Smashing Bananas

Success!  The bananas were totally smashed by our hot wheel cars today. 


We used boards from my parent's house (thanks Ethan for cutting them for me!) as a ramp.  They were pretty dirty, so a few students brushed them off in the morning.  My students raised the ramp little by little and released a car each time, measuring how much the bananas were smashed each time.  This was to determine the gravitational potential energy of the car.  Those bananas were toast!  They got mushed and smashed and cracked in half.


Mrs. B, the pastor's wife, came over to help out during the lab.  It was great having another pair of eyes/hands to work with my questioning students.  Everyone finished their lab (though we only had five minutes for recess).  From what I could tell, they were making all the right connections between height of the board and the speed/amount of impact!  Woohoo!


Our fire drill this morning really woke some of my students up.  They knew it was coming, but that jarring sound is enough to make you fall out of your seat!  The weather wasn't as cold as yesterday, though we still shivered as we huddled around our safe place (second base).  One of the 6th graders hung her coat on the back of her chair so she'd have easy access to it when the alarm went off; smart girl.


For English, I did another lesson on descriptive writing.  Each student got a calendar page (they had to keep it a secret from their classmates).  Their task was to describe it so everyone else would be able to match the writing with the picture.  Tomorrow we'll hang the pictures on the board and they'll work with a partner to fit the writing with the picture. 


I figured out how to add information to my class page on our school's website.  So now parents can access the memory work and spelling words for the whole year!  No more students making excuses about forgetting those things at school!  I also put up some due dates and reminders about getting permission slips back to school.  Hopefully this works to keep everyone on the same page.


Well, I told myself I was going to be out of here by 5:00 today.  It's 5:15 so I best be on my way.