Ideas from the Children's Museum and More Fun Experiments

Getting ideas for my future classroom

Today we had class again at the Children’s Museum. The Children’s Museum is a place for all ages and everyone can learn something new.

While exploring the museum I noticed some things that could be incorporated into my classroom:
-Having a hands-on area (Barbie exhibit – dress up, design clothing)
-An art area with supplies (Barbie – create outfits on paper and then use fabric)
-Small circle rugs; get enough for all students and that could be their “spot” when sitting on the floor (Dora exhibit – used for decoration)
-Cultural art and displays; also use languages, smells, etc. (Dora)
-Parade (Dora, had kids follow the main guy and sang and danced)
-Giant map of the World (Egypt exhibit)
-Have an open space to put post-it notes with responses, questions, and ideas

Some new things that I learned while exploring the museum were:
-Ahlan Wa Sahlan = Welcome in Arabic
-$10 USD = 57 Egyptian pounds
-Most Egyptians are Muslim, Coptic Christian, Protestant, Baha’is and Jewish
-Egypt sphinxes stood for strength and power, could also portray a god
-Qahwah = coffeehouse
-Ma’as salaama = goodbye
-Welcome a new baby with a parade and loud noises

Our class with "Anne Frank"

Before leaving we got to watch two short performances about Ruby Bridges and Anne Frank. For the Ruby Bridges performance, we got to become apart of the class that Ruby would have been in. Her ‘teacher” walks in and gives us details about Ruby’s ups and downs and allows us to get a deeper meaning of that part of history. For the Anne Frank performance, we are welcomed to Anne storming in and reading a diary entry. After she finishes, she goes on about how he life had changed and what she had to deal with. It felt as if we were there with her because we could see what the room looked like and the bookcase that hid her from the Nazis. Both performances made those parts of history come to life, which could help students understand what those people dealt with.

Ruby Bridges' classroom

                                          New Experiments:

-Drops of water on a Penny: Have students take a guess of how many drops of water will fit on a penny. Have them use pipettes to drop water on a penny and see if their guess was close. Do one more time to compare results. Why would the results be different?
-Sweethearts and H2O: Use big and small sweethearts and have students drop water on each to see which message will disappear first. Why does this happen?
-Coke v. Diet Coke v. Minute Maid Lemonade: Have students read the ingredients on a can of coke, diet coke and minute maid lemonade. Then, place each can in a pitcher of water and see which ones float or sink. Have students figure out why and teach about density.
-Ivory v. Dial Soap: See which soaps float and teach about density
-Layered Liquids: Use dish soap, Kayro Syrup, Alcohol, water with food coloring, and oil and put in a clear cup or container. See what each ingredient does within their layer. Why do certain ingredients do certain things?