Nicholas had some great ideas for projects from ScienceBuddies.com, but his teacher shot them all down. Bummer. I think the site is wonderful. Plug in your interests and the site spits out loads of ideas for all grade levels. I think M&M Math (not an experiment... a statistical analysis), driving video game distractions (no human guinea pigs allowed), or even building boats to see how metal floats would all have been fascinating. She said no to all his ideas, and suggested he do the popcorn experiment. Pop several brands/types of popcorn and see which pops the highest percentage of kernels. Boring. He did it though, and his board looked awesome. Next year Jonathon will do a Science Fair project so he's already gathering ideas from the ones that won this year. He wants to do the Mentos in soda, but I don't think I have that sort of clean-up in me.
Spring also equals field trips.
On Tuesday (3/22), I accompanied Rebecca's class to the Marine Corps Museum. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny day and the kids were generally well behaved. There is a decent mess hall, and the exhibits are nifty. The boys would really enjoy it.
Several groups rotated through the schedule together and our final stop through the WWII rooms included a worksheet. Easy stuff, all the answers were on the walls and each chaperone had an answer key. Oddly, only Rebecca and one friend stuck with me to go through the exhibit. Several girls skimmed over the questions, a couple didn't fill in the sheet and one didn't even have a sheet with her. Unfortunately for them, at the end of the trip the teachers collected them for a grade....
On Wednesday (3/23), the weather turned dark and cold but thankfully no rain. The 5th graders had a very long day in the District and by the end of it were exhausted. We started in the Natural History museum. My group of boys wanted to see the fossils, the gems and the bugs. Everyone always wants to see the bugs.
We had lunch then saw the Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk 3D IMAX film. As usual I closed my eyes for several parts. I don't like 3D nor do I care for the in-your-face aspect of IMAX. Yes, I get nauseous. Call me a wimp.
Inside was fine, outside not so much. We walked to the Washington Monument:
Up to the WWII Memorial:
To the Korean War Memorial:
To the Lincoln Memorial... the Vietnam Veteran Memorial.... and back to the American History Museum.... before getting the bus in front of the Natural History Museum. At each stop the kids had a workbook to fill in. They just wanted to go home. So did I.
A very very long day.
Tomorrow (3/30) I head south to Richmond with Jonathon's class, to the Virginia Historical Society. Of course this has Katherine raising her eyebrows asking when I'll go on her field trip, except that she doesn't have any. She brought up Marching Band and how I can be a "band mom" and go to every game and every competition. That seems a bit more demanding than a once a year field trip, no?
No comments:
Post a Comment