Happy New Year! | Temescal Creek OLD

Our first week back from Winter Break was full of new beginnings and experiences.

We welcomed the Temescalians back with… homework!
Each week, Temescalians will be given a packet that includes a reading log and a few pieces of work that will reinforce skills and strategies that we have already introduced in class.
The reading log is 20 minutes every day followed by recording the book title, pages read, and a connection the Temescalian has made while reading.

Any additional work should not take more than 20 minutes each day. The main idea of homework in 3rd grade is to practice concepts and skills, but also to begin forming good homework habits and taking responsibility for one’s work. Temescalians are expected to keep track of their work and show grown ups the assignments they have for the week.
Please feel free to contact teachers of there are any questions.

Following up our Patricia Polacco author study, we split up into small groups to read a specific Polacco book. The Temescalians chose from revisiting Chicken Sunday, The Tree of Dancing Goats, or reading a new book, Mrs. Katz and Tush, My ‘Ol Man, or Junkyard Wonders. In small groups, Temescalians will practice fluency skills such as paying attention to punctuation, phrasing, and intonation. They will also summarize the book, list main characters and the setting, highlight themes in each book, and define unfamiliar words. This is a culmination of different skills we have introduced and practiced throughout the first part of this year.

We also continued to work on and finish our New Year’s Resolutions. You can see them displayed in the classroom. Within each snow globe, each Temescalian illustrated their resolution after writing about it in the lines below. Please come by and take a look at the variety of different resolutions.

We started a new component of word study and introduced Wordly Wise to the Temescalians. Wordly Wise is a vocabulary building curriculum that also includes word study and reading comprehension. The Temescalians were very excited about this structured work and dove into it with gusto!

In Math, Temescalians made the connection between multiplication and division. Looking at an array, they would write out multiplication number sentences, and then write the division number sentences of that fact family. Some Temescalians noticed, “Oh! Division is just the opposite of multiplication!” “The bigger number needs to start the division sentence.” Ask your Temescalian to help you divide things into groups in your daily life! We often talk about making snack as a touchpoint for Temescalians to better understand division.

We took our first field trip of the new year to the Regional Botanical Garden in Tilden Park. Building on the artifacts that we have seen and the stories and facts that we have gathered about the Ohlone, it was an experience to go into a garden specifically cultivated to feature plants native to the different regions within California, and learn their uses. Our focus of seeing how where one lives affect how one lives was furthered as the docents brought us around the garden. We were so lucky to have a sunny day amid a week of rainy days! We got to use soap root to actually wash our hands! We saw how the yucca plant’s pointy leaves are used as needles in basket making and weaving. The yucca plant fibers are also used to make cordage,

Our misty morning soon cleared up to a beautiful day!

The rain made the water level much higher and in the rush of the water, we didn’t see any crayfish.

But other groups saw salamanders!

The bay leaves were used in a tea to help headaches.

Manzanita come in many varieties. This is a ground covering one, but the main identifier are the fruits that look like little apples.

Sometimes called “refrigerator trees”, manzanita trees are often very cool to the touch.

Manzanita blossoms.

Ninebark trees have very straight branches that the Ohlone would use to craft into arrows.

Ohlone people made detachable arrowheads out of obsidian or chert.

Soap root had many uses.

The Ohlone would wash with it, create a lather to stun fish, and as a tool.

The Ohlone would use it to make brushes.

It also had natural chemicals in it that would create a lather.

Lather from rubbing the soap root in our hands!

It was a cold activity, but the experience was worth the chill factor!

The agave plant also had many uses.

Its fibers were turned into cordage.

The cordage was used to make nets and snares.

Agave fibers were also used to create sandals.

You could also roast an agave heart, much like an artichoke heart.

The yucca plant had sharp points on the end of their leaves that would be used as needles in weaving or basket making.

We got to grind acorns into acorn flour.

We got to cut basket bush stalks with a piece of obsidian and a shard of chert.

Trying to match seeds to its flower.

Playing staves! All six = 2 points, 3/3 = 1 point.

Walking amongst giants.

Some tribes used redwoods to make dugout canoes.

Elderberry cane were used to make clap sticks.

We also looked at a map of the Ohlone and their neighbors. We described where in the state they lived, as well as comparing/contrasting how the Ohlone people lived then vs. how they live now.

We had the opportunity to tour the kelp forest Strawberry Creek created. Each student focused on a different aquatic creature, created a food web, created a kelp forest, collected trash from the beach, and learned about the different levels of the ocean. The Temescalians were brought around by a Strawberry Creek docent and the buzz in the room was full of wonder and discovery. Sharing back in the classroom, Temescalians observed:
“Nothing on the food web ate the moon jelly.” “Orange puff ball sponge eat plankton.” “Hellepelatic zone every square inch of water is 8 tons.” “Leopard shark has a scientific name that starts with an ‘s’.” “Halibut’s eyes are at first on both sides of the head and then migrated to one side of the head because they’re ground predators.” “Sunflower star has 24 legs when is adult. 5 when it’s born.” “The wolf eel was cool. They made paintings of different sea zones including the abyss zone.” “The swell shark is about 2 ft. long.” “In a regular submarine in twilight zone, it starts shrinking. Midnight and Mariana Trench has so much pressure that it could squish you.” “The California Scorpion fish can grow up to 17 inches. Poison comes through a spine. Its prey is its predator. It hides in the day and hunts at night, and its prey hunts it during the day.” “[The kelp forest] was really cool.”
The Temescalians can look forward to doing this project when they’re 5th graders!

We finished the week with an all school assembly. During this time, Julianne and Emily presented the initiative to make the school wide agreements more visible at TBS. Jared announced that we are the defending volleyball champs, and also to announce that we will now use the BYA gym for after school practice and games! Go support TBS Bobcats! Strawberry Creek presented different situations where stereotyping has occurred, and how to address it. The middle school drama team presented another “In Your Shoes” skit. A We Day Project was introduced: pen pals with Nigerian girls.

Making the school wide agreements visible at TBS.

We are the defending city-wide volleyball champs! We will also be able to use the BYA gym for after school sports! Come out and support TBS!

Strawberry Creek performed a few skits about stereotyping and how to address them.

“You’re a boy because you dress like.” But girls can like sports and wear blue. Boys can like pink or purple and love to dance! Both are okay!”

“Go easy on her. She’s a girl.”

“I wasn’t going to. She’s a good kicker.”

Middle school skit on “In Your Shoes”

We Project: Pen pals to a Nigerian girls school.

Our Super Science and Art period focused on weather. With the onset of El Niño, many Temescalians do not really know what that is so we looked into weather, learned about an artist who makes clouds indoors, and made a cloud in a jar!
Julianne introduced Berndnaut Smilde’s artwork – A series of photographs of clouds that he made indoors. Each cloud is different, but his work was to focus on capturing transience by capturing it for posterity. (Ask your Temescalians what “transience” and “posterity” mean!) She then led small groups in using perspective to draw.

We also learned about weather and how clouds are formed when cold air interacts with hot air. To demonstrate this, we created a cloud in a jar with the simple items of a glass jar, hot water, a match, and ice. This observable science experiment made clear what happens when cold air interacts with hot air. This lays the groundwork to learn more about the El Niño weather system that we’re currently experiencing. Ask your Temescalian what they noticed in the jar! What was happening with the cold air coming from the ice in the jar?