Rollerskating

We roller skated in gym for the past two weeks. I took some pictures, but the kids kept moving! So, the photos may not be as clear as they could be. I have to keep working on that!

Hosting Mr. Hashiguchi

On Saturday, Mr. Hashiguchi spent the day with my family and me. I picked him up and took him on a drive through Racine by the lake. We headed to the lighthouse, and it was really a beautiful day to go see it.
Jun liked the geese and wandered over to a big flock of them by the lighthouse. He kept getting into their space, so they took off in flight. I thought Jun might enjoy an old fashioned hamburger place, so we headed to Kewpee's, but it was closed for maintenance! We ended up at Tacos El Rey. Jun said the food was oishi, delicious!After that we headed to my sister's house and set out for our afternoon adventure. First stop: the Parkside theatre. My brother-in-law builds the sets, so we thought Jun might enjoy seeing the set for the current production, THE FOREIGNER. Having seen that we headed to Jerry Smith's Pumpkin Farm.Then we headed to Hawthorne Hollow for a walk in the woods to view the beautiful color. The Halloween store was the last stop before we headed to my sister's house to grill out. It was a long day, but we had fun. I hope Jun did too!

Community Service Blanket Project

Today my class worked with parents, staff, and other family members to tie blankets that will be donated to Women and Children's Horizons of Kenosha. We worked together for the afternoon to complete 12 blankets. In the pictures you may notice that some of the children are wearing hats. We had a fund raiser, called "Hats On", to raise funds to fight Childhood Cancer. Sponsored by our Student Senate, students paid $1 or more for the priviledge of wearing a hat today. The school raised $1600 with a good portion raised by the 6th grade. They had a competition and the class that raised the least had to do the Chicken Dance for the rest of the sixth grade. What a great day! We helped by making blankets and contributing to a great cause. Now that's community service!

Physical and Chemical Changes

Our exploratory today helped us learn more about mixtures, solutions, chemical changes and physical changes. Bobby and Jon separate sand from iron filings with a magnet. This is a mixture because the items can be separated and they stay the same kind of matter when they are mixed.Tate, Cam, and Jasmine separate items into the bins. Again this is a mixture.
Our final mixture station had the students creating their own mixture of food. Haley, Brook and Mike seem to be enjoying this station!

Applesauce and pancakes!

We are studying changes in matter, and today we demonstrated those changes by doing a little cooking. First we peeled and cored apples to make some applesauce (physical change). Then we cooked the apples until they were soft. They turned brown during that stage (chemical change). Bobby is demonstrating the apple corer/peeler/slicer while Logan is breaking her apple into the slow cooker. We all washed our hands BEFORE beginning. Any change in size, shape or state of matter without changing the kind of matter is a physical change. Bobby is peeling, changing the shape, and changing the size of the apple. We also mixed pancakes (physical change), and then we put the batter on the hot griddle. Bubbles started to form. When a new matter (gas) is formed, the change is chemical. In addition, the pancakes started to look brown. Change in color will also indicate a chemical change.
Here Brooke and Trenton wait patiently for the chemical changes to be complete so she could make a physical change in the pancake by biting into it! When the pancakes get chewed up in your mouth, a chemical change occurs when your saliva starts breaking the food down into something you can digest! Science is exciting and delicious!
Yea! It's eating time.
Christine enjoys the physical and chemical changes that occurred in the applesauce!

July 31, 2008 Opening day of State Fair!

We went to the State Fair on Thursday. Since I'm the only one that doesn't eat cream puffs, I documented the moment. Don't they look like they're enjoying the food? We bought lots of stuff like my sushi maker as documented on my Japan site. I also got Wiggle cars for school, but I've been test driving them to make sure they are safe! We also took the obligatory ride on the giant slide. Debbie was kind enough to give up riding to take a few pictures.
We all took off at the same time, but Judy won the race!


Of course I also had to try the new fair food - deep fried macaroni and cheese. I liked it. I also had a cherry sundae, and sample of bison burrito meat, corn on the cob, cranberry juice and a cranberry cookie. Gotta love the fair!

Racine Zoo Walkabout Creek

The Racine Zoo has added an Australian exhibit. It has a high wooden fence around the whole exhibit to keep the animals in, but they are free to wander anywhere inside. That includes on the path where you are walking. They have four red kangaroos, a couple of walaroos, emus, and black swans.