Watery Coins Experiment

Good evening!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I am hoping to catch up on some grading that I have to get done ~ I am falling sooo behind! My blogging habit probably doesn't help that too much, but it's just way more enticing than grading.

This week, I did a little prediction experiment with my sixth graders. We are going through the Scientific Process and this was an excellent experiment about making predictions and also reviewing different variables.  The science lab was occupado, but no worries, we had a floor so we still had room to be scientists!

P.S. My students look slightly creepy with blacked out faces!

 

The students make predictions as to how many water drops can fit on each coin before hand. The materials they will need are: a vessel for water, paper towels, droppers, a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. They put drops of water on each coin, counting the drops, until it overflows. The students fill out the form as they go and then average their data at the end.  Click the picture to download the PDF.

I hope you can use this experiment in your classroom! The kids had so much fun doing this and they were all very surprised how off their predictions were. Have a great weekend!

Creepy Comments

Does anyone know how to get the creeper comments off of your blog? I mean I always appreciate some comment love, but these aren't particularly comments that I want. Just because my blog is called Loose Shoelaces doesn't mean that I have an issue with loose shoelaces and need an ad displayed on my blog to help correct them, haha!
Any help would be appreciated ~ thanks fellow bloggers!

Bulletin Boards

  It's Thursday! It's Bulletin Board day over at the TBA Open House Week!

Whooo's Filling Buckets?
Have you all ever read this book to your class?

I LOVE this book. I read it to my 6th graders and, yes, it's way too young for them, but it is the best way to teach on how to give affirmations to each other. I used Fun in Room 4B's Math Word Wall Pennants {HERE} to create the banner on the bulletin board. The idea is going to be that students will write on a bucket outline template things they have done to fill other people's buckets. Of course, it's still the beginning of school that's why the bulletin board is rather... empty.

OK well the little pennants say "Whoo's Filling Buckets?" but yeah, that isn't really showing...

Here's my next gem ~ Classroom Jobs...

My teaching partner suggested that we have the same classroom jobs so that the students can rotate through the rooms and their jobs would stay the same. The only problem is that she has a job for every student in the class. I love that everyone in the class has a responsibility, however, how to display those jobs became a little tricky. Enter dry erase sheets.

 These are life savers; you can by them {HERE}.

That combined with a lot of printer ink created this interchangeable classrom job bulletin board. (whew that was a mouthful!)

When all 28 jobs change next month all I have to do is wipe and rewrite!

Don't forget to link up with TBA's Open House Week linky party.

Parent Handouts

  It's Wednesday! Time to pass along any handouts for parents you might have for us all to enjoy! Be sure to link up with TBA's Open House Week.

My stuff is not as awesome as some things I have seen, but hopefully you can use some. Click on the image to download the file.

Supply List:

Student Information Form:

  

Movie Permission Form for the whole year:

 

Curriculum Night Power Point (Sweet Shoppe Designs for backgrounds and clip art):

This bad boy will take a while to download!

Don't forget to link up and share your back to school Parent Handouts!

Classroom Photos

  It's Tuesday! That means that it is share your classroom photos day on TBA's Open House Week.

Here are a few photos of my classroom.
Disclaimer: Sorry about the quality of the photos, they are not the best.
Double Disclaimer: I should probably learn how to use my camera.

In case you couldn't really see the Ikea lamp with my stunning photography skills here it is up close. 

It makes me happy! Although moving classrooms this year did some damage on it. Those nice little strands are no longer up straight and strong.

My classroom is always an ever evolving project as the year continues. As I add things I will take pictures. Be sure to click the link above and link up with your own classroom photos.

Meet the Teacher and Currently

 Oooo, two linkies in one post! Some reason when I scanned back over that real quick I thought I typed "twinkies" {random}.
I am linking up to TBA's Open House Week and Farley's Currently! Let's Currently first, shall we?

OK, TBA time...

Monday is Meet the Teacher day so I am going to share a little something about myself and my teaching style.

This is my sixth year teaching. I have taught 2nd, 4th, 5th, and I am currently teaching 6th grade. This year I am teaching Writing and Science. I am very lucky that I only have 3 sections of each so I teach 6 total classes. I am still trying to get a hang of writing and figure out the best way to teach it. I am a Math teacher in disguise over here. I would love to return back to 4th grade and have a self contained classroom again. It's hard to do a lot of the things I want to do with rotating classes.

I feel like my teaching style differs from day to day. I feel like I am firm, but fair in my classroom management. I do like to joke around with the kids, but also have high expectations. I love to take my students in to the Science lab for hands on experiments and activities. I always am looking for new ways to teach certain concepts or look for activities that heighten levels of engagement. That's why blog stalking makes me super happy!

Link up to TBA's Open House so you can tell us all about you and your teaching style!