific genre or write about the same topic. I had a few students wanting to write in partnerships. I did tell them that they could work together, but they had to be responsible to each write their own chapter or section. I saw students bouncing ideas, possible plots and characters with each other. I saw some groups form, and then disband once they realized their group would not work.

I gave my students choice in how they wanted to publish their writing piece as well. I had many students using ibooks author program to create booklets. My students really enjoyed making ibooks for our fantasy stories in the last unit. Then, they were able to put their ibook into flipsnack in order to post it on their blog! Here is a picture of a student’s ibook put online via flipsnack book. On the blog, you can actually flip through the pages of the book.

One great book I recommend that you read is Independent Writing by Colleen Cruz. This is a great resource on how to teach students to be independent with their writing and she gives good outlines on how to teach an independent writing unit.

Even though we had a limited amount of time for this unit (about 3 weeks), my students were able to produce solid pieces from varying genres. More importantly, they were really engaged and excited to work on their writing.

For unit 3, most cycles is about language games. For my 3rd, 5th and 8th graders, I used crosswords. Last year, I did a little post about it named Making Crosswords.

I took a pictures of the best one per grade.

I improved the last year crossword printable.

As a little note, the next week after finishing this project, the textbooks arrived. To my surprise, in the textbook Play and Play 3, there is a similar format to the one I used this year as my printable.