We finished our first full week of school and it was full of finishing projects and achieving new firsts!
In conjunction to our study of plants in science, we chose 1-3 leaves to rub with crayons. Layering on top of the waxy rubbings, Temescalians watercolored and explored different techniques and effects that watercolors on crayon could achieve. Some used the watercolor to highlight the rubbings while others tried splatter art with the watercolor. All pieces were original and topped off with an “I Am” poem that had each Temescalian complete the phrases: “I am… I see… I think… I wonder… I feel… I am…” Each piece is a thoughtful reflection and peek into the Temescalians’ minds.
These pieces were a talking point for the grown-ups who joined us for Back to School Night. If you have yet to respond to your Temescalian’s letter/scavenger hunt map, please let us know and we’ll arrange a time for you to come in and write a note back to your Temescalian. Back to School Night was also a time for grown-ups to come together and build community, hear what we’ll be doing in third grade with the Temescalians, see our approach to teaching science and folding civic engagement into our curriculum. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out! Our classroom coordinators are Tim and Miranda. Please look forward to hearing from them about community building opportunities and upcoming events.
Speaking of which, our first TBS community event is the Fall Fest! It will be on Sunday, September 23, from 11am – 2pm at the University campus. Please come for a bouncy house, face painting, wonderful bluegrass music, photo booth, and enter something into the bake-off! It’s a festive way to kick off the school year!
Coming back to school after summer often involves revisiting familiar concepts such as addition and subtraction. We used an addition table to highlight the different types of addition facts. Be sure to go over this addition table with your Temescalian and ask him/her to explain the different categories of facts. (Some are more intuitive than others.) The Bridges program also introduced an addition game called “Make the Sum” (The directions are an image in the following gallery.) Temescalians practiced saying, “Our target sum is ___. I hope I get a ___.” And record ___ + ___ = the target sum in the math side of their STEAM journal. We emphasize that for math, showing our thinking is just as important as the answer that we end up with. Temescalians seemed to enjoy playing this game. We noticed that it was a combination of adding with an element of Memory tossed in. It was more challenging than many initially thought!
Following up on the Addition Table, we introduced the Subtraction Table. Some of these categories were not as self explanatory but once each type of fact was defined, Temescalians went to task, outlining all the subtraction equations that fit into each category. (Ask your Temescalian about this table!)
We continued our study of leaf chromatography from last Friday’s Super Science and Art and noticed the different types of color that were hidden underneath the chlorophyll “jacket” that was hiding each plant’s true colors. The pineapple sage had mixes of greens, yellows and browns. The grape leaf had purples at the top of the coffee filter and swirls of browns, yellows, and greens towards the bottom of the paper. The plum leaf had yellows, browns, and greens on the coffee filter. We asked the Temescalians to draw and guess why some colors were higher on the coffee filter and other colors were lower on the coffee filter, regardless of its leaf type. Some Temescalians thought that the lower ones were heavier. Other Temescalians thought that the colors that were higher on the coffee filter must be lighter. We learned that the purples and reds are called anthocyanins and the yellows and oranges are called carotenoids. Browns represent dead cells and green represent chlorophyll.
Continuing with the theme of plants, for Super Science and Art with Julianne, we focused on the idea of photosynthesis and how plants need sunlight in order to grow. Julianne found two artists, Dan Harvey and Heather Ackroyd, who use plants to create growing portraits. They use negatives of a picture and project it on a canvas that has been prepared with germinated chia seeds. The negative turns into a growing portrait!
Julianne led us in a thinking routine to brainstorm words/phrases that related to plants and what we hope for our year. Some words generated were “seed”, “grow”, “love”. After voting, Temescalians helped cut out dark sheets of paper that will form the word. In our case, we may have a reverse of the word. But as with all things that are left in an uncontrolled area, results will be unpredictable. We hope the plants will grow in a way that our word is visible. Come and check out the garden bed by the Temescal Creek classroom to check its progress! (Do you know what the word is?)
We have been trying out different places in the classroom to read. Our goals for this week have been to identify main characters and problem(s) in the book/chapters that we’ve read. Ask your Temescalian where s/he prefers to read!
During Writing Workshop, we focused on using descriptive language in our writing. Using one of the snack time conversation questions, Temescalians could choose to write about (1) If you were a vegetable, what would you look like and how would your life be? (2) If you were on a deserted island, what 3 things would you bring and what would they look like? (3) If you could create an imaginary creature, where would it live and what would it look like? Temescalians then were paired up to draw their partner’s description. We had so much fun hearing each Temescalian’s writing and seeing the drawings that were borne from these descriptions. Some drawings were more detailed than others, but it depended on what the original writer wrote! We hope that our writing skills continue to be refined as we become more skilled at painting pictures in listeners’ minds with our words!
We had our first sessions of cursive this week! Cursive may seem easy, but it is a discipline that requires much attention to detail and a lot of practice! Jackie and I will be firm guides as the Temescalians trek into the uncharted territory of cursive and handwriting! Please support your Temescalian by encouraging him/her to have correct posture and seating when writing cursive. Also, cursive is all about aim and practice. If it doesn’t look like how it should be the first time, try, try again!
We welcomed families in on Friday for Family Reading. Please check the “Updated Events” tab for updated Family Reading dates and upcoming field trips! This tab will be updated as more field trips and such are planned.
Speaking of which, there will be a walking field trip to the West Berkeley branch of the Berkeley Public Library on October 17! We will be sending home library card registration forms if you would like your child to apply for their own library card. (If your child does not have his/her own card when we go to the library s/he may not borrow any books that day.)
We had our first Weekly Reflection! This is where the Temescalians look over the work that they have done over the course of the week and choose 2-3 items that they want to reflect on. Often, it may be a piece of math, but it could also be a copy of cursive, a page from their STEAM journal or writing journal, or even a copy of the cover of a book they are reading. We want the Temescalians to slow down and think about their work and see their growth as they progress throughout the year. The Weekly Reflection and the 2-3 pieces of work that they choose will be on the right pocket marked, “Return to School” and needs to be returned on Mondays with an encouraging note from a grown-up in response. These sheets will populate your Temescalian’s portfolio and will be a record of their work across the year. The Temescalians thought it was funny that the grown-ups will have homework before they do this year!
Finally, a few snapshots of the Temescalians at play and work in the classroom:
