Last week and this week have been a whirlwind of activity and experiences!  We finish off the school year with a study of light and sound waves and we took a field trip to the Exploratorium to have a more in-depth understanding of these concepts with all of the hands on resources that the Exploratorium has to offer.  While the Exploratorium is a huge space, we designed a scavenger hunt to keep us focused on related activities.  We saw how a vibrations are related to sound waves.  Sound is not possible in a vacuum, or when there is no air present.  Light is actually all of the colors of the rainbow.  The Monochromatic Room, also known as the “rainbow room”/”jellybean room” showed us that in the absence of white light, we cannot see colors as we typically experience them.  A favorite experience was the “quiet room”.  Kids tried to walk as quietly across a path of gravel as possible.  Some tips for crossing that area successfully was to walk as lightly as possible and lift your feet slowly.  The “giant mirror” was quite a mind bending experience.  The curvature of the mirror affects both light AND sound waves!  We encourage you to go back to the Exploratorium over the summer and have your Temescalian be your guide of the sound and light galleries!  Many thanks to the chaperones who joined us and braved BART so that we could have so many experiences at the Exploratorium!

We built on these concepts in the classroom with our own light and sound waves experiences.  We used slinkies to demonstrate how a wave moves, both as a wave, with a crest and trough, and horizontally, where it compresses as it moves along the wave.  We also used light sources to see its effects on a piece of foil and a mirror.

We celebrated a few birthdays!  We love seeing Temescalians as younger people and hearing about their favorites as a younger person.  These experiences knit our community closer together!

Every year, the 8th graders have an up-cycle fashion show where they repurpose old clothes to create something new.  In small groups, they worked to design and execute a concept.  Groups named themselves accordingly and used things like old shirts, dresses, pants, jeans, shoes, ribbon, foam board, mini lights, spray paint, and glitter.  We are always blown away by the ingenuity of the designers and their process of morphing their concept as they create.  There were some dramatic designs this year!

Our Annual Walkathon focused on human rights issues.  Kindergartners learned about change makers like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Harvey Milk, Malala Yousafzai, and Martin Luther King Jr. and how each of them helped fight for human rights.  The 1st/2nd graders summed up their efforts to educate our community about recycling and composting.  They even set up a bin at the Walkathon for the snack bar wrappers to TerraCycle!  We shared about the efforts our community has done to stand up for human rights.  From contributing to those protesting at Standing Rock and writing letters to the Army Corps of Engineers, wearing Black Lives Matter shirts as a conversation starter, and designing gender neutral bathroom signs. These are all a few ways that we have tried to support human rights.  There is also a bake sale on Saturday, June 3, at 4th Street in front of Peet’s Coffee to fundraise for the refugees in our community.  The proceeds will go towards buying grocery cards and BART cards to give to the Highland Hospital social work department which provides services for refugees.
We marched with our 7th grade buddies and got lots of supportive honks, and a number of people asking us questions and why we were marching!  These conversations are exactly why we were out in the community yesterday!  As we made our way to the Early Childhood Center (ECC) on Francisco Street, we chanted “H-U-M-A-N   R-I-G-H *clap* T-S!”  We were welcomed by the preschoolers at our other campus, and it was so encouraging to have the littles cheering for us, and grabbing a quick sip of their freshly squeezed lemonade!  Then we enjoyed making duct tape wallets, bubble wands, and a field day at Ohlone Park before heading back to TBS!

It is an annual tradition to close the year with a day at the beach!  Kindergarten through third grades go to Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda for a day of wading, sand play, exploring, and just enjoying one another!  It also signals that the last days of school are coming up!

We have been working so hard on our local plant and animal research projects!  This multi-step process started with deciding on a plant or animal to study.  We went to the local library to borrow books for our research.  We learned about what plagiarism is and how we have to write things in our own words, not just copy straight from the book/article.  We took notes on note cards and also wrote down the bibliographical information for our sources.  Then we started writing!  We are so excited to share these projects with you on Monday!  As with our other Celebrations of Learning, we’ll start our time with a gallery walk, writing compliments on post its.  Then we’ll split up into smaller groups where each Temescalian will share their book.  Please give a compliment or question for each presenter before moving on to the next Temescalian.  Finally, we’ll collect the books and gather together before having our potluck breakfast.  (Please click on the link on the upper right to sign up for the potluck!)

Next week, don’t forget to bring in 1-2 brown paper grocery bags labeled with your Temescalian’s name so that we can begin the wrapping up and cleaning up process!  Our last day of school is Thursday, June 8!