Category: Fun Friday

Education, Fun Friday, Games

Mental Floss Quizzes

Terri Eichholz

For this week’s Phun Phriday post, I want to call your attention to the Mental Floss Quizzes page.  Some people may not label taking a quiz as particularly fun, but I enjoy stressing myself over these quick brain challenges.  My latest obsession is “Finish the Country Names,” which I still haven’t managed to complete.  Despite the efforts of my extremely demanding college geography professors, there are still apparently some countries that I’ve never heard of (Burkina Faso?) or can’t spell (Bosnia Herzegovina).  Right now I’m at 35/48, but I’m determined to get all of them! This is my way of challenging my growth mindset…

Not yet...
Not yet…
Creative Thinking, Education, Fun Friday

Bring on the Dementors!

Terri Eichholz

So, apparently the thing that I’ve been missing in my life is a patronus.  Without one, it takes no time at all for the ever-increasing numbers of Dementors (otherwise known as “standardized testing companies”) to gorge on all of your happiness – leaving you in complete despair.  A patronus can save you from this misery.

Not being a fictional wizard in a Harry Potter novel, I had no inkling I even have a patronus.  But the lack of one pretty much explains the last forty years of my life.

Thanks to the newest quiz on Pottermore, however, I have identified my patronus, a white stallion, who I intend to summon the next time the Dementors threaten to sabotage my incredibly joyful personality and/or the next time I get stuck in traffic which, come to think of it, would be a particularly efficient use of my patronus as both a warder-offer and a better method of transportation…

See what your patronus is and share in the comments below!

white stallion

Books, Education, Fun Friday

This One’s for the Books

Terri Eichholz

I decided to go with a book theme for this week’s Phun Phriday post, as I noticed this seemed to be a trend in the articles I was saving to my Flipboard magazine lately.  Here are some clever literary creations I’ve collected:

  • In Jane Mount’s Etsy shop, you will find hand-made enamel book pins of classic books like Anne of Green Gables and posters of ideal bookshelf collections, such as “Narnia.”
  • If it’s on your bucket list to read the top 100 most essential novels, then you will probably love this scratch-off poster to keep track of your progress.
  • Cassia Beck offers a multitude of “old book” patterned items on Society 6 – including leggings, a duvet cover, and a rug.

I don’t know about you, but I will definitely be curled up with a book at least once during our 3-day weekend in the States.  Happy Friday!

Bookworm Rug by Cassia Beck on Society 6
Bookworm Rug by Cassia Beck on Society 6
Art, Creative Thinking, Education, Fun Friday, K-5

Picture This Clothing

Terri Eichholz

I typically post something light on Fridays, (often not connected to education) called my Phun Phriday Post.  For today’s edition, I am sharing a cute website I came across called, “Picture This Clothing.” Similar to sites like “Imaginables” and “Doodle Your Toys,” which allow you to upload a drawing that can be turned into a stuffed animal, Picture This Clothing offers dresses that can be made based on your own artwork.  All you need to do is download and print the template, color it, send a picture of the design, and order your custom dress.

Dress sizes on Picture This Clothing are children’s sizes 2-12.  The dress will cost you $49, and you can also add on identical miniature dresses for dolls.  According to the site, it will take 12-15 business days for you to receive your order.

For those of you with budding fashion designers in your household, this could be a fun way to channel their passion before you decide to purchase a sewing machine and let them loose in the fabric store to start creating their own creative wardrobes.

image from Picture This Clothing
image from Picture This Clothing
3-12, Apps, Education, Fun Friday, Games

Piano Tiles

Terri Eichholz

Piano Tiles (Don’t Tap the White Tile) is a free app, available on iTunes and Google Play.  The name of the game is pretty self-explanatory.  As black and white tiles fall down the screen, your job is to tap the black tiles only.  The black tiles will make the sounds of music notes as you tap them.  The faster you can play without hitting a white tile, the better.  I’d never heard of the game until I saw this article in one of my Flipboard magazines, featuring a pretty amazing setup invented to “beat” the game like no human would ever be able to do.  To be perfectly honest, the video pretty much discouraged me from ever even trying to play the game – at least not until I get some bionic eyes and fingers.

screen shot from Piano Tiles app
screen shot from Piano Tiles app
3-12, Education, Fun Friday, Student Products

Cubelets + Legos = Cube-gos

Terri Eichholz

For today’s Phun Phriday post I wanted to share some of the impromptu creations made by our Robotics Club yesterday.  We took a break from our EV3 robots to explore Cubelets, and the students were incredibly thrilled when I showed them the Lego connectors and put out a bunch of bins with random pieces for them to add to their new bots.  I was pretty impressed by what some of them were able to do with only about 20 minutes!