Firefly and The Magic School Bus

Even though we had a short week this week, it was rather eventful! 

For three of the four days, I had 12 students, which was quite exciting, but also crazy and I had to say good-bye to one of my kiddos, which was quite sad. The students are starting to have a bit of Spring fever as well, so they are full of energy and are not sure how to get it out appropriately. 

Firefly decided to try out dying but decided he did not like it, so he is still alive. I came in Wednesday morning, to what looked like a very dead fish. I took all the plants and such out of his tank and went to scoop him out of the tank so the kiddos would not see him, but when I scooped him up, he was quite alive! My only theory is that he was too cold by the window. He now lives under the heater vent and seems to be much happier there. When the kids asked what happened to Firefly, because he was not in his usual tank when they got there, I told them what happened, and they started coming up with all sorts of theories too. 

A little backstory: at lunch this week we have been watching an episode of the original Magic School Bus series. Since we alternate science and social studies each quarter, this is all the science they are getting right now, and they love it. I've offered to let them watch other things, and they always say "NO!" and beg to watch Magic School Bus. 

After talking all morning about Firefly's mysterious resurrection, the students still could not figure out what had happened to Firefly. Together they came to the conclusion that we needed to go into the Magic School Bus and shrink down, because something must be wrong with Firefly's water. Since fish breathe water, that would make him sick if something was wrong with the tiny things in the water. (Only being in first grade, they do not know what molecules are.) I explained as best I could a few different things that could be wrong with the water, but that I thought it was just too cold. The kids agreed this was a good hypothesis, so we talked about the best place to put his tank, so he would not get that cold again. 

Firefly is now very happy where he is living and has been amusing us for the past few days by swimming backward and in little circles at very high speeds. 

I have a classroom full of little scientists who love to explore. Instead of being sad that Firefly had (somehow) died and come back to life, they wanted to solve the mystery and fix the problem. They are like this with everything, but I love letting them explore their world and letting them solve problems by getting messy, making mistakes, and taking action. :)