Hello October! | Temescal Creek OLD

Design Challenge: How would you adapt your house to prepare for a weather event that could result in flooding? Third graders have been learning about weather, hurricanes, landforms, and the water cycle, so they were well prepared to grapple with their first design challenge using materials from our Maker Nook. Julianne also leant us supplies and her expertise during our Super Science and Art time last Friday. The Temescalians jumped right in designing in their S.T.E.A.M. journals and constructing models. Some houses had motes and others were adapted with floatation devices with anchors so they won’t float away. As they shared their ideas, the designs became more elaborate and collaborative. This work continues this week . . .

Author’s Chair was introduced and Temescal writers who felt like their pieces were ready shared their Summer Memento small moment narratives. We discussed when and how a story feels complete, and that it needs a beginning, middle, and end leaving a sense of closure. The audience asked questions, shared compliments, and made connections. Sharing our writing in community is inspiring, motivating, and enables us to learn from each other.

As we have been studying Wetlands, we have learned that there are only 10% left in California as these marshes have been turned into marinas over time. This is a loss of one of our most beautiful biomes, which is a habitat for many plants and animals. Wetlands also act as storm buffers, reduce erosion, improve water quality, contribute oxygen, and help with flood control locally. We will be learning how to protect what is left and what we can do to offset their loss, like building and taking care of rain gardens.

We finished up the math corner calendar for September that focused on different ways to approach multiplication and extending patterns. The mathematicians also shared strategies for solve multi-step word problems. This week we have moved into our unit on multiplication with our first math forum.