I say tomato....

You say eat me! One of my fifth grade science classes (volunteer work, I'm not really a teacher, but I love it!) was today and it was time for experiments. This lesson centered around seed dispersal and seeds in general. One portion of the class required the students to dissect various fruits and veggies, and dissect they did. I don't think there was an inch of clean desk within miles of the class room. Fruit and vegetable juice and pieces were flying. One table decided to make faux vitamin water out of their leftovers...this "water" involved squeezed, mashing, and extracting any juice or gunk they could get out of it. They would then make each other drink their concoctions. One girl took every one's chopped tomato pieces back to her desk to chow down. At last count, there were five. I told her that a fifth grader didn't need to eat that many tomatoes....no luck! I turned back around to find a tomato stuffed into her tiny mouth. Thankfully, they are easy to chew so no one came near choking. The tastiest, or rather most normal involved the students squeezing lemons to make lemonade. Although, this quickly turned gross with a girl licking the last half of the lemon and the boy saying, "give it to me anyway, I'm a fifth grade boy and I won't get sick." (Swine flu or no swine flu the show must go on, I guess.)

Despite all the mishaps, laughs, and gross experiments all the students managed to learn and walked away with knowledge. Learning can be fun! I'd also like to note that I walked away in a white shirt with no stains-Score! When can I go back to fifth grade??

During the laughs we learn.