Rube Goldberg

What an innovative and exciting day we had this past Thursday. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been ;earning about Rube Goldberg. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, known for creating funny drawings of overly complicated machines that would complete one simple task. In one of his drawings, he drew about 16 steps just to sharpen a pencil! We decided that we would become Rube Goldbergs ourselves and design our own machines. First, we brainstormed a list of possible simple tasks that our machines could use many steps to complete. Some of these included: moving a pawn on a chess board, throwing something in the trash, cracking an egg, and planting a seed. We then split into teams, and sketched our own cartoon diagrams of the steps that we would include in our devices. We had a special visitor come to our classroom, Mr. Joswick (Amanda's Dad), and bring the incredible Rube Goldberg machine that her older brother had created for his middle school project. It was amazing! This machine took 61 steps to crack an egg! Inspired by this creation, we set off to build Rube Goldberg machines of our very own and here are some video clips of our final products:)

Halloween Surprise from JenZ on Vimeo.

Crack the Egg from JenZ on Vimeo.

Trash Landing! from JenZ on Vimeo.

Seed-a-nater from JenZ on Vimeo.

Easy Button from JenZ on Vimeo.

Faucet and More! from JenZ on Vimeo.

What Book Made the Biggest Impact on Your Life?

Wow. Narrowing down what book made the biggest impact on my life? That's a tough one to answer. I feel like there are so many books that impacted my life, I have a difficult time narrowing it down to just one. There are all of the books that were read to me as a child by my Mom, my Dad, my grandparents, my relatives. Then there are all of the books that I picked out to read on my own that furthered my love of reading. But, okay, just one for the purposes of this, you ask? I'll do my best.

I would have to say...Matilda. by Roald Dahl. I loved Roald Dahl and read almost all of his books as a kid (and most of them more than once), but Matilda was my favorite, and one that I read again and again. I remember getting a beautiful, hardcover, fresh off the press version of Matilda from my Aunt Carol, a first grade teacher, for a gift. I was so excited as I loved Roald Dahl and this was a new one- and it was mine- not a library book that I would have to part with, but one that I could keep on my shelves and reread to my hearts content. And it was selected by Aunt Carol, a first grade teacher by trade, who's excellent taste in children's literature I greatly respected and trusted.

I loved Matilda. I loved the fact that she was a little girl who could not get her hands on enough books to satisfy her voracious reading appetite, just like me. I loved that Roald Dahl made me laugh throughout the book describing her awful parents who could not even comprehend her love of reading over television- the complete opposite of my family, all of whom loved to read. I loved hearing about her terrible principal-The Trunchbull. I was an elementary student at a public school in my NYC neighborhood, and as beautiful as my school was on the outside, it seemed to have its fair share of Trunchbull teachers roaming the inside. Granted, we weren't locked in a closet called "The Chokey," but we had some pretty scary figures that worked there. I took comfort in hearing of Matilda's trials with The Trunchbull as I faced our version of her in our school cafeteria!

What we needed was a Miss Honey- and there were a seldom few of that nature present at that school. Miss Honey- Miss Jennifer Honey at that, served as further inspiration to me. I wanted to be a Miss Jennifer Honey. I wanted to be that teacher that loved reading right along with her Matilda-like students. I wanted to be the Miss Jennifer Honey that loved all of her students and treated them with kindness and respect and inspired them to enjoy school.

As I studied education throughout graduate school, and as I began my teaching career, I kept my sights set toward being a Miss Jennifer Honey. Although I have become a Mrs. Jennifer Zawis, I keep Miss Honey's spirit and kindness at heart each day that I work and learn along with mys students. I am very happy to report that CCE is 100% Trunchbull free!

Class Poll- Mrs.Zawis' 4th graders

Mrs. Holtsman tasked us with the challenge of taking a class poll and blogging about it..Here we go! I asked my favorite 4th graders the following question:

What was your favorite part of the field trip to the "Super Scientific Circus"?

Franchesca: Robo-Man

Morgen: The mime act

Adam: Boomerangs

Brandon: Whip (Sonic Boom)

Acadiana: UV Lights
Noah: Needle in the balloon

Madison: UV lights and bubble disco ball

Ethan: Balloon (air pressure)

Angus: UV lights

Shannon: Sonic Boom whip

Rami: UV lights

Ian: Trent the Mime

Michael: Dancing puppet -UV lights

Nathan: UV lights

Luke: Bubbles and balancing acts

Will: UV lights

Olivia: Sharpening the pencil with the whip

Mandy: Balancing act- center of gravity

Preston: Robo-man and Trent the mime

Jack: UV lights and balancing act

Alyssa: Bubbles and UV light

Garret: Whip

Sam: mime

Looks like the UV lights were the favorite! We are really looking forward to trying out some of these concepts in class!

My Life as a Reader

Ok, ok, I know, I'm already a week off with my response to our technology coach's challenge of blogging for the next ten out of eleven weeks, but all the more determined I've become to stick with it. I am not one to give up, quit, anything of the sort- in fact, I'm more on the other end of the spectrum- can't ever seem to leave well enough alone.

My life as a reader, you ask? Reading is a huge part of my life and always has been. Speaking of being unable to leave well enough alone, I am ALWAYS reading several books at a time.

As long as I can remember, I have been an avid reader. If you were to ask any member of my family what activity I engaged in most as a child, undoubtedly, each and every one would respond, "Oh, Jen? She was always reading. ALL the time." I can just hear my Mom, laughing about how she would call me for dinner and I wouldn't even respond, I would be so deeply enthralled with whatever book I was reading. I can picture my Dad, coming into my room to check on me, and attempting to "scold" me for hiding under my covers with a flashlight, just so that I could read a little bit more. Little did I know he had to hide his smile as he headed off to share the news of my flashlight reading habit with my mom. I remember spending summers at the public library, beyond excited to partake in the reading challenges that they had in place for kids. I remember my mom reading "The Velveteen Rabbit" to me on the couch when I was sick. I remember reading my biology textbook out loud to my Dad. I remember reading countless Babysitter's Club books, Madeline L'Engle books, and loving every bit of "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." I remember that when my grandmother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said " a twenty dollar bill, so that I can buy five Nancy Drew books." Books- I loved them and still do. I grew up surrounded by readers and I really think that that made a difference in my life as a reader.

This love of reading continues today. I read to my children constantly. We take weekly trips to the library and check out tons of books. We go to the bookstore, just to sit there and leaf through the newest books out there. A stack of books sits at my bedside at all times. There are books in every room in our house.

As far as genres go, I enjoy fiction, primarily, although I often read some sort of non fiction book simultaneously. Currently I am reading " The Happiness Project", " Committed" , "Igniting Creativity in Gifted Learners", and various parenting books and blogs. I also love to read the New York Times. Not to mention the many books I read to my children each day, as well as those that I read to my classes at school!

Okay, I'm up and going on this blog challenge, but must wrap it up for tonight. Otherwise, I'll run out of time and not have the chance to - you guessed it-read, before going to bed (my reading spot). I'm already getting a late start, which means that my husband will be asking me to turn out the light and go to sleep. All isn't lost though, should that happen, I have a flashlight next to the bed and comfy covers to hide under.

Super Scientific Field Trip

On Friday, all of Mrs. Zawis and Mrs. Skipper's students headed off to see the "Super Scientific Circus" at the Wilson Center. What an amazing show it was, and certainly proved itself to be super scientific! Two very funny performers, Mr. Fish and Trent the Mime, took several scientific concepts, and explained and demonstrated them through circus and magic tricks. We saw the principles such as centripetal force, gravity, ultraviolet light, sonic booms, air pressure, and many more demonstrated through the use of boomerangs, bull whips, balloons, bubbles, and lots more. Each concept was explained to the audience, and furthermore, we learned how to do many of the science "tricks" and "magic" ourselves. We learned a great deal and really enjoyed the show. In the word of Mr. Fish, "Science is fun!"