It's Elementary!: October Show and Tell

I'm joining Forever in 5th Grade once again for her monthly show-and-tell post. I missed September, so I'm catching up for 2 months.

To start off, we spent the end of summer, and the first part of fall remodeling both our bathrooms. This was a bigger project than we anticipated! But, after 3 months, we are all but finished. We just have a bit of trim-work to do. Below is a picture of the master vanity.

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I think it's because Halloween is the start of the holiday season. I start decorating for fall on September 1, and continue to the end of December. Yesterday, I attended a craft class and made a few new goodies to add to my collection. Now where, oh where, to store it all?

Hard to tell from this pic, but my boo sign is about 18 inches tall.

I did the spider wall just to terrify my mom :)

Made the wreath at a craft fair last year.

This little guy is is a snowman on the other side.

My daughter's blingy pumpkin

Right now, this is my favorite spot in the house!

Now, on to my classroom. Our district is focusing on science right now to familiarize everyone with the Next Generation Science Standards. I get to be our school's facilitator, though I'm not exactly sure yet what that means. I love teaching science, so here are a few of our latest projects:

In September we made mold terrariums to study the effects of decomposers on dead tissue.

This week we built a working model circulatory system. The bottles have pipes connected to the hoses with one-way valves. By squeezing the bottles, "blood" flows from the ventricles to the lungs and body and back in a constant circle. Students worked in groups to figure out how to build their model based on what we learned about the circulatory system before I showed them this working model. Great STEM activity!

Finally, our school put on a Parent Pep Rally as part of our Leader in Me process. 5th grade's display showcased the 5th Habit: Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood. So we made big-ear boxes and wrote poems to show how being a good listener helps us avoid conflicts.