Quiet and Loud

This day was a bit of a roller coaster. Our day started wonderfully: the Daily 5 rounds were basically totally silent. The boys (normally the hard to settle ones) read quietly the whole morning. The girls were on the chatty side though. Still, we had a very productive morning.

Then the 7-8th graders came to class. Sigh. They were in an obstinate mood spewing out unnecessary comments left and right. And then came bells. Sigh. I wish we had a room where the bell things could stay set up. I think they would behave better if we had a music room that was for the express purpose of making music. We're so cramped in my room and the ceiling is so low the sound gets all muddled. The unnecessary comments continued into bells and I got very frustrated trying to tamp down their behavior issues.

The 5-6th graders came back and they were not on their best behavior, so my frustration sloshed over onto them too. We started a lab today that involves designing and building a car to hold an egg. We've been studying force, work, energy, etc. and this lab is meant to get them to think about all those things. Their egg cars are going to roll down a 1m high incline plane and the goal is for the egg not to crack. So far the biggest issue is remembering the cars have to have wheels.

They are allowed a budget of 20 "dollars" to spend on supplies. If their materials are in good condition, they can return them to buy something else. So far almost every group has either bought more things or returned items. We'll do this for a few more science classes. Monday I'll give them a plastic egg to test out instead of a real one. Wednesday or Thursday will be our official test day! If the weather is good we can go outside. If not, I'll need to set up a tarp just in case their cars don't work as well as they think they will.

A lot of them think they can shove their egg inside a balloon, fill it full of air, and that will be protection enough. Hmm... it's good they have to do a few trials before they get their real egg.