Show and Tell Tuesday

I am so excited to show you what I've been making for my students for their first day. Don't tell them because I really want it to be a surprise! We'll use them to act out the song "One Elephant Went Out to Play..." They'll be amazed as I keep pulling elephants out of my picnic basket. At the end we'll have a whole herd. Of course these elephants won't sound like a herd of elephants because they are soft and cuddly. They are perfect to sit on a child's bed and remind them to read. Come back tomorrow for your chance to win a mamma and baby! You can get your own instructions and free pattern HERE...I love this website!

Thanks for such a fun linky, Barbara! Your sunflower and quote make me smile. (If you'd like to see Barbara's sunflower and quote click HERE. You really do want to see it!!)

Show and Tell

I'm linking up with Barbara to do a little Show & Tell! You can share just about anything you think is worth sharing. You can read more about the linky and find some other Show & Tells by clicking on the image above...The one that says "Tuesday Linky" Thanks, Barbara...What a great idea!

My love for chickens may have started when I read the book Chicken Boy by Frances O'Roark Dowell early in the year. It may be the best YA title I read with my 7th and 8th grade reading students. I love the kindness that a boy with an obsession for chickens shows a kid with not much going for him after his mother dies leaving his family emotionally shipwrecked. His Granny tries, but she is quiet a character and doesn't get along with her son-in-law.  Whoops! Sorry....I didn't mean to go on quite so much about the book! Back to chickens...
I took these pictures to share with you today. My ladies are getting pretty close to laying their first eggs. They never go to far away from each other and like to follow me around the yard. Sometimes they'll hop up on the windowsill to look for me. If I sit down outside, they hop up on my lap and try to settle down.

Like Tobin, I have learned some things about life from my chickens. It is okay to be curious, it is fun to play in the dirt, eat whatever is offered, and most importantly...find a friend and stick with them!

Show and Tell

My students love Show and Tell. They give one clue and three students can guess what it is. Then they give another clue and three more students can guess. They can give one more clue before revealing what they brought. Usually we guess what is in the Show and Tell bag. Not today. I don't remember the clues, but I will always remember this show...

Yes this is a diaper. He was going to bring Legos...as usual..."Why don't you bring something different?" his mother asked. "How about a diaper," he replied. The rest is history.

What he didn't expect was my reaction..."Let's do a science experiment with the diaper," said Mrs. Reck. I called to make sure the family didn't want the diaper back. We observed, we hypothesized and we experimented to see how much water a diaper could hold. Never have I had the children's attention like I did with this experiment...Well maybe a couple of other times! 

This diaper held quite a lot of water. 10 of our measuring cups. On the eleventh dump of water when I turned it upside down it had reached saturation. What can you learn with a diaper? Quite a lot! Absorption, and saturation. Observation and predicting. 

Tomorrow we dissect the diaper to see what is allowing absorption and what is doing the absorbing. 

I wonder what tomorrow's Show and Tell will bring...

Yesterday, I promised to show you the pictures of the owls one of my sweet owlets made as a gift for me. We use these to formulate the questions we ask the Show and Teller each day. We ask one question for each owl about what has been shown.

I bet you can't even imagine the questions that went with the diaper. We learned a lot today about different names for human waste and how to safely dispose of it!