Week 16- Unfair Taxes & Handwashing

Since this week was Hand Washing Week we did a little experiment. I gave each kid some germs (special powder) to rub into their hands. Then we looked at our hands under a black light. Then I had different kids "wash" their hands different ways: water only, soap and water, and hand sanitizer. Here are the results.

Washed with soap and water


Washed with hand sanitizer

Washed with water only


The kids were a bit grossed out when we talked about how hand sanitizer kills the germs but leaves them on your hands. Maybe we'll have some good hand washing taking place now.

We are also learning about events leading up to the Revolutionary War. I randomly picked a king (in this case we used a queen) and members of Parliament. We also had a tax collector (pictured in the back).


Each of the colonists earned skittles. Then the king and Parliament declared taxes on certain items to help pay for the French and Indian War.



After this the kids could understand why the colonists felt like this was so unfair. Here you can see a student trying to figure out how he can pay the tax on pencils when he has more pencils than skittles.



Our class has also been learning about the digestive system. I grossed a lot of them out this week with the video below. It shows the steps in the digestive system. Their reaction was priceless!



STUDENTS: This week we helped our nurse start an experiment at school. Tell our readers about the experiment and what you did. I would also like you to make a prediction about what you think will happen with our experiment and why you think that. Don't forget to "kill" because!

Week 16

This week all our pictures were taken with the classroom iPad! The kids are really enjoying being able to use the iPad to take pictures of what we are doing in the classroom. We made cells at the beginning of the week. Monday we made animal cells and Wednesday we made plant cells.



The photo booth app is also a hit!



I set up a Twitter account for us to tweet about things we are doing in the classroom. I  also created a twitter door so the kids can "tweet" something each day. Are you following us on Twitter? Search for us at @MWhiteMES to see all the tweets from the kids.



Can you tell the boys are ready for the weekend?

STUDENTS: What would you like to tweet about? A few of you have already had a chance to use the Twitter app to let everyone know what we're doing in the classroom. However, I'd love to know what you want to share!