Ninjas, Urine, and Smoke Bombs!

(reposting for TEACH ME TUESDAY)
But the day had a yummy start!French Toast (with a touch of vanilla) made using thick slices of Cinnamon Swirl bread!I am avoiding milk right now, so I just had a slice of Cinnamon Swirl Bread and tea.
I sent the boys a link for Chemistry Class:


And had them look at some online coverage of the big earthquake in Japan.(CLICK HERE for News on the Quake)
I have found that I can assign the boys t read up on current news,then they can tell me about it. It seems to kill multiple birds with 1 stone.wow, that sounds bad. poor birds.[1] reading current news is good for the boys[2] having to tell it back to someone is a good practice. (it can be work for them to get the facts straight when retelling stuff sometimes)[3] I get to know about current events w/o having to take the time away from my Netflix or Online Mahjong... Umm, I Mean...HOUSEWORK.. to read it myself.I will call this a Lazy Mom tip.

At the end of Yesterday Gavin announced "It was a good and bad day today. Bad because I didn't really do anything. And good because it's nice to have a day of doing nothing sometimes. And it's good to know I will be doing things the next day."
~or something like that~
So I decided I should plan "things to do" for today (the next day)
I planned a Creative Writing Hour (or however long it ended up being).I got out the Mad Scientist University game and the Nanofictionary game.NanoFictionary is a crd game of story telling. The Main Card Types are [1]Problem ("a food explosion")[2] Setting ("in an underwater submarine")[3] Characters ("the sentient broccoli" or maybe "The Incognito Starship Captain"[4]Resolution (They spent 6 weeks in the Hospital")
ABOVE: problem: Interdimensional porthole is closing /Character: Pizza Delivery Guy
ABOVE: Setting - Up In The SkyResolution- Duct Tape Saved the Day Again!
The Mad Scientist University game is similar to the above, but also like Apples to Apples.This game as 2 decks of cards. (like ApplesToApples)A small deck with cards that tell what to do with the cards from the larger deck.On Your Turn, YOU are the Mad Scientist Teacher at MSU. You hand out Unstable Element Cards to your students. Then You flip a card from the "INSANE ASSIGNMENTS". They red thee assignment and have too use their Unstable Element to accomplish the assignment. On each Students turn, they tell a story of how they used their element to to the assignment.
[ABOVE- "Write Your Name on the Moon..use "Rubber Chickens"]
BUT for Creative Writing, I just had the cards on the table for them to use how ever many they wanted and they could combine decks- to give them ideas for their stories. OR if they had an idea in their head they didn't have to use cards. The cards were there as tools to help them if they needed them. They could hand-pick cards or chose random cards. Didn't matter to me.
I told them they had 5 minutes to read over their cards/gather ideas. Then they were to write.While I went to the grocery store. I wanted 1 page from each boy. G&C decided to write a Cooperative Story. They each took turns writing a sentence or 2 of the story. They enjoyed writing their story together! They Wrote out a Ninja Assassin and Scurvy. ~and I bet if I ASSIGNED "Cooperative Writing", they'd NOT like it and complain.~


I had a few dice for if they got stuck . Like "Should I have my character to THIS or THAT?".."Should I should This Problem or That Problem?"- they could roll the dice to make their decision. Ki needs a little help with he has too many choices and doing what the Dice Say is easier than letting mom make the final decisions.

No One used the Dice. and C&G didn't even use cards.

{Lunch & Ninja Training}
AND FINALLY it was time for Chemistry!I had a lot planned for today.Ki didn't do all of it with us. He chose to do some of his 'busy seatwork worksheets' during some of the more advanced math parts of the chemistry lesson.
Basically, Ki just did the Experiment with us. He did a worksheet on Extinct Animals.
I started to teach today's Chemistry lesson to the boys, but the ore I talked, the more confused i became. I felt like I was speaking a completely alien language and could not tell if I was being understood- since I could not understand myself.So I set the laptop between Gavin and Connor and had them read it on their own and take notes.Then they got to the On Your Own questions.Gavin said; "And we will pretend to be scientist working in a lab. In a lab, co-workers work together on problems. You don't say to your co-worker; "No Cheating and Looking at my work!"- You share information to help each other.... unlike what they teach in schools."It was funny. . . I guess you had to be there.
Science Experiment Today: How does adding Sodium Bicarbonate to smoke bombs affect the speed of their burning?(Or, Does adding baking soda make smoke bombs burn more slowly?)
Gavin made 2 small batches of Smoke Bombs.Both made with the same amounts, except one had Sodium Bicarbonate added.The Website said to add Sodium Bicarbonate to help control the rate of burn.So we are testing how it affects the rate of burn.We used our knowledge we gained about what happens to Sodium Bicarbonate when heated.It turns into Sodium Carbonate and releases water & CO2.
So it would seem that when the Smoke Bomb burns, the baking soda releases H2O and CO2- that would really slow it down.
*******Test Results:The Smoke Bomb with the added Baking Soda burnt QUICKER. A LOT quicker!The Non-Baking Soda took 27:03 seconds to burn.The Baking Soda one took 6:92 seconds to burn.Gavin's only guess was that it may have something to do with the Baking Soda one not releasing smoke. But it was NOT the result our information had predicted.So there will be more tests and research.
(TO SEE FIRST DAY'S SMOKE BOMB PICS & VIDS: CLICK HERE)





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