Last Sunday, our whole community, from ECC to 8th grade families, came together to celebrate the coming of Fall! This yearly festival is full of family friendly activities like making slime (we had a few Temescalian slime educators on hand!), a bouncy house, photo booth, and there was so much to eat. The bbq was delicious, but the main event was the Bake Off. We had a Temescalian parent, Jess, win for her entry of lemon tarts! They were elegant, exquisitely decorated, and oh so tasty! Thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the festivities! We hope you can join in on the fun next year!
Many Asian countries celebrate the change in seasons and to share celebrations from our Chinese culture, Jackie, Seewan, and I, led the Temescalians in some Mid-Autumn Festival related activities. Leading up to this week, we read books about the Mid-Autumn Festival and mooncakes, a tasty treat that is enjoyed as we spend time with family and go look at the moon at its fullest of the year. This holiday is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. We pointed out how the lunar calendar differs from the one that we use in the U.S., and some Temescalians drew connections to their own cultural celebrations that are also determined by a lunar calendar such a Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan, or Diwali.
A central story of the Mid-Autumn Festival is about how life used to be long ago, and how Chang E’ came to live on the moon. Please click on this link to read more about Chang E’ and how she ended up getting separated from her husband to live on the moon. Having become familiar with the basic storyline, I played this mandarin version of the story for the Temescalians, pausing to recap the story and occasionally point out the Chinese characters at the bottom of the screen. Students started recognizing the character for moon/month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=7lU-pJhKkrM
We also read The Pet Dragon that shows how Chinese characters have its origins in pictographs.
During our holiday celebration, Temescalians cycled through stations of making lanterns with Seewan, an origami rabbit with me, and making two kinds of lychee jelly with Jackie as a substitute for the traditional mooncakes that may not be allergen friendly.
We enjoyed the fruits of our labor the following day with some chrysanthemum tea, and noticed that the gelatin jelly had a different consistency than the jellies made of agar. Some Temescalians shared that they did go out to look for the moon in its fullness, but some reported back that it was too cloudy when they looked for it. If you would like to try to make the origami rabbits at home, you can read a version of the Jade Rabbit here, and watch the video to make the origami rabbit here.
In Math, we used rulers and meter sticks to find items that were given measurements in centimeters. We went over the difference between an inch and a centimeter. “An inch is about two fingers long! A centimeter is about as thick as your pinky!” We pointed out that the meter stick is about 39 inches so 100 centimeters is the same as 39 inches, whereas a yard stick only has 36 inches so it can’t be called a meter stick as well. Temescalians showed careful measuring skills as they lined items up with the 0 and measured around the classroom. Some kids noticed that if they found how long an item was, it was easier to find things that were that length. Some enjoyed walking over to objects and measuring them. After finding items, we used number lines to add them up. We incorporated our Addition Facts strategies to name how we were breaking up the numbers to get to “friendly numbers” and make the task of adding two digit numbers easier. Approaching addition with this way builds the foundation of a more solid number sense and becoming more flexible and comfortable with computations. For example, instead of going through the algorithm of 99 +22, a Temescalian could think of the problem as 100 + 21 = 121.
As you know, we have introduced iPads in the classroom for the kids to build number sense at their own pace. This program is individualized. The Temescalian needs to do this work on his/her own. The program adjusts according to the individual’s skills so if a grown up helps the Temescalian too much, the program may assume the grown up’s ability is the Temescalian’s and it may start to give the Temescalian work that is not at his/her level. Your Temescalian may sign up at home using the link in the letter below. Your child should already know his/her login and password. Please let us know if you need support with that! We invite your child practice on Dreambox at home if possible! Please note that we have restrictions that limit access after 8pm.
In reading, we continued practicing using different reading strategies. We have demonstrated Text-Text (connections between two books), Text-Self (connection between the book you’re reading and yourself), Text-World (connections between the the book you’re reading and the world). In reading workshop, we practiced making predictions. We made the distinction that if you’ve already read the book and know what’s going to happen, your “guess” isn’t really a prediction. But for a real prediction, it would be a good idea to make space for it on the journal so that you can go back and check if your prediction was right and record what actually happened.
Temescalians blasted off for Rocket Write, writing about “If you were a character in The Wainscott Weasel, who would you be? (It could be a made up character too.)” Temescalians had a chance to share their Rocket Writes with the class and it generates excitement and gives a chance for volunteers to showcase their work.
We started brainstorming for our Thankfulness Expository. Our focus is on intangible things that are important to the Temescalians and that they are thankful for. We hope to move from a cursory list to digging deeper and connecting ideas with memories that we’ll share in a published piece.
Our celery in food coloring experiment is in its last week. Temescalians were noticing the health of the celery continued to decline in all of the samples, even the control. We noticed that the celery in jars that have pink food coloring were not doing as well – they were withering, dried out, or droopy. The celery in the clear water or the water with 3 drops of blue food coloring and 3 drops of yellow food coloring were doing the best – straight stalks, leaves were still present and full. We even noticed that the jar that had 3 drops of blue and 3 drops of pink had changed from a dark purple to a blue! Such a surprising development! Talk to your Temescalians about what they think is happening. How does the food coloring affect the celery? What is happening inside of the celery stalks?
Our assembly on Friday focused on efforts that the 1st and 2nd graders are leading to recycle food wrappers through the teracycle program. We will be collecting these wrappers daily to be processed and recycled. We also recognized and congratulated the student bakers/chefs who participated in the Fall Fest Bake Off and those who received the most votes for a chicken tortilla soup and his grandmother’s recipe for millionaire’s shortbread.
During our Buddies time, we filled out Venn diagrams as a way to get to know our buddies. Buddies wrote how they are different in the separate sections of the circles, and their similarities in the overlapping section. It was a fun and easy time of forming foundations for our year of work together. We then went out and played a game of Banana Tag.
A few more glimpses from Temescal Creek!
We had a guest musician visit us on Friday to share some music during lunch. (To view, use the password: TemescalCreek! )
In October, there are a few upcoming events to be aware of.
4 & 5 – Parent Teacher conferences. There’ll be no school, but childcare is available. Please contact Ex Day for arrangements.
8 – Professional Development Day (no school, no childcare)
12 – Family Reading (8:30 – 9:00am)
17 – Field trip: We’ll be walking to the West Berkeley branch of the Berkeley Public Library in the afternoon. If your Temescalian needs a library card, please fill out the application we sent home. If s/he has lost her/his card, please fill out the application and send in $1 for a replacement card. If your Temescalian already has a card, please let us know and we’ll double check for you!
18 – Pumpkins and parent volunteers please! We’ll be carving pumpkins with our buddies, but to prepare to do so, we’ll need to bring in pumpkins by 10/18 to scoop out and prepare! Each pumpkin should be one that your Temescalian feels comfortable toting from the gate to our classroom by him/herself. Please label his/her name on the base of the pumpkin. We’ll need parent volunteers for this activity. We hope to start at 1:00pm on Thursday, 10/18. Bring in pumpkin cutters and scoops! Expect to bring home a pumpkin that Friday!
19 – Buddies
23 – Individual Picture Day
26 – Family Reading ( 8:30 – 9:00am)
31 – Halloween Parade and festivities. Parade will be from 8:45 – 9:15am. Please look out for an email from the classroom coordinators, Tim and Miranda, if you would like to come in and lead an activity with the kids. We could do smaller stations if there is enough parent interest. If you’d like to read an age appropriate book, that’d be welcome too! We hope to have activities go from 9:30 – 11:00am.
Finally, there will be a field trip to the Oakland Museum of California on November 1. Please look out for a field trip slip in your Temescalian’s Friday Folders in the coming weeks.
