Squared Away on a Sunday: Earth Science PD, Rocks, and Painting

Hello friends!  I think I've finally recovered from Vegas and I wanted to let you know a little of what I've managed to Square Away on this beautiful Sunday.

1)  After Vegas I spent last week at a Professional Development session for science.  This is how I am able to get the materials I need for my science labs.  The session was 4 days long, and it had ups and downs as every PD usually does.  One lab that I really loved was making magma and seeing how cool and hot lava affects the creation of a volcano.  When I actually do this with my class this year, I'll blog more about it, because I'm figuring out how to create the magma without the science kit I'm given, but in the mean time, check out these neat pictures of our lab:



2)  All this talk about science  has prompted me to finally finish my Earth Science Rocks Unit.  As great as our science kits can be, they don't cover everything, and I need to incorporate more reading informational text into my content areas.  This unit includes 4 passages on the three rock types as well as the rock cycle.  I do these using Close Reading strategies so we can really dig deep into the text.  I also use foldables for our interactive science notebooks, complete an easy lab-- this one shows the Rock Cycle with Starburst candy, incorporate a studyblocks review, and finally an assessment.  If rocks is something you teach, and you are looking for something complete, check this out.  

3)  Finally, after spending Monday through Thursday at the PD I mentioned above, I dragged my teenagers to my classroom and spent 12 hours painting.  Home Depot was kind enough to donate discontinued paint which I could have tinted.  I had to paint over this hideous blue wall.

I decided on a grey because my color scheme is white, red and black.  Plus grey goes with lots of other colors too and it won't show the dust that appears in my classroom.  We got SO CLOSE to making it on the 2 gallons of paint, but we were just a little short. I ran to HD to grab a quart for touch ups, and guess what happened! Yea.. this...

We had to repaint two of the walls.. can you hear me crying!  Luckily we got hit my a MONSOON rain storm, so we weren't going anywhere anyway, and we knocked out the nasty book cases too.
I have another week of PD and a softball tournament to take my "24" to this week, but then I'll be back in to clean up this disheveled mess.  

Hopefully, the paint will be dry by then! Enjoy your beautiful day!

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