Hello Families,
We celebrated our 100th Day of School, and there were so many celebrations of learning along the way! We shared our combined efforts for the 1,000 Projects, a third grade group came together to write their own song and perform at our monthly assembly, and we had a few birthdays to celebrate!

After a month of independent work, Temescalians brought in their contributions for the local ecosystem themed 1,000 Projects. Each project was so carefully crafted and thoughtfully put together. Grownups were invited and we got to see 100 Collections in the K-2 classrooms, as well as see the 1,000 things the local wetlands, grasslands, forest, and the bay/coast ecosystems.

Visiting the K-2 classrooms to see their 100 Collections.

We invited other grades to visit our classrooms, and the 4th & 5th graders from Strawberry Creek and Cerrito Creek came by to view our projects.

We also shared our projects with our 7th grade buddies for our monthly buddies time. We took time to write compliments for each project on post-its, and they were stapled onto the green explanation sheet. These green sheets and the compliments (yellow from Temescalians, purple from 7th grade buddies) can be found in the Temescalians’ portfolios. There were so many glowing compliments from 7th grade buddies, and they lamented that they didn’t have more time to examine each project and write more compliments with care. Some 7th grade buddies even recalled when they did this project, and I showed the gallery of when they did this project to the class!

We celebrated the 100th Day of School with activities like “How would you celebrate your 100th birthday?”, “What would you do with $100?”, completing 100 piece puzzles, and seeing patterns in your name.

We practiced our reading and note taking skills and learned more about the Ohlone family, homes, clothing, and society. We did a jigsaw where each group read a different topic and pulled out different facts about the Ohlone people, and then shared back to the whole group. Some interesting facts that we learned was that each village could have up to 200 people. Homes could be made of woven tule or redwood bark, depending on what they were near. They moved to the oak tree groves when acorns were ready to harvest and to the ocean in warmer weather. The Ohlone people did not wear a lot of clothing. There were various roles in the village like the chief and medicine person. The role of the chief was often passed down to a son, but if there was no son, the role could be passed on to a daughter or sister. Everyone in the family had a role. Males would hunt and females would gather roots, nuts, and berries to eat. Females would also prepare food. Males would not hunt because they were stronger, but because the Ohlone people believed that those who gave life could not take life.

We started Typing Club for the Temescalians. If you would like your Temescalian to practice at home, they need to be signed in with their TBS email address (Email address: their first name+the first two letters of their last name+2028 @theberkeleyschool.org  For example, if your child’s name is Lisa Chung, their email address would be LisaCh2028 @theberkeleyschool.org Password: grad2028 .) You can login into the Temescal Creek class of https://tbstyping.typingclub.com/ Be careful that you enter our classroom information or else you may be practicing on the Individual Edition that is unrelated to Temescal Creek. I will release a set of lessons each week. The students have at least 85% accuracy in order to move on to the next lesson. They are very excited about learning touch typing. Please keep an eye on them so that they are consistently putting their fingers on the home row.

A group of third graders came together to form a band, The Blue Diamonds, and created an original song that they performed at our monthly assembly.

Lyrics for the song:

During the assembly, the Jewish Association shared the story of Purim, Pezhham (our music teacher) led a group of his private drumming students in a performance of their Persian drumming, and ExDay classes shared the skills they have acquired in the judo and gymnastics classes:

https://vimeo.com/807142776/1fddf5213b

https://vimeo.com/807142776/1fddf5213b

https://vimeo.com/807143960/9efe981b9c

We celebrated two birthdays! We loved seeing pictures of our Temescalian peers as younger people, share appreciations for them, and ask questions about them as younger people.

Upcoming Events:
March
12 – Daylight Savings (Set your clocks! We “spring forward” and we “lose” an hour!)
13 – We’ll be celebrating Pi Day a day early on 3/13! If you’d like to bring in a pie to share, please do so! We’ll be enjoying them at the end of the day, so if you have time to stop by the classroom to help serve the pies while the kids are at PE, 2:05 – 3:05pm, that would be greatly appreciated!
14 – Field trip to Coyote Hills. We’ll be leaving TBS at 11am and arriving back on campus at 3:00pm. Please send your Temescalian to school dressed in layers and comfortable walking shoes. It is forecast to rain on Tuesday so a change of shoes/socks may be a good idea to bring and leave in their parent carpool ride. They should also bring a packed lunch and water bottle.
17 – Half Day. 3rd-5th grade pick up time is 12:20pm.
24 – Family Reading (8:30 – 9:00am in Temescal Creek)

April
3-7 Spring Break (no school, check with Jono about childcare)
14 – Assembly
21 – Family Reading
24 – 28 Readathon Week