Our study of seeds flowed into creating seeds and the environments that they would be best suited for. Guiding questions were: How will it travel and disperse? What kind of environment will it need to land in to grow? What climate and temperatures will be present in this environment? The Temescalians were quite creative in their seed design! One created an “exploding acorn” that can live anywhere. Another created a “wormy durmy” seed that moves by both suction cups and bristles, similar to how a wild oat burrows itself into the soil. A Temescalian created a seed that looked much like an artichoke seed that was attached to a large fluffy parachute-like structure.
In the same vein, a Temescalian brought in some sunflowers and we discussed the best method to harvest them. Their tips: “I tap it on my palm and while that works, it hurts after a while so you have to switch hands.” “I banged it on the table and the seeds went flying!”
This experimentation will help as we begin to transition to thinking about how people long ago lived in this area.
We also talked about different aspects of sunflowers, in conjunction to our artistic representations of the sunflowers in our class.
We welcomed Mariah from the Ohlone Herbal Center back and she talked about the different layers of dirt. The top layer that has yet to decompose but is made of things like fallen leaves and pine needles is called the “organic humus”. The next layer is the top soil and subsoil, where plant roots reach. In the parent material layer, more rocks are evident. The bedrock is the layer of cooled magma that has been pushed up by the earth’s core. But the nutrients that a plant needs to grow come from the top few layers of the earth’s crust. We also looked at different types of dirt, talking about which ones would be best to grow plants. “The dark soil looks better.” “The sand doesn’t look like plants would grow there.” Mariah also introduced the chorus of a song called “Dirt Made My Lunch” by The Banana Slug String Band. (The song starts at 1:40.)
For math we started talking about things that come in groups as a way to start the conversation about multiplication. We noticed that many things come in groups of 2s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 10s, 12s. It was harder to come up with things that come in groups of 3s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 11s. Can you think of anything that usually comes in these groups?
As we begin our study of multiplication, we will be talking about how it is the same thing as skip counting, but fast! Instead of adding 3+3+3+3+3, we see that it is five sets of 3, which is the same thing as skip counting by 3s five times. This translates to 3×5 or 5×3. We will make flash cards and eventually see how well we know these multiplication facts.
Our purpose is to introduce the mechanics of the concepts, but at some point, the Temescalians will be expected to begin to remember them so that they can begin to tackle more challenging work as they grow as mathematicians. We also used a 100 chart to skip count by a specific number and will be looking for patterns for each set of numbers.
Temescalians have a love for reading, but when reading, you aren’t just reading words. Your mind should also be making connections! We introduced three different types of connections we want the Temescalians to make:
(1) Text to Text: T-T Where the book you’re reading reminds you of another book. ie: “Harry Potter is Voldemort’s downfall just like Anastasia is Rasputin’s downfall.”
(2) Text to Self: T-S Something in the book you are reading reminds you of your own life. ie: “Wendy in The Wainscott Weasel moved to Wainscott and I just moved.”
(3) Text to World: T-W Something in the book you are reading reminds you of something happening in the world. ie: “There is a drought in the Wainscott Woods and there is a drought in California.
We hope that as the Temescalians read and practice making connections they can dig deeper into the stories and think deeply about what they are reading. We practiced listening and sharing in reading partners.
Continuing with our author study of Patricia Polacco, we read My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother and we made many connections to the story. “I have a redheaded brother.” “I have an older brother who can be rotten.” “I hate rhubarb!”
Our small moments writing is well under way. We have gone from the “pre-write” process of using a mind map to brainstorm all of the things that we did this summer. From that, choose one that would utilize the most senses. After drafting, we shared our pieces to the group. Listeners highlighted the senses that we heard by pointing them then as the writer read his/her piece aloud. This exercise was silly but a great way to really notice when a writer incorporated senses into his/her writing.
We had Buddies with our 7th grade buddies this week. To prepare, we scooped out the pumpkin guts on Wednesday. Thank you, again, parent volunteers for coming and helping out with that process.
While we were scooping out, we noticed that many of the pumpkins had sprouts inside of them! In class, we noticed that the roots came out first, then the shoots/stems, and the leaves were still covered by the pumpkin seed shell. “How come they sprouted inside?” We reasoned that it was wet enough for the roots and shoots to break out of the seed coat/shell, but without the sunlight, the seed coat wasn’t able to dry and fall off. It was also dark inside of the pumpkin so even if it was able to sprout, it would not be able to continue to grow into a mature pumpkin plant. “But how will it eventually come out?” Some of the Temescalians’ pumpkins were already turning into liquid and growing mold after just 2 days in the classroom. That led us to be able to conclude that after a while, the pumpkin decomposes and turns to mush but provides nutrients and falls apart enough for the seedlings to get sunlight and begin to grow. “Rotten pumpkins are like the humus layer of dirt.”
Our Buddy time was spent carving the faces that we had designed onto our pumpkins! While we were carving, we talked about our costumes and Halloween plans with our 7th grade buddies. Buddy time is something that we look forward to every month! Because of the timing, we had time with our buddies in the morning, as well as after their field trip in the afternoon, and get got to enjoy roasted pumpkin seeds and have our Peace Circle together to close the day.
Our Family Reading time was full of looking through portfolios, reading, playing math games, and talking about our pumpkins!
We finished the week with our Super Science and Art time with Julianne and talked about photosynthesis. There are artists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, who use grass to create living portraits! We also talked about how we could try and see if we could affect a plant’s photosynthesis process by creating shapes and attaching them to leaves. We will see if any change has happened over the weekend!
Other happenings from this week:
We have the Halloween Parade on Friday so we’ll have Halloween festivities in lieu of family reading. If you need to park at school, you can park at spots 1-20 at the parking lot just north of Ledger’s Liquors on Acton St.
For other upcoming events, please refer to the sidebar of “Upcoming Events” to the right.
If you would like to contribute to the class wikis, click on the button on the upper right of the page, right above the picture of the depot. To sign up, click on “edit”. Remember to press “save”!
