Five for Friday

What a crazy busy week it's been! This is probably the perfect week for Five for Friday. So much to share! :)

1. Monday was our class pajama party aka my birthday party. Of course we spent the day doing tons of birthday educational stuff. But we did manage to fit in a game of tape the candle on the cake. That brought lots of entertainment. :) (Read more about my birthday party in a previous post.)

2. On Tuesday during our Daily Five time, I called students to contribute to our class thank you gift to our beloved and awesome Art Docent. What did we make?? A thumbprint vase!!!

Is that adorable or what?? I turned all the thumbprints into monkeys since we are the Marvelous Monkeys. The paint I got said to let it air dry for 21 days so we had to make it now. I can't wait to give it to our Art docent. She is going to love it! :)

3. On Thursday, we went on my most anticipated field trip, to Maker Faire Education Day!!! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Maker Faire, it's an annually held worldwide event where "Makers" come together and exhibit their creations to the public. Education Day is a day for school groups to come and preview some of the exhibits as they are being set up for the actual weekend event. I really look forward to this field trip because it really gets the kids excited and inspires them to create, create, create! My favorite part of the field trip is always watching ArcAttack perform. The kids absolutely love watching lightning sing!

Smaller version of the tesla coil

Making fabric owls

Another creation we made, LED pinnies.

Life-Size Mouse Trap contraption!

Jeep with Lego walls

Light Up "Paint"

Re-creating light up "paint" back in the classroom.

If you haven't heard of Maker Faire already, I highly recommend you look it up! Maker Faire is held all over the world so it's very likely that it will be held somewhere near where you live. If you find one, see if they have an Education Day because it's totally worth it! I am going to the actual event this weekend with my family. Can't wait! :)

4. We are studying solids and liquids in Science right now. Our investigation topic right now is called "Bits and Pieces". The students were given small solids that come in large quantities (rice, mung beans, lima beans, pinto beans, cornmeal) to observe and explore. Our investigation with these solids this week involved separating the solids from each other using different size metal screens. The kids worked in partners to get them separated and actually did a really great job!

5. Our butterflies have all emerged from their chrysalises! We now officially have a butterfly garden. :) I'll admit, I was just as excited as the kids since I have never seen the life cycle of a butterfly in person before either. It was very cool watching the butterflies eat. One of my colleagues says it looks like some of them might be pairing and producing eggs. Not quite sure if that's what I really want...

Painted Lady...not Monarch!

You see the lovely flowers down there?
They were from the birthday bouquet I got from my students.
What wonderful timing!

Welp, that was my week. How was yours? Only four weeks left now. Out of those four, only one of them is a FULL week. 17 days of school left! I can do it! :)

P.S. Any advice for getting out of jury duty? I have been summoned to report on May 28 (day after Memorial Day). I can't postpone it since I've already deferred once. This is SUCH bad timing since I have a guest visiting and staying with me during that week. Plus, there will only be three weeks of school left then. I can't possibly leave my students!  Any suggestions for what I should do if I end up having to report? :)