Done!

I'm done teaching at the morning elementary co-op!! I got my two weeks of teaching out of the way early this year, and I am so glad! The unit was chemistry, and I taught the 5th and 6th graders. I can't believe Luke is in 6th grade this year!

The first week we talked about the periodic table--who is creditied with discovering it, how you read it, what all the numbers mean, what the different families mean--and also atomic structure. Then this week we made models of sodium and chlorine on paper using red and blue hole punches for protons and electrons, by way of reviewing what we learned last week. That led into talk about bonding, with those two elements representing ionic bonding, so they could really see the outer shells electrons. I told "The Love Story of the Two Ions", just like Mr. Belue told us in 8th grade! We also talked about covalent bonding and modeled water as an example. At the very end I passed out some "edible electrons" (M&Ms) for a little treat. That went over well!

I know the kids probably would have preferred some showy and cool experiment, but I think it's time for them to be introduced to some of the principles behind why things react like they do. And for the next 2 weeks the teacher will be doing some labs, where they have to write up lab sheets and everything, so that will be good experience for them, and fun.

It has been kind of hard to switch gears in the afternoon and go straight over to Rivendell, where I'm teaching life science! This week we talked about parts of cells, and we did a lot of introductory microscope work for the lab. That was fun. Last night I made some fresh slides to go along with the prepared ones I have. I did a geranium leaf cross-section (yes, Elizabeth, your plant donated one small leaf to the cause of science! Thank you!!), and a section of onion skin, which I stained with methylene blue. The onion skin turned out great, but I had quite a hard time with the leaf cross-section. I needed to go find Bob's box cutters. My scalpel was just not sharp enough. But you could see the chloroplasts and some other things. The hairs on the outside of the leaf looked like huge spikes! I'm hoping my slide-making skills improve over the course of the year. Plenty of room for improvement, LOL.

So now you know what has been keeping me too busy to post since last Wednesday! Well, all that science, plus Bible study, football (Nathan's team won on Saturday!!), church and small, group, and other sundry things! Tomorrow I'm heading to the commissary because we're having company this weekend! I can't wait to see Beverly and her family!