October happenings 2010

On October 19th Faith had crazy hair day at school. This picture hardly does it justice because in real life it was even more bizzare, sparkly and had crazy curls you could see from the back. She said that the kids in her class dubbed her hair the craziest!

It must be "fire prevention month" or something, because here are the kids with yet another fire truck. This one was at Faith's school and the kids even got to try on a helmet!

Buddy took this pic of me at the dentist on the 21st when I had a temporary crown removed and the real one installed. He thought it was really creepy that I was missing a tooth for a few minutes.

That afternoon I was going to take Christian to Black Island Farms to meet up with Joy and her girls for Sierra's preschool field trip there. Unfortunately, Lily was sick and I instead picked up Sierra to take her with us. I'm glad I got some pictures of the harvest festival, because I didn't go with both my kids this year (Tammy took them on the night of her sleepover). As usual, the slides rocked!

fun in the corn box

the train

making some music

little hay maze

We got to go on a hayride into the fields where Sierra got to pick a pumpkin. Christian seems happy with the broom corn and carrot he was given on the ride when a farm hand was explaining what they grow there.

feeding the animals

cool horsey tire swing

ropin'

After all the fun, we dropped Sierra off at home and did a little shopping at WalMart. Christian and I went all out on lunch and split a McDouble, small fry and cup of water.

Christian loves using my craft supplies in his 3D art. this paper/felt/pompom masterpiece is of "ghost Mickey." I think the incorporeal Mr. Mouse is giving it a thumbs up!

I've been doing a lesson/craft/game type thing once a month in Faith's classroom which they call "Fun Friday." A different parent does it each week and one chose "favorite authors" as a theme and another "math games." I'm not sure on the other theme, but I just chose "science" so that I could choose all kinds of topics. In September I taught about the water cycle and had a reader's theater, an experiment where we made clouds that rained in a vase (kind of like this), showed water vapor with an ultrasonic humidifyer, and played a game. It was basically "duck, duck, goose" but I had the person who was "it" say instead "evaporation, evaporation" and squirt the intended person with a spray bottle of water when they said "condensation." It was really fun! For October I decided to do a whole lesson of spooky science experiments. Faith took photos while I taught and Christian looked on.

I started with making a witch's brew by putting a block of dry ice in some water in my cauldron. I let the kids feel the water vapor created as the dry ice sublimated into gaseous carbon dioxide.

Next, I made a string scream by putting it through a disposable plastic cup and then running a wet piece of sponge down it.

Then the kids' favorite--making a jack-o-lantern barf with yeast and hydrogen peroxide making foam out of dish soap.

I made a tissue paper ghost dance with the help of a balloon and static electricity.

I taught about the unusual viscosity of a cornstarch/water mixture "ooze" by pouring like a liquid but then slapping it and showing how it acts like a solid when force is applied.

Lastly, this hand "came alive" with the help of some vinegar and baking soda in the cup.

My lesson was a huge hit! The teacher later remarked that she wished she would have filmed it to show to her class each year. I was just glad that everything worked, since I was doing some experiments for the first time, myself! I compiled all the ideas I found into this document to help me teach the kids, if you would like to be awesome like me, feel free to download and try them yourself ;)