Fun Friday: Eat Like an Astronaut

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

 Eat Like an Astronaut

This was one of the favorite "Fun Friday" activities for us.  We have a Space unit in our Science standards and we had a set of stories in our Reading curriculum about astronauts. One of the stories was an interview with an astronaut about what it was like to be in space -- how do they eat, sleep, etc.  I thought it would be fun to experience a little taste of it ourselves!

Of course we had to have the freeze-dried ice cream.  I only got one package and we broke it into little pieces.   Each student got one small piece.

Astronauts ate dried fruit, too, so I brought in a bag of banana chips.  These are so yummy.  If you've never had them, they're worth a try!

Astronauts could also eat fruit leather. We used the kid-friendly version.  :)

We HAD to drink some Tang!  I couldn't believe they still make this stuff!  I drank so much Tang as a kid.  Apparently it was made popular by John Glen and other astronauts who drank it on their missions.  

Food in space has come a long way since the first manned missions. Our Reading curriculum story talked about how astronauts used to eat meals from a tube, but now they can eat foods packaged in a variety of methods.  I wanted my students to get to try eating a meal from a tube, so baby food aisle it was!  

Each student got a spoon and I squeezed a "taste" of the baby food onto it for them.  I had this Creamy Vegetables with Chicken, one with Red Beans and Rice, and one with Garden Vegetables and Turkey.  They got to choose which one to try.  This was hilarious as the baby food was not terribly appetizing to look at.  

(No one in my classroom ever HAS to eat anything.  It is their choice to try or not try.  We are also very careful about allergies as well.  Please make sure to check any food you serve for potential dangers prior to sharing with students!)

This was a GREAT activity that I will be repeating this year.  So much fun and so motivating for my students to get all their work done!

Got any other great ideas for Astronaut food that's available to the general public? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments section! 

Fun Friday: Corner bookmarks

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

Corner Bookmarks 

We made some corner bookmarks as gifts to give our Kindergarten Reading Buddies.  My class had so much fun making them!  Students who had finished all their work were allowed to make extra bookmarks for themselves or to give to others as end-of-the-year gifts.  

Check out these links for design ideas:

Best Youtube video for DIY Corner Bookmarks

(watch out for some of the other ones -- I found several with inappropriate language!)

Check out Tally's Treasury for a tutorial on these cute little monsters

Or go to my Pinterest board for Crafts and Indoor Recess ideas:

Follow Clever Endeavors's board crafts and indoor recess activities on Pinterest.

Fun Friday: Making Blood

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during  the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try. 

Blood Models

Thanks to Jen over at Runde's Room for this awesome Fun Friday activity! I "borrowed" her photo because my hands were a bit messy and couldn't manage to pull out the camera to snap my own pics.  We used cheerios soaked in red food coloring (soak them for a few hours to make them really red) for the blood cells, lemonade (from a powder mixed with water) as the plasma, little white marshmallows as the white blood cells, and candy sprinkles for the platelets.  Lots of fun!  

Duct tape on the lids -- highly recommended at the end!

We studied body systems prior to this activity.  All students watched a video and read a selection about the circulatory system and blood.  Students completed a foldable and a minibook related to these systems.  Only students who had completed all of their work for the week were allowed to make blood.  Some of my students were very disappointed on Friday when they were working on book reports and math homework instead of making their own blood model.  The next week, everyone had everything done by Friday.    

I found this idea through Pinterest.  Check out my other great finds!  Follow me to see the great things I find next! 

Fun Friday: Colonial Crafternoon

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try. 

Colonial Crafternoon

We did an extra long Fun Friday on the last day before the winter break.  It needed to be related to our standards, but fun.  Since we study the 13 Colonies in our Social Studies curriculum, the 5th grade team decided to have a Colonial Crafternoon. We made craft projects, ate snacks, and played games all in the ways that children in the Colonies might have done.  

Above, you can see an example of the Quilling craft project.  Students just wrapped a skinny strip of paper (get the true Quilling strips if you can -- they're thick, sturdy, and cut straight) around a toothpick.  They each got to make a flower using whichever colors they wanted for the petals and center.

We also did faux tin punching.  Here's an example of the old fashioned tin punching that colonists would have done to turn tin cans into lanterns for candles:

By OttawaAC (Own work)
[CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

We simplified this quite a bit by using aluminum foil and construction paper frames.  Students used a toothpick to poke holes through the foil with a Styrofoam plate underneath.  I was surprised by how much fun my class had making these and how surprised they were at the affect of holding them to the light!  Several students asked for more materials to make extras.

We played a few games like the colonists would've played:

Jacks and marbles were a lot of fun for the kids to play.  I continued to use these for the rest of the year as indoor recess options on rainy or too-cold days.  

We had lots of treats that were colonial style.  We made our own butter by shaking cream in a jar. That's one of my favorite things to do with the class.  Freshly made butter is SO delicious! Just shake heavy cream in a jar until it looks like this:

Pour off the liquid, add a little salt, and spread on rolls!  Yummy!

Here's the rest of our menu:

Rolls (to try our butter)

Apple sauce 

Gingerbread cookies

Dried fruits (cranberries, raisins, apricots, apples, pears)

Popcorn

Great links for Colonial Crafternoon ideas:

from Germantown Academy: Colonial Day Activities

from Education Possible:  Colonial Games for Children

from Kid Activities:  Colonial Theme for Kids

from DLTK:  Pioneer and Colonial Crafts

Fun Friday: Owl Pellets

My class needed some motivation last year to make sure they had all their work done and behaved well during  the week.  After a schedule change in March, we had a 30 minute block at the end of the day on Friday that was too short for a lesson, but too long to not do something productive.  We called it “Finish Up Friday.” Students with everything finished were rewarded with a fun project related to our 5^th grade standards.  Click on the tag “Fun Fridays” to see other ideas you might want to try.

Owl Pellets

The class had a great time opening up the owl pellets and trying to figure out which animal the bones belonged.  The kit I purchased at Amazon.com (click here to see it) came with the bone chart you see in this picture.

In case you aren't familiar with owl pellets, it's what the owl regurgitates after it digests all the usable parts of an animal.  An owl cannot digest bones or fur, so those can easily be found in the pellets.  Most purchased pellets have been treated to cut down on bacteria, but I did have my students use plastic gloves just as a precaution.  Plus, some of my students were a little grossed out at the idea of touching owl vomit with their bare hands.  

We were able to use these owl pellets to discuss two of our science objectives:  digestive system and animal adaptations.  The whole class had read a text about owl pellets prior to this activity, but only those students who had finished all their work were going to get to actually try it themselves.  I didn't have a single missing assignment this week!  Everyone wanted to be part of this!