Any Ideas for Co-op Open House?

I will be teaching at our co-op for the first time next year. I'll be teaching RS4K Chemistry Level 1 to 4th through 7th graders. I'll also be using some of their KOGS.

So, here's my question. We'll be having an Open House next week and each teacher will have a table. Most of the teachers have taught before and are bringing sample of what they've done, photos, even boards with all of the information on them. Well, since I've never taught this class before, I'm struggling with what to put on my table &/or board! So, far I don't even have all of the books!

My plans at this point are:

• a copy of the text book - borrowed
• I printed the 1st chapters of the KOGS I'm using (free off internet) and will put them in folders with a see-through cover
• brochures describing my 2 classes (chemistry and KOGS) and my background - for those of you who don't know, I was a public school middle school science teacher and I have 3 semesters of college chemistry
• a cool copy of the periodic table I have by Theodore Gray, though it might be too large
• I might see if I can borrow some chemical models

I've thought about displaying some science equipment, though I'd have to buy or borrow some. Or even doing a few experiments this weekend and taking photos - though they wouldn't be from the book. We'll have several Open Houses, so I would probably make a board (like a science fair board) if I came up with enough "stuff" to put on it.

Thanks for any ideas! - Dana

Japanese Tea Garden (Day 5 SF trip)

The last place we went in Golden Gate Park was the Japanese Tea Garden. It was a beautiful garden and we enjoyed walking around the peaceful setting. For this post, I'll mainly share photos...

(the azaleas were in full bloom)

(my first cherry blossoms! also in full bloom)

(a zen garden)

Western Scrub-Jay (thanks to a couple of comments for the identification!)

(Alex loved climbing this bridge)

(it was harder to climb up than it looks!)

(I LOVED this iris!)

 (I believe this is a tulip tree)

Supreme Court Learning... with Games! (great site)

One of our relatives is a law professor at KU. Today, she got to meet with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. I thought it was a great time to talk about Justice O'Connor and the Supreme Court. So, we started the day by watching two BrainPop videos - Branches of Government and Supreme Court.

(free clipart)

After the videos, I read a short article from Ben's Guide about the Supreme Court and an article about Justice O'Connor's visit to KU.

 

(free clipart)

Then, we started the really fun part. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has a great site for Middle School kids called Our Courts. On the site, you can play games and, so far, we've played two of them. The first is called Supreme Decision.  In it, you are a clerk to one of the justices and you are supposed to gather information to help the justice decide which way to vote. The case is about a middle schooler who was told by the principal that he couldn't wear a t-shirt which showed a photo and the name of a band. You need to decide if this falls within the students "freedom of speech" right.

The second game we played is called Do I Have a Right? In this game, you open up a law firm and hire lawyers that are experts in different ammendment rights. As the clients walk in, you are to match the client to the appropriate lawyer. This game is a LOT of fun and can be played over and over. You can: hire new lawyers, upgrade their desks to make them more effiicient, add objects to the waiting room to keep your clients from leaving quickly, and run adds to increase your client traffic. Alex and I both played this and, not only did we have a lot of fun, we learned more about which ammendment stands for which right!

 

(Alex at Brown v. Board of Education museum, Sept 2008)

Although I had other plans for the week, I think we'll continue working with this website tomorrow. Although I did all of the "teacher's lessons" with the Supreme Decision game, I didn't for Do I Have a Right? So, I want to go back and cover that and also look at the final game entitled Argument Wars. This game will help you learn more about specific cases like Brown  v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizona.

California Academy of Sciences (SF Day 5)

After visiting the Conservatory of Flowers, we walked to the California Academy of Sciences which is also in Golden Gate Park. We have been to a lot of museums and we almost didn't go to this one because it was pretty expensive. But, we were glad that we went.

The museum was divided into several main areas. Besides the planetearium (which we didn't visit) and the aquarium (which we really enjoyed), there was a large exhibit about the Galapagos Islands. Although it was heavily evolutionary, I discussed the exhibit with Alex from a Creationist viewpoint. I loved that it didn't just have displays about the turtles and finches, it also had a lot about the different insects on the islands.

We were getting tired, so we sat down to have a snack. (A great tip if you are traveling!) I was suprised to see these bins in their cafe. They say "recycle", "compost", and "landfill" and they have drawings of what can go in each bin. Alex enjoyed searching for where each item went and we were surprised by some of them.

Next we went to the four store rain forest exhibit. It has a winding ramp that you walk up on the outside of the glass room.

They had lots of tropical plants, like this canivorous pitcher plant.

And, these epiphytes. From a sign at the exhibit: A canopy is crowded with plants needing access to the sunlight. With space at a premium, many plants grown on other plants. They collect water and nutrients from the air or the tangled plant mat on tree branches. Plants that anchor to other plants are epiphytes, and inlcude airplants and orchids.

There were a lot of birds flying around the rainforest exhibit.

And butterflies!

Our last stop at the Academy was The Living Roof. The entire Academy building was built to be incredibly eco-friendly. In fact, the insulation is recycled denim! And, their rooftop is "alive." It has 7 hills that are covered with wildflowers... and solar panels. A neat exhibit we viewed explains how scientists are studying the wildlife (plants and insects) on the roof compared to in the park. They are finding it more diverse!

Cable Car Ride and Conservatory of Flowers (SF trip Day 5)

On our second day in San Francisco we took our first cable car ride to Golden Gate Park. Actually, we took the cable car part of the way and then had to transfer to a bus.

It was so neat actually being on a cable car! Alex and I rode on the front seats which face out towards the street. In each section there is a sign that only two people can stand up and hang on to ride. We were sitting down, but two ladies stood in front of us for part of the trip. Of course that was fine, I just had never thought of that before - and, it made it a little hard to see! Besides our open area, the back half of the cable car is enclosed so you can stay out of the elements. (We were kind of cold, but enjoyed it!)

My mom rode on the very back and talked with one of  the conductor. It takes two people to drive the cable car. The gripman is up front (where Alex and I were). He operates the grip lever that grips and releases the underground cable. The conductor is in the back and he controls the rear wheel brakes when descending steep hills. He also collects fares and manages the boarding and exiting of passengers. My mom enjoyed a lengthy talk with the conductor. 

Here's a photo from our cable car showing the hill we had just come down. It is hard to believe how steep the hills are in San Francisco. It's almost scary!

Our destination for the day was Golden Gate Park. The park includes lots of sports areas (for basketball, soccer, tennis, etc) and quite a few museums and other things to do. We first walked to the Conservatory of Flowers. They were watering the lawns and it was a challenge to get through them, but we made it without getting wet.  

For the most part, the conservatory houses several rooms of beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, I didn't really take any flower photos worth posting. But, I enjoyed this display with a "field notebook." It's a lot like a nature journal.

This is an example of the art of Penjing, which means "tray scenery." It has been around for about 2,000 years and is a prerunner of the bonsai tradition. They had several displays of penjing and I thought they were really fascinating and something I'd never seen before. A sign in the conservatory explains, "It is said that the emperor of China didn't travel a lot. His emissaries would go out and collect stones from the landscapes of various regions to make these creations to illustrate what his realm looked like."

Here's another example of penjing. You can see the tray better, and this one is floating!

The conservatory has several rooms of permanent displays and one room that changes quarterly. Our Toad's Tour guide told us that recently they had a "butterflies of the world" exhibit and a "carnivorous plants" exhibit. Both of those sounded wonderful, so I was disappointed when he told us the current exhibit was about railways. But, when we walked into the room, I was thrilled! The scene was of San Francisco with a train running around it.

Each part of the exhibit was made of "recycled and repurposed" (great word!) materials. These Painted Ladies are made out of old cereal boxes like Wheaties and Cheerios.

And, here is one of my favorite places in SF - Lombard Street! I love the miniature flowers.

After visiting the conservatory, we ate lunch outside at a hot dog stand. The food was all "health food"! No hormones in the meat. No high fructose corn syrup in the soda. We also had some "real" fruit rollups that were all natural. We don't usually eat like this (though we should) and I was surprised that everything was delicious!

I Will Survive!

I found a "new" blog today called  Dynamic 2 Blogs. They have lots of interesting, free lapbooks. And, they had posted this cute homeschooling video that I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

Dinosaur Valley State Park

Here's a post from a few weekends ago that I started and never finished. These were taken at Dinosaur Valley State Park which is in Glen Rose, Texas.

My sister and niece had been before, but we hadn't. It was a nice day, but we knew the water would be COLD and I was surpised that we'd have to wade across this stream to get to the fossilized dinosaur tracks.

And, when you DO cross over, these are the tracks. There is at least one near the lower left of the photo near the blue line and another in about the center of the photo.

So, first my brother (looking backwards) and his girlfriend (black shirt) took my niece and Alex across the water. Brrr!!! I had stayed to get my camera situated and take some photos.

So, I had to cross by myself! My mom decided not to cross and she took my photo. Yes, it was quite chilly and, in a few places, you have to take pretty big steps. I ended up just grabbing several "volunteers" to help me a few times! Everyone was really nice.

On the way back, I "hooked up" with this family. The dad (in brown) is carrying the younger daughter while the mom and I are helping their other daughter. Every time she needed to cross from rock to rock, the girl would just pick up her feet and let the water take her away. (The water was pretty swift.) It was really funny, and a little bit difficult!

Alex and her cousin had so much fun that they went back across on their own! (One time was plenty for me.)

Don't they look like they're having fun? And, in the summer, you can swim in this area. My niece was disappointed that we didn't swim, but it was very cold (as I've mentioned).

Here they are posing for me. We all had a wonderful day out at the dinosaur park! We plan on doing this again next year. Maybe we could go when it is warmer...

Mr. Toad's Tours (Day 4 - San Francisco)

For our first full day in San Francisco, we took the advice of TripAdvisor and took Mr.Toad's Tour.

This is the car we road around in. It is a real 1912 Rambler.

I'm not sure how it came, but it now has 4 rows of 3 seats each behind the driver's row. So, my mom, Alex & I had a row to ourselves. You can see there are blankets for each passenger tucked on a pole in front of us. While driving around San Francisco, you can get very hot when the sun is beating on you, but you can also get quite chilly when you are in the shade of  a tall building and the wind is hitting you. The blankets were a wonderful touch.

This is one of the very STEEP hills in San Francisco. Our guide told us that it isn't really that hard to park. But, it can be very tricky getting OUT of your car after you do park! And, you either have to fight gravity to open your door or be careful it doesn't bang into the car below you, depending on which side you are getting out on.

It was kind of hard to take photos while going on this 3 hour tour, but I HIGHLY recommend it. Our guide, John, was very friendly and informative. He told us a lot of the history of San Francisco - and it is such a fascinating history! And, he really helped us to get oriented to this new city. I'd highly recommend this tour! It was probably the best thing we did in SF.

If you've seen the movie, "The Pursuit of Happiness", this man was in it playing this instrument. (I forgot what it is called!) Our guide says this man sits out here basically every day in Chinatown. (The sign mentions the movie and how to find him on YouTube.)

I forgot the name of this park, but it was lovely and peaceful. Oh, except for the drummers who were practicing there. Anyway, you can see a beautiful veiw of the city and see some Painted Ladies across the street. Painted Ladies, our guide told us, are actually any of these types of houses that have more than 2 colors. They actually come in a lot of different styles.

Our tour stopped near the bottom of Golden Gate Bridge for awhile so we could look around and take some photos. We also watched the surfers. And, yes, you can see me holding my "big" camera!

This lady lives in a multi-million dollar home... and she always watches for John and his old cars and throws out chocolate! She had little baggies with bite-sized Snickers, Milky Ways, etc. John parked the car, went and stood on her street, and she threw down little baggies of chocolates for him to pass out to us!

I guess these are out of order. Anyway, another view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This photo was taken at the same spot. It is of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, which is usually called the Bay Bridge. The bridge actually has two parts, one from SF and one from Oakland, which both end on an island. The bridges have two layers, each layer going a different direction. During the 1989 earthquake, the top layer of one of the Oakland bridge fell onto the bottom layer. That part of the bridge is currently being rebuilt and you can probably see it in some of my other photos. (Hopefully I've understood this correctly. Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

And, I wish I would have gotten a better photo, but this was one of two wedding photo sessions that we saw while in SF.

We saw a lot more while on our tour of the city, but this will give you a taste of it! We really did think it was an incredible city.