Assembly
October is in full swing, and we started the week with an all school assembly.
Assemblies are a time for the K-8 student body to come together, have the opportunity for an individual or class showcase their learning, and to remind us of our mission to “Ignite curious minds, awaken generous hearts, and engage a changing world.”  (Ask your Temescalian if s/he can remember the hand movements for each part of the mission statement!)
This month, an 8th grader shared about the organization she created, Rafiki Maji, to provide a school in Tanzania with a safe water well.  The creation of Rafiki Maji stemmed from our focus on water conservation for our Walkathon last year, and trying to find a way to engage the world.

7th Grade Buddies!
We kicked off our first interaction with our 7th grade buddies with a huge pumpkin carving session.  As the Temescalians and their buddies created their pumpkin faces, they chatted about upcoming Halloween plans and answered “Would you rather…” questions.

Zones of Regulation
We used the carved pumpkins as an opportunity for kids to try and figure out the Zone each pumpkin face could be in.  Some were clearly “Green zone” (thumbs up: happy, content, good to go).  Others were distinctly “Red zone” (thumbs down: angry, mad, out of control).  Some faces were a little more challenging to identify – “Yellow zone” (thumbs to the side: hyper, overly silly, starting to lose control) or “Blue zone” (closed fist: sad, lonely, upset).  A word of advice when we weren’t sure about a zone: “When in doubt, check it out!”

Go through this gallery of pictures and see if you can identify which “Zone” each pumpkin carving is in.

Pumpkin carving yields lots of seeds, and when you have seeds, you have to roast them!  We bagged and tagged them, and shared them with our buddies. They were touched by the seeds and the thank you notes that we wrote on the tags.

Birthday Celebration
We enjoy celebrating Temescalian birthdays.  We take the opportunity to see how s/he has changed from birth to today, give the Temescalian appreciations, and ask the expert panel (his/her family) about the Temescalian as a baby.
We learned that this Temescalian learned how to bike when she was 3 years old.  She used to go to preschool in San Francisco.  She has been to the Grand Canyon.
Come into the classroom and see the pictures of this Temescalian across the years on the side of the supply shelf.

Writing Workshop
Digging deeper into descriptive writing, we tried incorporating similes into our paragraphs of a summer moment.
A Temescalian wrote “the water looked like a diamond” while another Temescalian wrote “it felt like an invisible force pushing on my hand as I paddled toward the waves.”

Math
Building on our conversation of “Things that Come in Groups” we started talking about how when you skip count or do repeated addition, you are basically doing multiplication.
To practice this, Temescalians used a hundred board to find the multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10.  At the bottom of each page, there were multiplication problems where the children had to fill in the factors and the multiples.
Coming together to share observations, we noticed:
“[Multiples of] 2s had 5 lines [colored in on the hundreds board].”
“The 4s pattern goes diagonal.” “The digits in the ones places were 4, 8, 2, 6, 0.”
“6s were harder.  It was complicated.  There were different ones in the ones place. 6, 2, 8, 4, 0.”
“3s pattern was more regular.  It was diagonal.”
“10s had one line [colored in].  All you had to do was add a zero to the end of the number you were multiplying by.”
“5s had 2 lines [colored in].  The ones place had 5, 0.”
“9s multiples have a pattern.  As the number in the ones place goes down, the tens place go up.  And they always add up to 9.”
One Temescalian excitedly exclaimed, “I get it now!  Multiplication is like skip counting!”

Connecting with friends who are abroad
With one Temescalian traversing the world, and one across the country, we utilize technology to keep us connected.  We skyped with the classmate who has been on the East Coast for the past 4 weeks.  This was a wonderful opportunity for him to share the descriptive writing that he has done and we used the opportunity to share with him why leaves change color in the fall.

Celestial Event!
On Thursday, we had to opportunity to view a solar eclipse with our resident astronomer, Randy.  He is part of the finance team in the office, but he graciously shared his talents with us as we viewed the partial solar eclipse through special glasses and his telescope he fitted with a special filter.  The kids’ faces were full of wonder as they looked at the eclipse.
“It looks like a piece of cheese with a bite taken out of it!”
“Look!  There’s a spot on the sun!!”  “That’s a solar storm on the sun!”
It was an experience to share this event together because the next time a solar eclipse will be visible in Berkeley will be on August 21, 2017!
For a listing of the solar and lunar eclipses for the next 10 years, click on this link.

Family Reading Fridays
We started our Friday by inviting grownups into the classroom to read, share work, look through portfolios, and play games.  It is always a lovely time of bonding and showing off learning as the Temescalian guides their grownup(s) through the changing landscape of learning displayed in the classroom.

Science
Our unit of studying plants continued with a debrief of the leaf chromotography experiment we did last Friday during our last Super Science Friday.

We made hypotheses of why leaves change color. (They are strung up on the clothesline near the backdoor of the room.)
“Leaves change color because the seasons change.”
“Leaves change color because of the heat.  It dries up the water in the leaf and it dies.”
“Leaves change color because the chlorophyll dies and the color we see is left behind.”
“Leaves change color because of weather and seasons.”
The real reason is a combination of all of these!  As the seasons change, the days get shorter and there is less daylight.  The trees sense this and the chlorophyll starts to die.  Chlorophyll has green pigment and as it dies, the colors that the leaves have always been are revealed.  These colors of carotenoids (yellows & oranges) and anthocyanins (reds and purples) have always been in the leaves!  It’s just that the chlorophyll mask them when the leaves are alive.
Our world traveling Temescalian did a similar experiment while he was still in Rhode Island and the leaves that he used had a similar result.
We also labeled different parts of seeds, dissected some lima beans, and “planted” whole lima beans in the window.
Some kids were horrified when they realized that they had eaten seed coats, food, roots, and sprouts when they had snacked on roasted pumpkin seeds!  But those connections help kids understand where our food come from and the need to care for nature around us.

For Super Science Friday + Art: Density
We had different centers focusing on different aspects of density.
One station was highlighted the density of different liquids.  Before we poured honey, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, water with green food coloring, and oil into a container, each Temescalian made predictions.
After the demonstration, the Temescalians recorded the findings.
“I was right!  Honey is the heaviest!”
“What?  I thought water would be under the dish soap.”
“Where is the rubbing alcohol?  I can’t tell.”

How do you get an egg to float in water?
When we think of density, we often only think of the object we are trying to get to float.  We don’t often stop to think about the liquid/solution that the object is floating in.
To demonstrate this, we had two jars.  One with an egg in plain water.  One with an egg in plain water that we started adding spoonfuls of salt to.
The kids were ecstatic as spoonfuls of salt were added to the solution and the egg started to float in the salt water!

We love having Julianne join us for our Super Science and Art Fridays!
At her group, she led the Temescalians in a experience using white oil pastels to draw webs and then watercolor over it.
She discussed how the oil and water resist one another and thus create a wonderful effect.
The Temescalians used the beautiful web just outside of the southwest windows, above the rosemary hedge, as inspiration for the symmetry that exists in nature.

A few other moments from our week in Temescal Creek!

Upcoming Events
Spirit Fridays: Wear a TBS t-shirt, hoodie, hat to show your school spirit!
October
26 – Fall Festival is on Sunday, 11am – 3pm at the University Campus!  Please join us for festivities, sampling savory and sweet treats, an opportunity to partake in future Pick-a-Parties, and listen to Transit of Venus, Mike Sinclair’s band.
31 – Please join us for the Halloween Parade at 8:45am.

November
3 & 4- Parent Teacher conferences.  Please make sure you sign up for your 25 min. slot!  (No school, childcare is available.)
4 – We sent home picture orders.  Please follow the instructions to place your order.  If you would like your child to get a re-take, you must let us know by Nov. 4!
5 – Jesus Sosa, a Oaxacan wood carver, is visiting!  He has pieces available for purchase after school from 3pm – 6pm in the Labyrinth
6 – Our field trip to the Oakland Museum of California is on Nov. 6.  Please send your child to school with a packed lunch with no glass, candy, or gum!
25 – GrandFriends Day
26 to 28 – Thanksgiving Break