Dying for spring and strawberries?

With my prayers for springtime, come my desire to bake on Sunday afternoons. Here is what I whipped up today. You should make them right away!

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We're Still Here!

Our week was full of educational fun! Here are some highlights...

We learned more about chemical reactions by polishing pennies. We dunked our grimmy pennies in milk, water, apple juice, soda, and lemon juice. The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval goes to...lemon juice. The acid in the juice helps to break down some of the copper oxide on the penny.



We also did some math vocabulary review. Too bad these kiddies haven't seen $25,000 Pyramid!



The denominator is acting like he is not LOVING this!



And we had to say goodbye to our dear friend and classmate JamarriA! We will miss you!

Play the States of Matter Game

Student Leader to Community Leader

We had the privilege of welcoming City Commissioner Andrew Gillum into our classroom today. After getting to know a little bit about each of my students, he shared some interesting facts about himself and the position that he holds. He became Tallahassee's youngest City Commissioner at the age of 23, and seven years later he told the students that he is just as excited about helping our community as the day he was elected. What a great way to celebrate an African American leader during Black History Month.

Commissioner Gillium with our Student Council members.

Table manners, being robbed, and desk rehab

Whoa, what a week! We seem to be moving at warp speed, but enjoying every minute of it! We had a great lesson in all things prim and proper by Mrs. Molly Kellogg, the director of the Leon Chapter of the National League of Junior Cotillions. On Friday during our Valentine's Day luncheon, students put their manners to the test. They did a wonderful job. Polite conversations, silverware in the correct positions, and eating with their mouths closed could be seen and heard all around our room.



We were also robbed this week...robbed of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place prize for our Black History Month door design. We believed that we had a strong contender. You judge for yourself.



Yes, there are interesting facts hiding behind each door to let you know more about key players of the Underground Railroad.



And finally, Daly fought his desk and the desk won. His desk literally imploded on him right as Justice Teaching was starting on Friday. I am praying that his bedroom does not resemble this, or he is going to give his mother a nervous breakdown through his teenage years. The troops rallied around him for an old fashioned intervention and finally a rehabilitated pack rat got his desk in working order.

Before: That is Daly trying to stop me from dumping his desk...



After, Daly the Desk Hoarder uses the help of kind classmates to clean up his cluttered ways.



Happy President's Day tomorrow! Learn something new about a past or present Commander in Chief.

The Things You Learn at Chuck E Cheese's

This weekend my family convened in Atlanta for my niece's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's. I have not been in this famous mouse's home in many, many years. Here are some things I learned in my two short hours there...

1. Mr. Cheese is making a KILLING!
2. Children like to run around and scream about nothing (of course I already knew this).
3. Parents love to take pictures of their children running around and screaming about nothing.
4. Three year old children should not play skee ball! Please refer to picture.

5. Earning 898 tickets will get you an item that cost about two cents.

All in all it was a great time. Happy Birthday Pearce!

As for the happenings of our fifth grade classroom. Well, we are busy bees right now. Pictures of our Black History Month door contest entry, and our Valentine's luncheon are to come later this week!

The Underground Railroad

For research purposes, here are the two sites we will be using:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/index.html

http://www.freedomcenter.org/underground-railroad/freedom-stations/scholarship/people/

More details to come!

The Midnight Ride of Who?

While reading up on our American History in language arts, we came across ole Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's iconic poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. We've listened to it, read it, and dissected the meaning. All to find out that it is historical inaccurate. So since Longfellow didn't get the story quite right, we decided to take some creative licensing of our own.

The Midnight Ride of Rachel...



The Midnight Ride of Cole...




In math and science news, we learned the difference between mass and weight today. Make sure to ask your child if their weight would be the same if we took a field trip to the moon. Would their mass?