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It's My Birthday and I'll Smile if I want to.

Wow! I was overwhelmed with the greetings, today, by all the munchkins at the middle school. The sixth grade sang the birthday song to me, while 7th and 8th graders, throughout the day, wished me well. It was neat. Sixth and 7th graders even made me cards. I hung them up on my classroom door. Take a look at the picture of the cards.

CAPPA Looks Cool
I was really impressed with the video presentation made by Mr. Loni Gamble about CAPPA. Here are our sixth graders gathered in the auditorium for the presentation. Some boys chuckled and tried to be cool, others were fascinated, and oodles want to participate. They meet from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. This Saturday is the last time until after the holidays. Ask your munchkin about the presentation.

Writing of Letters
Ouch! It appears the sixth grade, as a whole, needs more work in letter writing. It's going to be an ongoing struggle, but, I believe Mrs. Pulizzi, Mrs. Nemeth, and I, will get this skill down before the kiddoes get to 7th grade. My letter was one lesson of six on this project, so all those grades are averaged together as one project grade. If they scored well on Activities 1,2,3,4, and 5, a poor grade on Activity 6, will not affect their grade, to "awful" bad.

Awesome Hand Boiler
Lee Lee gave me a really neat hand boiler. A glass tube, with glass bulbs on either end. You hold one bulb in your hand and it shoots a green liquid up to the other bulb and water appears to be boiling. My daughter and I are now trying to figure out, how it works. It must have something to do with compression of the bulb and the ethel alcohol. Since I'm just an elementary school teacher, I'll have to pose this question to Mr. Conoway, our resident physical science expert. Thanks, Lee Lee, you've amused Krysia and myself.

Bowling Tomorrow
We go bowling, tomorrow -- return to school and eat lunch in our homerooms (some kiddoes have preordered lunch from the cafeteria, the others opted to bring a bagged lunch), then we are seeing a movie. Nice way to start off a holiday vacation. The kids are burned-out and ready for a break. I will try to get photos for tomorrow's blog.

Have a great night.

Changes

The sixth grade hallway is getting a new look -- school colors. Check out the new look versus the sterile "we just moved into this building" appearance. It's starting to feel like home.

Tonight's Concert

Don't miss the 6th grade concert, tonight. We were privvy to a dress rehearsal, during BASE. The kiddoes are awesome.

Dear Mom and Dad

Dear Mom and Dad:
I would like to convince you to buy a water softener for our home. I have come to realize that the water we use is considered, hard water. I know this, because I have completed an experiment in which I tried to lather with hard and soft water. Soft water lathers easier and as you know, the more a soap suds,the greater the chance for the soap to lift and carry away dirt.
Through experimentation, I found that water comes in different degrees of hardness. Bottled water appears to have many minerals in it. The minerals are usually calcium and magnesium and are the reason soap does not work well in hard water. Besides bottled water, I tested tap water at school. That water has been softened through chemical action by the Williamsport Municipal Water Authority. I also tested salt (ocean) water and found it to be very soft, but only second to distilled water, which is simply water that was allowed to boil and steam. The steam was collected and condenses back into a liquid. Distilled water is the purest form of water available, and boy, is it soft. In comparing my results with other groups in my classroom, we concluded that distilled water was the softest, followed by salt (ocean) water.
I also tested the water at school and compared it to our water. Strange, I thought the water would be the same, but, apparently, our home uses unfiltered well water. Looking at a map of the United States, northcentral Pennsylvania, is hard water because of the various types of limestone and sandstone of our area. That explains why our water is hard. The school's water is relatively soft and that is because it is treated with different chemicals, primarily a sort of sodium (salt) solution.
A member of my group tested his/her water and found it to be as soft as the ocean water, I tested. A closer look revealed this student has a water softener in his/her home. The water softener works by introducing sodium (salt) into a tank and filling it with water. The ions in the salt work like a magnet attracting the calcium and magnesium in the hard water -- pulling the minerals right out of the water. The result is the water has been softened.
Although hard water is safe to drink, it is miserable for cleaning and the mineral deposits can collect inside the pipes of our dishwasher, clothes washer, water heater and even our furnace. Those same deposits shorten the life of those appliances and our clothes, which is simply adding more to the costs of running our household.

Your Loving Son, Henry

Writing A Letter and Saying Goodbye

Mrs. Antonacci's homeroom finished their holiday door featuring a snow-covered hill and multi-colored snowflakes. Joining in was Mrs. Phillip's learning support class. We certainly have a talented group of sixth graders.

Okay, Blog Title
Students worked on writing a persuasive letter to mom and dad to purchase a whole-house water softening unit, After studying hard and soft water; comparing distilled, tap, salt, and bottled water; reading about how water softeners work, and discussing experiment results, the munchkins approached the assignment by reviewing and jotting down notes, creating a 4-square graphic organizer and writing a rough draft. We will type these letters in the computer lab.

Map Reading
Social Studies begins a unit on map reading and finding locations. I call it, "Human Global Positioning System (HGPS).

Sad Ending
We go to the vet at 6:30 tonight, to decide if "Snowball (A.K.A. Kitty)," our 18-year-old short-haired domestic cat should be put down. The arthritis, loss of teeth, incontinence and senility prompted a family decision, last night. We'll see what the vet says. I will photograph him and post the picture, tonight. It's tough to say goodbye to an old friend. He had a great life -- one that would envy any feline.

"The King, Snowball" passed away peacefully at 6:50 p.m. He dined on warm milk, mashed beef and gravy, and lotsa love. Below, is Snowball's successor, Skunk. Skunk is our last male cat. His predecessor and next in line after Snowball, was Buttercup. "Cuppy" died on Jan. 18, 2007, after choking to death on a cat treat. We came home from the vet, Dr. Winton, to find Skunk in the place of honor at our house -- the couch. If you ever smelled the litter box after Skunk has been there, you would understand the name we gave him.

Sleep well, old friend.

It's 7:20 p.m. Sunday

The kids and I took a quick jaunt to South Williamsport and then to the Golden Strip. The roads are starting to freeze. Will there be a two-hour delay tomorrow? Whaddaya' think?