We started this week with our first formal foray into multiplication by looking at Catherine Fosnot’s curriculum that goes hand in hand with the Bridges curriculum. She poses big questions that can be explored over a longer period of time. Our introduction to multiplication involved us looking at a poster called “The Grocery Store” that showed different items, in groups, being sold for different amounts of money. The first step at looking at this poster had us describing the object, how it was organized, and write a number sentence/equation for it.
The main idea for this first step is to help kids start seeing the connection between addition and multiplication, which is essentially repeated addition, but more efficient. Some helpful vocabulary to use with your Temescalian would be “row” and “column” when describing the item and how it comes in groups. We worked in pairs and groups to practice this skill but using a different image, “The Pet Store”.
Our first walking field trip on Wednesday was a success! Nora, the librarian at the West Berkeley Branch of the public library welcomed us in and introduced us to the many online resources available to us. If you click on “Explore” -> “elibrary” -> “downloads & streaming“, you’ll be able to find a plethora of ways to bring books with you, wherever you go! Hoopla allows you to access ebooks that you can read from your own device once you register with your library card. It’s sort of like a library, except with ebooks. Overdrive has many titles that are available as ebooks or audiobooks. Kanopy Kids is sort of like Netflix, but of books/series! There is also an adult version of Kanopy for you to peruse, but please click around the main page of the Berkeley Public Library homepage and let us know what resources you discover or what’s useful to you! (We included pictures of each child and their books. We limited their selections to 2 books and they’re due November 7! Please return the books or renew them on your own.)
We continued working on summarizing in reading and read “The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs” from Mightier Than the Sword compiled by Jane Yolen. It can be hard to draw out importance and not just write/retell every little thing in the story. Another way to think about summarizing is “Somebody wanted, but so then.” By answering each part of this prompt, Temescalians may be able to start narrowing things down to just the important details.
Our Rocket Write prompt was either: “What would you do if you were in a leaky boat in the middle of a pond?” or “What type of fruit would you live in?” Many thought of James and the Giant Peach or Sponge Bob Squarepants for the latter prompt, and we had a few Temescalians share their writing with the class.
In conjunction with our Zones of Regulation curriculum, we often check in with characters and ask the Temescalians what zone a character might be. We identified possible zones for characters in Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf and then challenged the Temescalians to design their pumpkin with a face that was in an easily identifiable zone. Some Temescalians went with animal faces, but the zones were still very apparent.
Thank you to the grownups who came in on Thursday to help us scoop out the pumpkins in preparation for the carving with the 7th grade buddies. You can tell by the faces that some Temescalians enjoy this process more than others, but overall, a wonderful time was had!
Finally, after carving the pre-designed faces into the pumpkins, Temescalians and 7th grade buddies were challenged to make a face that matched the one on their pumpkins! Can you guess which zone each pumpkin and pair are in? (Green – calm, ready to go, happy. Yellow – Anxious, nervous, hyper. Red – Angry, out of control. Blue – Sad, sleepy, confused.)
We laid the pumpkins seeds out to dry overnight and then we roasted them on Friday! Just a little oil and salt and bake them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, turning at about 25 minutes into the baking process. A few Temescalians helped with the process along the way, and everyone enjoyed a bag to bring home at the end of the day!
We snuck in a little bit more science and used coffee filters to show what happens during transpiration. “The water moves up the coffee filter.” “The water disappears at the top.” “It evaporates.” “The water travels up!”
A video that ties into this concept can be found here: How do Trees Transport Water from Roots to Leaves?
We also showed them a few videos on how maple syrup is made (to answer a question they had about sap and syrup at the beginning of our study of plants): How It’s Made – Maple Syrup and Maple Syrup with Ethan and Justin Spencer One big takeaway from the first video was that sap is mostly water, and it takes 40 liters of sap to make 1 liter of syrup!
Julianne brought Temescalians outside to add more chia seeds to the garden bed.
We introduced the various clubs that will be available on Fridays. The ones open to 3rd graders are the Sewing and Crafts Club, Alphabet Club (Genders & Sexualities Alliance, also known as Gay Straight Alliance in years past), Quiet Club (where you have the space to just read, do quiet activities), Ashoka Club (led by middle schoolers to cause change for good in our community).
Our assembly featured kindergartners sharing what they have learned about worms: “Some people think that if you cut a worm apart, two will grow back. This is not true. If you cut it near its tail then a little part will grow back. But if you cut a worm by its head it will die.” “Worms are friends!” We also said goodbye to Jenny, who has graciously helped to sub for Spanish until we found a permanent Spanish teacher, Erika. The Temescalians were very sad to see her go, and we made cards for her, expressing our gratitude and happy memories with her. Julianne also shared that the sheets with tear away parts to them are part of a Kindness Campaign. Each illustrates a kind act, and the tear away parts are things that you can do!
A Temescalian tradition that we have is to fill the “Good Things Journal” with good things that we noticed about other people throughout the day. This week, we appreciated the grownups who came in to help in addition to the day-to-day acts of kindness that we see. Please come take a look at the good things we’ve accumulated throughout the week(s)!
We got to celebrate not one, but two birthdays this week!
A few glimpses from other parts of our week. To note, we started writing cursive letters in cursive! It may just be the letters “i” and “t” but they’re a start!
A few reminders:
– Picture Day is tomorrow! Please place your orders for your photos by tonight!
Parenting adults who want to purchase photos must place orders online before Tuesday. We have a new photographer this year (Roots & Shoots) and they offer a full refund if you are not satisfied with your child’s photos.
Questions about ordering? Please contact Nikki at Roots & Shoots: nikki@roots-shoots.
Note, you’ll need to send Roots & Shoots an email if you’d prefer they don’t use your child’s image for promotional purposes with your child’s name and “The Berkeley School” in the body of this email. Make-up Day is Tuesday, November 6 on both campuses; and that will just be for individual make-ups for students who were absent on Photo Day, not for re-dos.
– Could you please check on your child’s hook to see if there are any jackets/lunchboxes/etc. that might be better used at home? Our outside cubbies are starting to look a bit unkempt…
– Halloween Costumes: Please consider something that you can easily move around in for the parade. No masks, gore, or weapons. We encourage book characters, but the limit is your imagination and ingenuity! Arrive to school dressed in your costume as the Halloween Parade will be from 8:45 – 9:15am.
We will be asking grownups who stay for the Halloween festivities afterwards to help kids change out of their costumes right after the parade and we’ll start crafts and activities around 9:30-11:00am. We’ll be cleaned up and ready to go for P.E. by 11:15am.
