Twelve Days of Ugly Teacher Sweaters and a Moldy Potato Experiment

T-minus 2 days before students, and myself, partake in some well deserved laziness.  When I say myself, I am of course delusional, because, well, I have a two-year old. As we near the week's end, I can't help but look back over the last couple of weeks and shutter to think of all the ugly Christmas sweaters, vests, and shirts that have been worn in our school and throughout the United States.  I am looking forward to tucking them away for the season and putting on my trusted hoodie and sweats for the next couple weeks.  Until that time comes, I will bravely wear my sequined, glitter, and bejeweled quilted snowman sweatshirt that I found in the old lady experienced lady section of the store and work diligently to continue to try to inspire educational passion in the hearts of my students.  Here are some things of greatness that the students have been working on. (Despite the constant onslaught of sugar, my class has rocked this week and truly have been successful learners!).

 In this last week of school, before Christmas break, yes, I said Christmas, we have been cranking out some great thoughts, ideas, and INFERENCES.

I borrowed this first idea from Life in 4B.  For a week, the class tracked and graphed their hours of sleep.  Each child then responded to the data and came up with some great inferences! I was surprised with how many kiddos slept 5 hours or less on a regular basis.  Go to bed!!  Here are a few pictures, more to come tomorrow that had some great inferences and connections between attitude, grades, work, and sleep.

Our class mean 

After the students inferred that we should all take after-lunch naps, we moved on to the Potato Experiment.  (If  you've never seen it, be prepared to be amazed.)  Quick summary; 4 potatoes, dirty hands, clean hands, flu season..ewww!!We are on day one of the experiment, but as a dutiful teacher, I will post every couple days, even over break, to share pictures of the potatoes. ( Sorry some are sideways, but it is 10:49 pm and bed is calling my name...loudly.)

Again the students used sticky notes to record observations. Changes are occuring and it has only been hours. 

Students used sticky notes to record their thoughts.  Not bad for first try! We will be working on adding exact measures next time.