The week before Spring Break is always a buzz with activities related to and celebrating the joy of reading. Kindergartners in Sweet Briar Creek rang the gong twice a day to signal everyone to Drop Everything And Read (DEAR). On Tuesday, we had Temescalians share a poem in their pocket to anyone who asked them to share. Madeleine Dunphy, a parent of a TBS alumni, come and share about her writing process for her non-fiction books. Thanks to all of the donations from the TBS community, we had a very successful Book Swap! This all culminated with our Readathon that was punctuated with guest readers from our community, as well as reading with 3/4/5 grade houses and spinning the “Wheel of Genres” to try out different genres!
DEAR prompted Temescalians to a book at their side at all times, including morning meeting and lunch! While this time of reading was only for 5 minutes, it was amazing to see how quickly Temescalians settled into their books each time the gong rang throughout the week.
Temescalians chose a poem to memorize and on Tuesday, we shared them throughout the day, even during snack! We also shared our poems with the whole class. We are also working on publishing a poem to create a class anthology. We invite you to join us on Monday, April 22 from 8:45 – 9:45am for a Celebration of Learning to share these poems! We hope that you can join us!
Madeleine Dunphy shared the non-fiction books that she has written, and talked about her writing process for each. She traveled the world in order to do research for these books. To write Here is the Tropical Rainforest, she spent three months camping in the rainforest and shared that the frogs and animals were so noisy at night that it was like she was at a rock concert. She also dove at the Great Barrier Reef to research for Here is the Coral Reef. This book, and Here is the Arctic Winter are her favorites although for the Arctic Winter book, she didn’t actually travel to do her research. Instead, she spoke to scientists in the field and did research remotely. For Cat in the Night, she decided to write on a topic that was bit closer to home. She talked about her pet cat that was the inspiration for the focus of the book, but changed its name so that it would be easier to read. Talking about her writing process also included the collaboration she had with her illustrator. She shared the inspiration for the girl in the story is based on her friend’s child. In one slide, she also shared how the illustrator inserted factual information about how cats always land on its feet by illustrating two cats as they fell to the ground.
Elementary teachers pitched in and organized all of the book donations, and set up the Book Swap. Classes came in throughout the day to take 2-3 chapter books and 2 picture books. Some found new additions to series they already had, others found old favorites and greeted them like old friends. Some Temescalians decided to find books for younger siblings. All in all, it was a successful Book Swap and we were able to connect with a parent in our TBS community who brought the remaining books to the West County Detention Center and other recipients in the community.
Our week celebrating the joy of reading culminated in our annual, and much loved, Readathon! Each Temescalian came dressed in comfy clothes like pjs and brought sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and stuffies to keep them comfortable during our day of reading. We started the day with Family Reading.
Our first guest reader was Miranda, a parent, who shared Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories such as “The Mother Mouse”, “The Woodpecker and The Lion”, “The Buffalo and the Monkey”, “The Monkey King”, and “The Wicked Crane”. These stories are favorites in their home, and shared wisdom about how to treat one another, and how their actions effect others.
Our second guest reader for the day was Bliss. She shared one of her favorite stories, Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco. This book is set in Berkeley/Oakland and is about stories from the author’s childhood. Temescalians sat enrapt as Bliss shared this story of family who aren’t related by blood who care for one another and gifts that you can hold in your hand, and some that you can’t.
We also introduced The Wheel of Genres to nudge Temescalians to try different genres. We spun “mysteries” and “historical fiction”. For mysteries, many went with Nancy Drew but others picked up some new chapter books as well! Historical fiction seemed to be an easy find for many as they picked up the I Survived, The Magic Treehouse, and the Anne of Green Gables series.
Our final guest speaker of the day was Mitch and he shared three poems with us. For the first two, he asked us to think about what evidence we had for what we thought was happening in the poem. The third one was because he just liked it. Read these poems and talk about them with your Temescalians!
We also spent time in our 3/4/5 Houses to read together. The “Earth House” or “Quakes” met in Temescal Creek while the “Fire House” or “Flaming Phoenixes” read together in the Art Studio.
One Temescalians wanted to donate a book, They Call Me Mix, to our class library and read it to the class too!
But we didn’t just read all week. We also worked on multiplication and division word problems and strategies!
We also learned a little bit about Ohlone trading using a game that students from the California College of the Arts developed for us last year. Each team has a different role such as a “trader”, “hunter”, “craftsman”, or “shaman”. Each role has resources/materials that they have and resources/materials that they need but each item is a different weight. Using a balance, teams need to decide if things are fair trades. There are two ways to win. Either collect the most items or see who has the most materials, overall. Most of the Temescalians had a great time trading and supporting one another so that their trades would benefit everyone involved. Talk about cooperative teamwork!
We also built on our work with an axle and wheel and gave Temescalians a new challenge. Using a plastic cup, how would you be able to “park” it under a ramp by just rolling it? Temescalians tested different theories of placement on the ramp and recorded their findings. An interesting development was that what worked for those whose ramps were on the wood was different than those whose ramps were on the rug. The idea of friction came back into play and Temescalians had to adjust accordingly.
In Art, Temescalians made little books with Julianne, based on the books that they carried with them in case of DEAR.
We also had a few shares from the class. One Temescalians brought in a book that she made with her cousins. She also brought in a cake that she decorated with her family over the weekend.
We hope you had a restful and relaxing Spring Break! We can’t wait to hear all about it when we see each other next!
Upcoming Events:
April
19 – Buddies
22 – Celebration of Learning: Poetry Read (8:45 – 9:45am) Potluck signup on the top of the main page
26 – Family Reading (8:30 – 9:00am)
