Artwork all around us!

I have heard that some beautiful artwork has found a home in the Gilchrist cafeteria. I missed the unveiling of the architectural masterpieces, but I'm loving the pictures. It's pretty hard to dress up a school cafeteria, but it looks like the crew of artists and volunteers at Gilchrist have worked some artistic magic! I can't wait to see these famous landmarks come to life at our school! To learn more about famous buildings and structures click here.


On another art note, check out my niece's face painting from the Downtown Getdown. Face painting has come a long way since I was a kid! This picture is also in honor of Chick Fil a because a Diet Dr. Pepper once a day is keeping this mama going!

Two of the best things in the world!

Nap time and ice cream are up there on the best things in the world list! Congrats to my master multipliers that enjoyed ice cream sundaes last week, and here is a picture of what baby Mack does best...nap (thank the good Lord!). Have a great weekend!

Welcome to the world baby boy!

Little Wendell Mack Whitaker arrived Saturday night weighing in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. and measuring 20 and 3/4 inches long. I am back home today with Mr. Whitaker and loving our precious little gift. I hope that my students are having a great week so far. I miss you!! I will update with more pictures soon! I've got to join Mack and get a little shut eye!

Who knew science could taste so good!

This free collage created with Smilebox

Look inside a cell

Tonight get a glimpse inside a plant and animal cell by clicking here. Tomorrow, we will make plant cells out of cookies and candies! Sleep tight my little multicellular organisms.

Friday Happenings!

Friday was full of fun at school. We kicked off our year with an Accelerated Reader rally in the cafeteria. The school joined together to create a mad-lib. We were given the task of selecting an adjective. The word we chose was GROOVY! As you can see my students didn't let me down when it came to dressing up!






Later in the day we wrapped up our unit on "other living things" by getting a closer look at fungus. We even used our portabella mushrooms to paint with!

Heidi Came Back!

Today we had a visitor in our classroom. One that is cold-blooded, has no eye-lids, no ears in fact, and tends to be overly constricting. Her name is Heidi and she is a 17 year old albino cornsnake. Mrs. Bryan, a retired Leon County teacher, is kind enough to share her knowledge of invertebrates and her pet snake with our fifth graders each year.



We had a great time learning more about Heidi and other snakes that are native to Florida.

Doesn't she look like a natural!


Oh and doesn't she look like she is keeping a close eye on our guest!

We've gone bananas over microorganisms

This morning we met up with our third grade science buddies for a little experiment of sorts. The only materials we needed were Ziploc bags, bananas, water, and yeast. As you know we've been busy learning about animals and such, but today we moved on to "other living things." Specifically yeast. Did you know that yeast is a type of fungus? Doesn't that make you want some bread fresh out of the oven right now?

Well, it's a very helpful fungus. We classify fungi as microorganisms due to their microscopic size, since they are only unicellular. There are more than one thousand species of yeast that have been currently described by the scientific community.

One of our bags contains bananas, one has bananas and water, one has bananas and yeast, and one has the whole shebang...bananas, water, and yeast. We taped the bags to our window, and now we just have to sit back and watch the micro-organisms grow!

Go ahead and make your hypothesis and check back with us soon!

I had to change the background because of the cute little mushrooms hidden in the forest. Fungus is everywhere!