Why Do We Need Fractions?

Why do we need fractions? Leave a comment after watching the video.

Building Bridges

A couple students caught me playing X Construct on my phone during lunch today and wanted to play themselves. I told them I would find a PC equivalent so they could try it out on their own. Here is one I found called Bridge Building Game. The purpose of the game is to construct a bridge that will allow the lemming like pink dinosaurs to cross safely across a chasm.

 Here are links to similar games:

Cargo Bridge
Bridgecraft

Which Movie Would You Prefer to Watch?

Free Rice

 FreeRice.com is a quiz site and a way to help the World Food Programme end hunger. For every answer you get right, ten grains of rice will be donated. While this may not seem like a lot of rice, it adds up. An added feature is that you can now pick from several different categories of questions.

Isle of Tune

It is about time I find an interesting music game/sim. Isle of Tune allows you to create music by creating roads, lining them with musical items, and then sending cars down the street. It is hard to explain, but it is very cool watch/listen.

Create a Drawing in Paint

Marissa's Picture

Today you will be creating a picture for your creative writing story using Paint. While paint can be hard to use, the possibility to do something very interesting is there.Don't believe me, look at Marissa's picture above. When you are finished, save it to the computer pictures folder on the student shared drive.

Poptropica

"Poptropica is a massively multiplayer online game and virtual world, targeted at children ages 6 to 15, where players can travel, play games, compete in head-to-head competition, and communicate safely with each other. There is a role-playing component as players are encouraged to finish "island missions" and get medallions."
Wikipedia.com

There is a lot of critical thinking involved in this game. Can you complete a world in one day? Can you collaborate with others to figure out the answers?

Make My Disney Trip Magical!

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/magic-kingdom/

As you know, I am taking a trip to Walt Disney World after school is out this May. I thought it might be fun to "outsource" some of the work to you.

You will need to partner up with someone in the classroom. You will draw for the specific "jobs" from these:

• Transportation and Lodging- How will we get there and back? How much will it cost? Will we fly, drive, or do a combination of the two? Will we rent a car or take Magical Express or both? Where will we stay while at WDW? Will we need to stay at hotels on the way there or back? How much will it cost for all of us? 

• Restaurants- Where will we eat at WDW? What park restaurants are the best and which should we avoid? Should we eat at any of the restaurants at the Disney World hotels? What should we do about food on the way there and back?

• Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios- What rides should we ride? Which rides should we avoid riding (keep in mind who will be on the trip!)? How many days should we spend here? What order should we ride the rides (touring plans)? Don't forget tickets, which should we buy and how much will they be?

 Here is some information you must have to accomplish this activity:

1. There are ten of us traveling together; 4 senior citizens, 4 adults, one 10 year old, one 6 year old (who will turn 7 while we are there.)
2. Two of the seniors will need to have wheelchairs. One will take the wheelchair with them, one will rent them at the parks.
3. We can leave any day after May 18, but must be back by the 29. We are only planning on being gone 7 days (but 8 might be alright too ;)
4. My wife and I will be celebrating our anniversary and Quinci will be celebrating her birthday. Is there something "special" that we can do while we are there? Should we have a special dinner to celebrate?
5. Downtown Disney is a place we love to go to shop and spend some time. When should we fit it into the schedule? Where should we eat while we are there? What stores should we visit?
6. We don't go to the water parks so you don't have to worry about them.
7. We want to have on "sit down" meal a day. That means in a restaurant. The other two meals we will have as "counter service". This means getting food from places like the food court at the mall. All the Disney hotels have food courts, if you decide we need to stay off property you need to figure out how/where we will eat.
8. Lunches are much cheaper than dinners at sit down restaurants.
9. We need to keep this trip as inexpensive as possible, the budget is tight and we need to watch the $$!
10. We love souvenirs, but usually only spend about $60 per person. Any recommendations? 
11. Not all attractions/rides will be open while we are there. Don't put those rides on the touring plan.

I have a lot of resources for you to peruse to help you get the job done. Below are some of my favorites. I would suggest you use them to help you accomplish your part of the task.

•  WDW Today podcasts are excellent resources that can be used. Here is a link to the podcast archives. Here is a link to their wiki. I would suggest you look for podcasts that talk about what information you are looking for. I have listened to all of these podcasts (over 1000 of them!) and they are great, but you don't have that kind of time. 

• TouringPlans.com Is a great place to find out information about when to visit specific parks and what order you should go on the rides. I have a paid account with them and you can use my log-in to get the personal touring plans made for me.

• The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is my favorite resource for WDW. I have several copies including on the Kindle so make sure and borrow them from me.
• AllEars.net is a great site with lots of restaurant reviews. Make sure to check them out if you are doing the food task.
• Mouse Planet is another really good resource for WDW information.
• MouseSavers is a great place to find out about discounts and important information like ride closings.

7th Grade Kicks

Did you know you can design your own Converse shoes? Not only that, you can also buy them after you make them just the way you like them! Go to the Create Your Own Custom Converse site and make the best pair of kicks you can. After you have finished, capture the picture by pushing the shift and Prt Scr (print screen) buttons. Then go into Paint and paste the image. Save it as a .jpg and print it out. Can you make the best looking kicks in junior high?

Math Games: Review Your Math Thinking Skills

Today we are going to be doing some math work. First we will start with logic puzzles from the Puzzle Baron Presents Logic Puzzles site.

 Next we have Math Playground. There are a lot of good math skills you can check out.

Death by PowerPoint

Today we will be looking at the pitfalls of presentation software. We will be looking at strategies to make good presentations. 

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from Alexei Kapterev. (tags: tips powerpoint)

Interactive Seasons Simulation

Here is a good simulation for seasons. Try to follow along without putting in the equator line. Can you identify the seasons of the northern hemisphere? Can you identify the seasons of the southern hemisphere? If it was Spring in Japan, what season is it in Missouri? in New Zealand? in Paris, France?

Somebody Else's School

I thought you might like to see how some of my friends spent Saturday. Make sure to work hard on your typing, I am looking at your scores :)

Dynamic Periodic Table

 

 The Dynamic Periodic Table site has an amazing, interactive table that can give you a lot of information about elements. If you click on an element it gives you the Wikipedia article about that element. If you move the slider on the top right of the table you can see how the elements change state due to temperature. You can isolate the groups of metals, nonmetals, metalloids as well as the halogen and noble gasses.

One slightly hidden gem is the tabs at the top. Click on the orbital tab and it will show you the number of electrons found in each elements shells. Very, very cool!

Creating Electric Circuits

Welcome To My Classroom

Even though we have already spent a semester together in science, this is the first day you will be with me in my very own classroom!

You may want to take some time to look over the class blog and see all of the things I have had my students doing over the past five years. If you look along the left side you will see each of the years. You can actually go back and look at any of the posts from each year.

Take a few minutes to read my "About Me" page. I wonder if you will be surprised by anything you read there.

You should also familiarize yourself with my teaching manifesto. 

Finally, the class rules are as follows:

1. We are here to learn.
2. Don't do anything that keeps us from learning!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them as a comment to the post (or you can even ask me face to face! :)