November 2, 2009 Our Book Character Parade/Mad Science Day was a great success. We began the day by participating in the book character parade around the school sharing costumes and favorite books. Students from all grade levels came out of their classrooms to watch as we walked through the halls of Gattis Elementary displaying great examples of literature! After specials we used our sense of taste to try pumpkin bread. Most of us liked it! Then we estimated how many seeds were in our class pumpkin and its circumference. We made predictions about whether our small, medium, and large pumpkins would sink or float. We voted and graphed the results on how to carve our pumpkin. Next we went outside and discovered that the size of the pumpkin didn't make a difference, and that they all floated! Next we observed a chemical reaction take place right before our eyes by adding Mentos to diet soda. Afterwards, we went back to the classroom and created Elmer's slime by following a recipe and mixing some liquids and a solid and made a very cool mixture! After lunch carved our pumpkin and took the seeds out. We observed the inside of the pumpkin and decided that the reason it floated was because it was not solid. We then took the pumpkin seeds and made groups of 10 to count them. Then we watched what happened to our pumpkin when we added dry ice to warm water, and then dishwashing soap. The children were mesmerized by the chemical changes that happened right before their eyes! Then we made pumpkin pie by following a recipe. Lastly we ended our day by acting out the story: The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. It was a very full day. We will continue a few activities that we did not get to next week such as using gummy worms as a form of a nonstandard measuring device. We will also be soaking pumpkin seeds in water to see if we can start a new plant! Thank you for all your donations! Your assistance made all this possible!