Not a Thanksgiving Meal

At recess on Wednesday about 20 students suddenly went stampeding off the soccer field and around the school buildings barreling after an iguana. Somehow they were able to trap it under a box where one of the workers picked it up. They were so excited to have trapped their prize. With so much excitement and kids around I was afraid the iguana was going to fall over and die, but he hung in there. Here are some pictures of two of my students holding the iguana. Some people in Nicaragua make a soup from iguanas. Apparrently it tastes like chicken, but I've never tried it.
Last week I also saw a huge parrot hanging out at the top of a tree on campus. It was making the really loud noises, but thankfully flew away before class started. It's amazing how much wildlife we see around the school even with all the kids around.

Jarvis Crew comes to Nicaragua

It's been fun to have a team from Jarvis in Nicaragua. They are working with Worldwide Christian Schools. I've been able to join up with them several times. The picture below was taken on a non-work day. The team is standing in front of Volcan Masaya. It's been a real treat for me to spend time with the team and it's very refreshing to be around Canadians again. I thought I'd add this picture of the Dutch monkey too. It's eating a peppermint and quite enjoyed it even though it was a little hard to chew. It took two of them before he would get off the boat.

Simple Machines

Here's a glance at what we've been doing in fourth grade to learn about simple machines. Making a water wheel as an example of a wheel and axle.
Balloon Powered Cars to understand the 3rd law of motion. This has been my all time favorite activity to do. It was so much fun to see the variety in cars and yes they did work. The one that went to farthest went over 25 feet.

This student invented a creative way to keep the ballon onto the car; others used tape.

Hot Wheels Lab to study motion, distance, and inclined planes.

A funny activity to watch that has to do with force, motion, gravity, ping pong balls, and straws.