Thursday, September 8, 2022

Paint Mystery

One funny thing from the day... a 5th grader put on his gym shoes and exclaimed in shock and horror, "Someone dripped something white in my shoes!" The whole class broke into an uproar. What? How is that possible? 

Class comments:
"Is it whiteout?"
"No, too big. Maybe it's paint."
Sarcastic classmate, "Oh yeah, someone stood over his shoe and purposefully put paint in it."
"Why would there even be paint anywhere?"
"I saw a paintbrush with white paint on it in the fridge! That means someone was painting!"
"Maybe it dripped down from the ceiling."
"Where did you have your shoes? On the shelf? On the floor?"
"We should probably check it out if it's dripping from somewhere."

Everyone stared at me, waiting. Of course we had to solve the mystery! No way would they settle down for class until we did. So out we went to the coatroom to investigate.  

Some kids examined the student's hook area, searching for paint. Others tried to climb in the loft to see if paint was up there. I asked the student to show me his shoe so I could inspect the paint splatter. Hmm... it seemed awful flat. Wait a second... 

"Could I see your other shoe? It might be the brand name printed on."

He took off his other shoe (which wasn't so worn inside) and low and behold the marks matched. Mystery solved! Now, on to science!

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