How to Survive a Road Trip!

Everyone is out of school for the summer and it's time to get out of town and go on a road trip!  The destination may be wonderful, but sometimes getting there with kids can be a trial!  I was surfing through Pinterest for ideas and discovered a wonderful post by "The Dating Divas."  They have some incredibly cute stuff for road trips as well as some free printable games and labels.  The post can be found here:
http://www.thedatingdivas.com/tara/the-road-trip-date/

Here is a picture of the state license plate game and some caramel corn I made for my kid's trip to San Diego.  Please notice the very cute label!

The post at The Dating Divas has other great ideas to pass the time in the car that would work very well for kids.  I am going to include my grandma's recipe for caramel corn here because it is to die for!  My grandma used make it in Colorado and chipmunks used to climb her window screens to get it!

Caramel Corn

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick margarine

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 tsp. butter flavoring

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Cook above for 2 minutes and pour over 6 quarts of popcorn in a paper grocery bag.  I usually add some caramel and then shake the bag before adding more.  Microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.  Shake bag.  Microwave for 1 minute.  Shake bag.  Repeat one more time.  I let my caramel corn cool on a baking sheet before putting it in a container.  Enjoy!  

The Lunar Phase Game

Well I am finally done with my Lunar Phase Game.  I started working on this game because I will need something like it next year for my 7th graders.  I don't know a better way of getting students to learn a concept than a game!  Below is a preview.  Students move around the board and have to name the lunar phase to keep moving forward.  The cards are upside down because when assembling you fold them in half.  My son and I played it together and it worked very well.  He knew his phases, however, so it could be a longer game if you had students that didn't.  Let me know what you think.  I will definitely be using it during my astronomy unit! 
To find this game in my store please click here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Lunar-Phase-Game

Lunar Phase Game Preview

The Organ Mountains, New Mexico

On a clear day, the Organ mountains can be seen from 100 miles away.  They are a rugged spine of needles that rise nearly a mile above the Tularosa Basin on the east and the Rio Grande valley on the west.  They are undoubtedly one of the most picturesque mountains in the southwest.  The stark, bare spine of rock and the changing colors of these mountains makes them a favorite among artists, photographers and rock climbers alike.  Here is a picture from my latest trip to southern New Mexico:

Organ Mountains, June 2012

The Organ Mountains are part of a tilted fault block which stretches from El Paso, Texas northward to central New Mexico.  These needles are the crown on this system which becomes less imposing northward.  As you can see, in the winter they are just as beautiful covered in snow:

Organ Mountains, December 2010

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses,
And whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles,
And warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages,
Tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things . . .

Especially the whiskers on kittens!  Here is my fun list of some of my favorite things!  This is a linky party that was created in about 20 minutes (graphic and all, no joke) by Sharing Kindergarten.

In education my favorite thing is:

teaching geology because it is just so cool!

Personally, right now I really like:

I haven't seen the HBO series, but I love the books!

Technically, I love:

We have a whopping three of these in our house!  They are just outstanding!  Link up at sharing kindergarten so we can read about your favorite things!

Fabulous Freebies

Here are all of my freebies in one place.  Enjoy!
1.  Chemistry Wall Art
2.The Rock Cycle Game
3. Make a Quake Simulation Activity
4. Happy Earth Day Stickers

Solar Eclipse May 20,2012

We haven't been able to see a good solar eclipse for many years in central Arizona.  Today's solar eclipse was fantastic!  An even better spot would have been the Grand Canyon.  Grand indeed!  Unfortunately, I couldn't quite get up there in time, as it is approximately four hours away. 

Of course you never want to look at an eclipse directly.  Unless you have the correct solar filters, your best bet would be use an indirect means of observing.  There are many ways to do this.  The simplest way to observe a solar eclipse would be to make a pinhole through some cardboard and allow the sunlight to pass through to hole to a paper.  This works but makes a very small image.  For today's eclipse we rigged a pair of astronomical binoculars by allowing the sunlight to pass through the large end and projected it on a piece of white paper.  We could even see sunspots using this method. Here are some pictures of what we could see from the Phoenix, Arizona area:

My favorite way of observing an eclipse does not require any equipment.  All you have to do is look around you.  As light gets filtered through tree leaves, blinds in your home, and other small pinpoints of light, crescents appear around you.  This is an actual image of the eclipse, similar to the way the pinhole viewer works.  Here is an example on my neighbor's house where the sun's crescent appeared everywhere:

The blinds in my house were also allowing just the right amount of light to allow multiple little eclipses on the wall.

I hope you had the opportunity to be in the right location to see this fantastic event.  The next one in my area is not until 2023.  I am sure I will out observing it.

Two Great Space Science Lessons

Here are two fabulous astronomy lessons that I do with my 6th and 7th graders.  The first is an ordering activity called Cosmic Survey: What are your ideas about the universe?  This is a lesson I start out with when I begin teaching astronomy.  I comes with pictures of different objects in the universe and asks students to put them in order from smallest to largest, closest to the earth to farthest away, and youngest to oldest.  It is a wonderful beginning activity.  Here is a picture of one of my groups looking at the different pictures:

This activity can be found at this address:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/seuforum/download/CosmicSurvey2003.pdf

Another great activity for beginning students is a lesson that incorporates plotting about 100 stars using brightness and temperature of the star.  This lesson also has some questions that go along with the graph and a couple of articles about what a star is, as well as, information on habitable zones around stars.  Here is a picture of one of my students plotting a star:

This is another great, hands-on lesson that can be found here:
http://astrobio.terc.edu/samples/chpt2_act3.html