Zombies catching some rays on Spring Vakay

 Happy Spring Break everyone, from our little Zombie family to yours. We are experiencing the warmest winter / earliest spring in Minnesota history. It's going to be 78 degrees today!  

My children just departed for the cabin with Grandma. Now... what to do with this beautiful, child-free day? 

(Other than sit out in the hammock and get my first Zombie-pale-skin sunburn of the year)

1. Absolutely nothing work related. I already spent a good 20 hours between Saturday and Thursday updating my website, improving Smart files, reviewing state standards and selecting strands for remediation, creating web quests, celebrating pi day (3/14) and reading a book called All of the Above by Shelley Pearsall for a possible interdisciplinary unit. 

Should you really count reading as "work" though? I know that once I started the book, I really couldn't put it down. Perfect for teenagers; boys and girls alike, the plot centers around a group of inner-city youth who take on the challenge of breaking the Guinness World Record by building a 7-stage Sierpinski tetrahedron. This may seem like a small feat, but each new level of the tetrahedron quadruples the previous quantity.

Stage 1: 1 x 4 = 4 tetrahedrons  (1/4 of the fuchsia corner below)

Stage 2: 4 x 4 = 16 tetrahedrons (entire fuchsia corner below)

Stage 3: 16 x 4 =  64 (fuchsia and indigo corner below)

Stage 4: 64 x 4 =  256 (fuchsia, indigo, blue, green sections)

Stage 5: 256 x 4 = 1024 (entire figure below!)

Stage 6: 1024 x 4 = 4096 (what previous schools had built)

Stage 7: 4096 x 4 = 16384!!!!  (the goal of the school in the book! over 8 feet tall!!)

Stage "Infinity": In theory, you could keep multiplying/growing this structure forever.

Click on either of the pictures above to learn more about the book, and possible projects, as well as to download and build your own tetrahedron! I really really want to try this in my classes, as a "when you're done" activity... no more whining "Teacher.... I'm done... what should I do now!?!?!?"....  Just get to work cutting, folding and gluing tetrahedrons! 

It's the perfect tie-in to 7th grade standards; so, bravo to the fictional seventh grade teacher "Mr. Collins" for aligning his activity to cover regular solids, scale change, and exponential growth. What a great idea. 

2. Anyway... back to NOT DOING WORK ON SPRING BREAK. You can see how well THAT is going for me. I think the deck furniture is calling to be put out. In preparation for some bloody rare Zombie steaks with baked potatoes to be eaten in the open air later today. With a side of brains, of course. Best part about early spring? No bugs!!!

3. LAUNDRY PARTAY!!! Real zombies may wear the same rags for eternity, until they rot away and fall off... but my little zombies, unfortunately, need to have their clothes washed. Although you'd think they are real zombies, by the quantity of grass stains, rips, food marks, and holes that permeate their outfits. My clothes, on the other hand, get the sniff check at the end of the day, and more often than not, get put back into the "clean" pile to wear again. Which is calling to me now... DUMP ME OUT!!!!! PUT ME AWAY!!!!  

4. Nap!?!? Yeah right. How about more coffee instead.

5. Replace the sump pump line in our basement. A mouse nested in it last year and chewed lots of lovely little holes all the way up and down the line in its futile escape attempt. Now, every time the pump cycles, water sprays through the cracks, behind our downstairs bathroom, slowly rotting through the dry wall. Yum. 

This may sound like an easy job, but the underside of the closet is PACKED with crap. It's a very convenient dumping area for all our junk that we are too tasteful to throw in the back yard. Which makes Job #5 a pretty major cleaning event, in addition to the hose work involved. Boo.

6. Go for a sunny Zombie walk, or "Phoebe run". It is sad how few people remember the "Phoebe run" these days. It was on one of the funniest, most memorable episodes of Friends. I do this in the hall at school sometimes, and the kids never know that it's a joke. They just think I'm crazy. (but they already knew that ;)

7. Take more silly pictures of my Zombie cats. Here you are. Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are! (Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the prettiest kitty of them all?)