Mexican Jumping Beans

You say Mexican, I say
Mexington...

I recently did a two-part lesson with the entire school involving Mexican Jumping Beans. I didn't tell them that they'd be getting Mexican Jumping Beans, all I said was that we were going to be studying a "mystery object". The first day was the introduction of the Mystery Object. And for some, that was enough to get them guessing...

Me: Next class we're going to observe a mystery object that's related to Spanish.
Boy 1: It's a stick!
Boy 2: It's a robot!
Me: How are either of those things Spanish?

This question is legit. "If they
were a monster, would they
eat us?" Be prepared.

All we did that first day was work on being Spanish scientists and working on making observations and then coming up with questions about the Mystery Object. Obviously most of the questions centered around why the Mystery Object could move on its own. I decided it would be hilarious to ask the kids to give some ideas as to why the objects could move...

• They're turtle eggs. Yea! Baby turtles!
• There's a small animal inside...like a dinosaur!
• It's fighting grasshoppers.
• I think they're baby squirrel eggs.
• They're little springs with robots

There was also a story that we read on the second day of the lesson called Lucas and His Loco Beans. The older students had to follow along and try to figure out what the Spanish words in the story meant. One girl hit the nail right on the head with her definition of loco. Those beans were cracra for reals.