Magic for Muggles and the Fourth of July parade

Hermione with Sirius Black

Petrify!

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy

Li'tle Tiny 'Arry Po'er

Under the invisibility cloak.

Little League

Little League float.

ScienceWorks Magic for Muggles.

A Good Long Full Day

We just finished up Day 2 at ScienceWorks' Read It! Write It! Draw It! Do It! camp.

June 27 – July 1 (1 – 4 pm), ages 7 – 10
Read it!  Write it!  Draw it!  Do it!
Anjie Reynolds
The tale is in the details. We’ll use alliteration, rhyme, and stark lines to create word-image poems like Shel Silverstein; we’ll blast dry ice like Doyle and Fossey, Science Detectives; and we’ll assemble homemade batteries that could light up a dragon’s lair (or at least a squirrel’s nest!). The world of literature will inspire our art, math and science endeavors as we read it, write it, draw it, and do it!

My students (ages 7-10) are amazing in that they're totally engaged, super good listeners, curious story buffs, and creative artists and scientists. I seriously couldn't ask for a better crowd.

Today we read Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit, wrote our own Runny-Babbit-style story, and made our own Dry Ice Blasters based on a Doyle and Fossey Science Detective Mystery, learning about carbon dioxide and the process of sublimation (solid straight to gas). Along the way, we drew, sculpted, and played in the museum.

Before class, Dane and Aubrey went to our friends' Jim and Linda's to take part in a little 3-family summer camp session. (Jim and Linda, my friend Lisa, and I have arranged nine separate sessions divided evenly between our families for extended learning for our kids throughout the summer.)

Today Linda, a high-risk pregnancy obstetrician, taught the kids from 9-noon. First, she taught them about the digestive system. They had some homework to do beforehand, regarding a cup of corn, some asparagus, and drinking lots of water. (I'll let you do the deducing there.) She also had them bring a stuffed animal with a hole in it and taught them to do sutures -- yes, with the actual tools, and by their actual names! Needless to say, it was pretty sweet. Their kids Eli (going into 3rd, like Aubrey) and Sam (going into 2nd) were there, while their oldest daughter Alex had to miss out because she got into a cool 3-week summer camp in Chicago at a university. (Alex is in Dane's grade, going into 5th.)

After ScienceWorks camp today, we got a drop-in visit from my friend Colette. She swung by the camp to give Dane an All-Star cap her husband Drew had made for him. Drew was the All-Star coach this year, which Dane was selected for but couldn't join due to wakeboarding camp. Dane practiced with the team, though, for a full week before wakeboarding camp just because... well, because he loves baseball. Ike, Drew and Colette's son, gave the cap to Dane, saying in his husky little voice with total sincerity, "Even though you couldn't be on the team, we wanted to thank you for coming out to practice with us, and we wished you were at our games."

On our way home, Dane adjusted his new ball cap and said today was an amazing day. He also said it was one of those days that lasted a long time, but was the best kind of day because it lasted a long time and it was awesome every step of the way.

Nose to the Grindstone

Sixty-one down, five to go. In about an hour I'll be finished with round one of essay-grading, which has taken me about, yikes, ten hours.  (?)

Tomorrow and Wednesday I teach at RCC, and on Friday I teach my new course, "Spook-tober Science," 8-4 at ScienceWorks. I'll have about twenty students. (I'll do another, lighter, post later on how much fun we'll have.)

I'm slightly overwhelmed by the workload I've added to housecleaning, yardwork, and childrearing, but I'm teachng 9 credits this quarter so our family can take an amazing trip this Christmas.

After the trip, I'll just teach 3-6 credits every quarter and hold things together a little more smoothly at home.

I'm going to add a separate post after this (see above) to share a little joy.

Look What Dane's Group Made on Day 2 of his ScienceWorks "Animate It" Camp

Sunshine and Science

Liauids, Solids, and Other Messy Materials is going well at ScienceWorks this week. Dane and Aubrey are attending camp with 18 other 7-10 year-olds, doing projects like "Frankenstein's Hand," "Turning Milk Into Stone," and "Watercolor Holding the Brush in Your Mouth," and having loads of messy fun.

They're having a blast, but that didn't stop Dane from skipping Wednesday's class to go with my friend Jennie and her kids for a swim. (You can do that when your mom's the instructor and camp is free!) Dane swam his heart out and caught frogs from a pond with Dominic and Rees. Jennie says there was some serious boy joy there.

The day before, Dane and Aubrey had gone home from camp with their friends Ruby and Chad for a couple hours of swimming. And tonight, Aubrey's pal Sienna is spending the night: so far the girls and Dane have made fortresses for stuffed animals and cross dressed.

Who could ask for anything more from summer?

MORE SCIENCEWORKS SPRING CAMP
WORLD RECORD HIGHLIGHTS

Here's Aubrey standing next to the world's tallest living man, Sultan Kosen, and the (formerly, recently, RIP) world's shortest man, He Pingping. For the project, the kids all sat in a circle, measured out the tall height and the short height onto separate pieces of butcher paper, and took turns drawing the body parts. They couldn't believe the contrast in heights between these two people -- and how they (the students) stood in comparison.

They also measured their waists in comparison to the world's smallest waist, a mere 15", a record held by Cathy Jung, who's been wearing corsets for 20 years and can't stand up now without one because her organs are all squished above and below her waist and her muscles there are shot! Find a coffee can -- we're talking smaller around than that. The kids' waists all measured in at around 22-30", if I remember correctly.

Here's all the butterfly art. The Queen Alexandra butterfly has an 11" wingspan, so it was easy to tell the kids to make their wing spans reach to the edges of standard paper laid out in landscape. They had the option to design their own colorful wings; I think Aubrey's the only one who chose to try to imitate it exactly. See if you can find it! (Click for larger image, of course.)


And here's one of the creepy clay creations. Dane opted to measure and replicate the world's longest tongue, which is nearly 4"!

Other clay projects were bulging eyeballs stuck up against their own eye sockets, long ropes of fingernails attached to the hand, and 7 inches of clay stretched from the ear to demonstrate the world's longest ear hair. (Grody!)

I would teach this camp topic again in a heartbeat. The subject is SO ripe for curiosity, wonder, and the opportunity for students to situate themselves in a larger context.

OOPS - SURPRISE!

How did I fail to anticipate a student would get queasy on Bizarre Human Feat Day?

It started with the hairiest family, got worse with the 12mm bulging eyeballs, and sealed the deal with the woman with the most piercings - specifically, the photo where she put her finger through her tongue hole! Poor little chap... he just said, "Um, I'm not gonna look anymore" and put his head in his hands.

In case you're concerned, he recovered. And I'm thinking there was no permanent damage.

Tomorrow is Dream and Scheme Day.

There will be foam tubing and duct tape to make humongous looping marble chutes, and newspapers and tape to make humongous twisting marble chutes; there'll be a huge box of dominoes to make a giant design to topple; there will be Dane's record-high number of Legos to build with; and an abundance of yarn for cat's cradle.

So many kids were fully engaged in learning cat's cradle today! It blew my mind. The World Record is 21,200 cat's cradles made by 3 women in 21 hours. Six kids who'd never picked up a loop of yarn learned today. It was really exciting to see how fully engaged they were, and how many "attempts" they were willing to make. "Attempt" is an awesome word at World Record Camp. It was also exciting to see children teaching each other. It even kept some of the more wound up kids mellower.

Dream and Scheme Day will include lots of kids trying to do their favorite activites, World Record Style; it will also include them brainstorming with me, so we can give ScienceWorks a list of records we think ScienceWorks should host to try to break a world record!

That's all for now. I'm actually feeling some sickness coming on -- I wish I could say it was just because the finger through the tongue grossed me out, but I happen to like that kind of stuff. It's more like a sore throat and earache. Just gotta make it through tomorrow...

THIS WEEK'S TOTALLY TUCKERING ME OUT...

But it's fun.

Field Day was perfect - for energetic boys, and as a break from a jam-packed museum on Spring Break. Tag was great, as were hula hoop, jump rope and head stand record attempts. Wore the kids out a little. They LOVED the Mentos and Soda group fountain record experiment. (Of course, anything with sugar or caffeine makes camp about the awesomest experience ever.)

Tomorrow is Bizarre Human Feat Day. It's been fun to define FEAT vs. FEET for them.

We'll cover stuff like the World's Most Tattooed Body, World's Hairiest Family, Furthest Popping Eyeballs, Longest Ear Hair, and, yes, possibly, Loudest Burp. (If I dare. Parents might boycott my classes after this, so I have to figure out if I'm prepared to go down in the name of Science!)

With scientific explanations for all of them, of course, if there's one to be had.

For one of our projects, I think I'll have students make clay representations of this:


Or this:

Should be spectacular.

THIS'LL BE QUICK SINCE A KID IS SICK

Taught at ScienceWorks again today, but had to go without one of my kids. That's right, Dane is sick. Turns out he's got Strep Throat.

Mick took him to the doctor on his lunch break, we both kept tabs on him via the phone, and he watched movies with Sharkles the Dog for a few hours. Not your ideal setup, but thank goodness I'm just a part-time worker and generally a full-time mom.

Tomorrow's camp lesson plan got switched to World Record Field Day instead of Bizarre Human Feats, because the weather's supposed to turn on Thursday (of course!) -- so we'll be trying to break records for hula hooping, jump roping, playing tag (no, I haven't found a record on that one yet, but with 13 boys in the class, I'm aiming to set one) and the Mentos and Diet Coke soda fountain.

I'm tired - and I've gotta squeeze in a midnight antibiotic dosage -- so good night. But, bless his heart, Mick's making the run to Albertson's as I type this to pick up my fountain supplies. I love that guy.

Gearing Up For Day 2!

Today was great. LOTS of energy in that lab with 14 boys and 3 girls. Fortunately, they were all happy to spend their free time with Twister, Jenga blocks, stacking cards, Guinness picture books, and dissembling and assembling the organs of the human body -- and reading or learning World Record facts pertaining to each of those.

Lab lessons today included measuring everybody's waist and then seeing how they each compared to the woman with the smallest waist (15"!) and the world's fattest twin's waist (84"!). Of course, there was lots of fun and interesting talk as to how they got that way (corsets for the first, and a messed up pituitary gland after German measles at age 4 for the second).

The kids learned a lot about the pituitary gland today -- especially because the world's tallest people were/are so tall because of an out of control gland, or a tumor on it. We did a really cool project on those tall folks, too, drawing the world's tallest man on butcher paper and hanging him up to stand next to. He also has the world's largest hands and feet, so we measured those out too.

He Pingping's not the shortest man because of his pituitary gland, but because of primordial dwarfism, and we drew him on butcher paper as well - to stand next to the tallest man.

Tomorrow is Amazing Animal Day, which will start with charades and amazing animal facts. It'll move then into watercoloring the world's largest butterfly, which has an 11" wing span and is poisonous to predators. Kids'll be able to choose whether they want to paint the largest male or female butterfly (different colors, of course) or moth.

I'm still choosing my afternoon activity, but it should be fun. Natch.

The next day gets even juicier with Bizarre Human Feats. Kids'll learn a lot of wonderful and useless information -- and you'd better believe I'm going to let them see how much work and skill it would take to be the record-holder of the world's loudest burp!

WORLD RECORD WEEK

Camp starts this week! Following is the note I'll send home with parents the first day; above is a photo of He Pingping, the World's Shortest Man, holding the hand of the World's Tallest Man. He Pingping died last weekend at age 21. RIP, Pingping.

* * *

WORLD RECORD WEEK
Welcome to Spring Break Camp!

This week at ScienceWorks we'll focus on measurable extremes in the world: shortest/tallest, fastest/slowest, most/least, biggest/smallest... From the natural (world's largest mammal) to the cultivated (world's longest fingernails) to the man-made (world's smallest bicycle) -- and all sorts of categories in between -- we'll be curious about and amazed by World Records.

Daily Themes:
Monday - How High? How Heavy?
Tuesday - Amazing Animal Records
Wednesday - Bizarre Human Feats
Thursday - World Record Field Day (Dress for any weather!)
Friday - Dream and Scheme

At home, www.guinnessworldrecords.com might be fun to check out with your kid. And, if you've ever been part of a world record -- or if you've had a memorable experience to share about a record-holder -- tell your kid so they can share the news with the class!

One last note: Your child will learn at camp that any world record making or breaking she or he might come up with will need to be cleared with you first!

Looking forward to this,
Anjie

* * *

If you've read this far, dear Reader, do YOU have a favorite world record???

Check out the ScienceWorks
banner ad for my spring camp.

Who's comin?!

My friend Nate thinks "most ciggies in the mouth" should be in the curriculum at ScienceWorks World Record Week. Good thing they didn't hire him to teach the K-3 "hands-on" course.

ScienceWorks Spring Break Camp

Spring Break at ScienceWorks

ScienceWorks Spring Break Science Camp: World Record Week

March 22 – 26, 2010
Grades K – 3
8:30 am – 2 pm, with aftercare available until 4:30

Behind every world record there is a scientific explanation! Come

explore the strange, bizarre and funny records of the world…Who

is the world’s tallest person, and how did they get so tall? Who is

the world’s hairiest family, and how did they get so hairy? What

makes the world’s longest fingernails grow curly instead of straight?

We’ll even try to recreate some zany records on a smaller scale,

like what happens when 1,911 students each combine Mentos and

soda at exactly the same moment! At World Record Week, we’ll

inquire, experiment, analyze and dream about some of the world’s

most amazing records!

Camp includes hands-on projects and experiments, time on exhibits, healthy snacks, games and art/craft activities. Bring a lunch and water bottle daily and get ready for some science fun!

Space is limited so sign up now!

Registration

Click here to register and pay for camp on-line with a credit card. If you would like to pay with cash or check, please print out the registration form below and mail in or drop off with your payment.

Camp Fees
ScienceWorks Member Rate
M-F 8:30 – 2:00 $175
M-F 8:30 – 4:30 $225

Non-Member Rate
M-F 8:30 – 2:00 $200
M-F 8:30 – 4:30 $250

Instructor Bio

Camp is being taught by Anjie Reynolds. Anjie taught Kinder Camps at ScienceWorks 2009 and has been teaching students of all ages for over 15 years. Whether guiding tours in Alaska, instructing writing and critical thinking to university students in Washington, or fostering the development and education of pre-schoolers in California, she is inspired by the curiosity and wonder that lead to learning. She holds a Masters degree in Literature from Western Washington University, and combines science and the arts in a nurturing and exciting classroom environment.

WHICH WORLD RECORD ARE YOU MOST FASCINATED BY?