This was one of our stations on Family Fun Night. We were giving tours of the inside of a belly of a whale. Well, it was actually several plastic tarps connected and shaped like a whale, but it's very instructive because it is the actual size of a whale.
Mrs. White and her 5th grade students were in charge of the station. They led students through the whale and then told them A Whale of a Tale that they had made up.
This is a view from inside the whale. It really was a neat experience.
Kinda scary, but the guides had flashlights.
Here they are letting the air out of it, which looks like fun too. Thanks for all your hard work, Mrs. White and kids!
This stations was a big hit on Family Fun Night. About 140 kids made Porthole Pictures.
As you can see, the art room got a little crowded.
Sponge-Bob was there in person, and making his rounds.
A big thanks to John Johnston, who emailed me a bunch of photos from Family Fun Night. In the photo above, you see that Mr. Manchester has relinquished the megaphone for a bit to Mr. Macik in the bingo game station.
Here are some pictures from the Crabby Patty Toss. We were pretending that the bean bags were Crabby Patties, and that Sponge-Bob and the gang were really hungry.
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"Everybody say 'Barnacles!'" On Friday, March 13, we had our Family Fun Night & Art Show. I think it's neat to have one of these once a year, because unlike a regular art show, kids can also make something and do some other fun learning activities with their parents -- plus every kid gets to show off to their parents what they are learning in art class and other classes. In the picture above you see me, the Sponge-Bob sculpture we made, my son David in the Sponge-Bob costume (from Costume Capers, and a lot of the kids who came..jpg)
Our theme this year was "Oceans of Fun", so all of the art on display was related to that theme, and all the activities had an ocean flavor. In the cafeteria, we had Swedish fish candy and goldfish crackers and ocean blue Kool-Aid.
That Mr. Manchester loves to use that megaphone! In the library, he and Mr. Macik organized a game of Bingo. Lots of neat prizes were won, like comic books and Sponge-Bob posters of historic value..jpg)
Kids made Fancy Fish crafts with paper plates and neato foam stickers. Thank you, all you teachers and older kids who helped! 
If anybody has any pictures from this night, please send them! Our school camera was locked up that night and I couldn't get to it! (Thanks, Mrs. Rowe for sending these).
If there is a fire on Dinotopia, how do they put it out? There isn't modern technology like fire trucks. To answer that question, Mr. Gurney made the painting below. 
He changed some details when he painted the scene, but the models he built and the figures helped him imagine the scene.
He made the cab on the dinosaur below out of old mat board and hot glue.
We're not building our own models, but we are using dinosaur toys and action figures to imagine scenes. Below you see that Cyclops of the X-Men is taped to a dinosaur. We're working with the lights off, using only the lights that come in from the skylights. In my demonstration sketch, I'm showing the kids how to use charcoal, blending stump and erasers to create shadows and highlights on objects.
Tyler (below) is doing well on an anklyosaurus drawing.
Shaylee's drawing is below. It's not finished, but you can see that she's got the idea.
To see the whole process of how Mr. Gurney made the fire engine paintings, visit The Gurney Journey. 
Gurney's interest in paleontology and anthropology began in his childhood sandbox. As he says on his blog, When I was in second grade, I was convinced that if I dug enough in my
front yard I'd find the tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh or the skull of a T. Rex.
Never mind that I grew up in Santa Clara County, California, the heart of
suburbia. You can't talk a determined archaeologist out of his steely
determination. My dad couldn't talk me out of it either.
I was the youngest of five kids, and by the time I came along, my dad had
pretty much given up on yard maintenance. He didn't mind too much if I dug test
pits in the yard. The Tonka trucks stayed at it for months. All the neighborhood
kids helped out. Eventually their moms banned them from coming over because they came home with their shoes and their pockets full of dirt."
