Friday, November 16, 2012

Friday groups on November 9th

 November 9th was the 3rd session for the first rotation of Friday groups.  For Mikayla, Zoe, and Elaine, this was their last time in the cooking group. 

The menu for the day:  Empanadas...with a potato-chile filling!
 Mikayla was ready for the challenge...
 as was Trenton...even though he only had one arm in operation!
Alex wasn't too sure about making this recipe.  
 The group got into gear...Cayden started by measuring the flour...
 Outside, Mr. C was busy talking to his group about where to put the holes for the pegs and the screws...
 Fortunately, we had Felix here to help with this group of carpenters!
 Back inside where it was nice and warm, Miss C was helping with the crocheting group...  It looks like Caleb has a good start on his.
April was showing Cameron exactly where to put her needle...Cameron really picked up how to crochet!
 Miss C suggested Sabrina use a different yarn...
 Look at the intensity of our guys!  Lauri was going around to help them all... Carol was enjoying crocheting...
 Love this picture of Jason!

 Ashlynn knew a finger-crochet...so she wanted to try that.  It seemed to work well with this looser yarn.
Lura was practicing her crocheting...
 There goes Carol...geez, didn't she JUST start that?
 Sonja was showing Lauri the finger-crochet she knows how to do.  Looks like Isabella and Sabrina aren't paying any attention to that...they're just proceeding on with theirs!
 Back with the cooking group, Zoe was putting the rounds of dough on the cookie sheet.  These will eventually be filled with the potato-chile mixture...
 Jade was rolling out the dough...and cutting it into the rounds...
 Elaine was doing the same thing... We were making a LOT of empanadas!
 Cayden was transferring the rounds that had just been cut, over to the cookie sheet...
Sara was instructing a technique for dicing an onion...
 Oh boy!  Chef Ian and Cayden are excited about this recipe :)
 Mikayla was dicing up garlic...this photographer was telling her to watch her fingers so close to that knife!
 Zoe is bringing a new cookie sheet to begin filling with the rounds of dough.. Doesn't she look like a waitress with the way she's carrying it?
 Elaine and Jade came in ready to do some rolling and cutting!  Looks like Elaine is also practicing to be a waitress.
 Outside, Cole was hard at work cutting the corners off his wood...
 Karlie was routing the edges of her board...with Mr. C's assistance, of course!
 Felix was manning the drilling area. 
 Felix was showing the kids how to measure for the peg holes...
 Aliya did NOT want to get her board dirty, so she put a piece of paper under her foot while she was sawing her corners...
 Amara finished her hat/coat rack!  Because everyone else was still working, Mr. C had told them all to bring their silent reading book...
 Hannah also got her rack finished!
 Ahhhh, we have the filling for the empanadas being stirred by the one-handed Trenton! 
Zoe and Ian were playing Tic-Tac-Toe...  

WAIT A MINUTE!  Is that what we're suppose to be doing?  Maybe it's not Tic-tac-toe..maybe Ian is explaining some directions to Zoe?  
 What is that, Aliya?  Is it sandpaper?
 Now it was Cole's turn to use the router...
 and Amara was getting a little help from her dad!
 Isn't this great?  Cole was C-O-V-E-R-E-D with sawdust...and look at that expression on his face!
 A board with the holes for the pegs drilled...and the edges routed...boy they look great!
 Cole posed for the camera with all his sawdust-covered-clothes...
Micah, you really only need to wear one set of earphones :)  
 I wish I knew what Austin was saying here.  I think it had something to do with all the sawdust on Cole. 
 Mr. C was helping Cole clamp on his wood to the sawhorse...so it wouldn't move when he tried to cut it.
After cleaning up all our stations, our cooking group served us these delicious empanadas.  I FORGOT to take a picture of the plate piled with them, and by the time I realized I hadn't taken pictures, everyone had just about inhaled their empanada....but not Isabella!  Thank goodness... I thought I'd just take a picture of her eating it.
 Isabella finished hers...and then I noticed Mikayla's partially eaten one.  I knew I needed to document these, so I snapped a couple of photos... Mikayla had to go to  work in the cafeteria...so I had a empanada to photograph!
These were absolutely deliicious!

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

H20....and Hydrogen Bonding

 Yesterday, we made models of water molecules. 
 Each pair of students made one molecule.  They learned that a water molecule is made up of 3 atoms...2 of hydrogen and one of oxygen...
...which is why it's called H20!!!
 Each hydrogen atom had to be 1 cm in diameter...and each oxygen atom was supposed to be 2 cm in diameter...
 Some atoms had to be readjusted ... most were too large...
Using toothpicks, they placed the hydrogen atoms at 105 degrees apart.  We didn't actually measure 105 degrees, but we knew what a 90 degree angle looked like, so we just made it a little larger than that...
 All of a sudden, calling water "H20" made sense!
 Some of us had to work a bit to get them just the right size...

"Is this right, Mrs. J?" Austin asked.
"It looks perfect!" was the answer.

 Today, we had a treat... CALEB came back for half the day!  We were all excited and happy to see him.  The night before going to the outdoor school, Caleb got tackled in football practice and broke his femur!  He had surgery and had 14 pieces of metal put in...most of which has just recently been taken out.  He's still totally on crutches...and now has the pain under control. 
 At recess, he had a crowd of buddies who wanted to stay in and hang out and play cards with him.
This afternoon, we reviewed out water molecule... and Room 5 learned that the hydrogen atoms in the water molecule are attracted to the oxygen atoms of other water molecules.  This was important to understand for the WATER SNAKE experiment!
 Again, the students were paired up.  Each pair was given 2 strips of paper - 1 blue and 1 yellow - and they were to fold each of them like an accordian.  Then we drew little snake heads on one of the ends of each color.  We also cut it to look like the shape of a snake's head. 
 Then each snake was taped to the end of a ruler. 


 Isabella ended up being alone when her partner, Cameron, had to depart!
 Each pair was given a cup of water.  First, they dipped the snake's head about 1/2 centimeter into the water.  Then they took the blue snake (which was dry) and held it as close to the water as possible without getting it wet.  What happened?  Nothing!!!
 Next, they took the yellow snake, which had previously been dipped 1/2 centimeter into the water.  But this time, as the yellow snake got close to the water....
what happened?????
 "Mrs. Johnston!  Nothing is happenening!"


 I then demonstrated what they had all done so they could see... my blue snake did ... NOTHING!  (It wasn't suppose to!)  But as my yellow snake got close to the water...

"WOW!"

 Once Room 5 saw what happened...they were A-M-A-Z-E-D...

What had they just witnessed?   Hydrogen bonding...they had just witnessed the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of the water molecules attracting each other... bonding! 
What they saw...was the yellow snake, which was a bit wet, was pulled..or yanked...down into the water when it got really close to the water!

Hands were going up all over room 5... "Mrs. J!!! I KNOW what happened!" they all said...

They proceeded to explain to me how the hydrogen and oxygen atoms were attacted to each other.  "It's like a magnet!" was a typical comment...

Oh boy!  Another science experiment is coming next week!

Tuesday, November 06, 2012