Hello Families,
It was so nice seeing so many of you at Back to School Night! Here are some snapshots from our evening together. The first few are of Craig’s handkerchief juggling activity. It was lovely to see the joy that came as you challenged yourself and tried something that might have been outside of your comfort zone! As I listened to you all share about your Hopes and Dreams for your Temescalian and your family in small groups, it was a moment of vulnerability and genuine connection that we hope to build upon throughout the year.
Some of the resources that I shared last night can be found here:
Slideshow of Curriculum and helpful resources
Temescal Creek Back to School Night Outline and Resources
Link to Temescal Creek’s daily schedule
Monday flower or Friday laundry sign-ups
“I Am” poem
Our Temescalians have been working so hard to complete the “I Am” poem that you saw on Back to School Night. They first found 2-3 leaves from around campus to do a leaf rubbing on it. Then used watercolor to have a watercolor resist effect on the background. Temescalians then cut and pasted their “I Am” poem onto this background. The results are individual and stunning.
Handwriting
I like to start our handwriting unit by showing this video of Jake Weidmann, the youngest of the 12 master penmen in the world. Cursive is an art, and I showed this video with the kids to help them understand the immense dedication, practice, and time it takes to craft the art of handwriting.
Rosh Hashanah
We have a number of members in our classroom community who wanted to share their Rosh Hashanah celebrations. We learned about a shofar and heard what it sounds like. We heard stories about the honey and apples, and why the challah bread is baked in the shape of a circle (to symbolize the start of the cycle of the new year). Thank you, adults, for coming in to share your traditions and celebrations with us!
Challah recipe:
Math
Our math unit is moving beyond a review of second grade math and single digit addition and subtraction. We are now moving into double and multiple digit addition and subtraction. We discussed different methods to solve addition and subtraction, and many of these methods work for both operations, however, subtraction is a bit more finicky and you cannot break apart the numbers into its place value and recombine it again. The best strategies for subtraction are drawing a picture to do one-one elimination, building the number with base ten blocks and then physically taking them away, a number line, and the algorithm. We reinforced these skills with a number of games. Some are ones that we introduced last week and some are those that we introduced this week.
Make the Sum
Target Twenty
Blast off to Space
Rocket Write
We started the year with the expectation of writing 3 sentences within 5 minutes, and if needed, the 3 additional minutes for illustration could be used towards completing 3 sentences. We highlight that spelling is not the main focus of this exercise, but the practice of just getting ideas down on paper so if they weren’t sure, they are encouraged to give it their best show, circle it, and keep writing. Temescalians then had the opportunity to share their writing/illustrations with the class or put it away. This week, the prompts were to write about their weekends or if they were to create a fidget, what would it look like and how would it be used to help them stay focused.
It is nice to celebrate the change of seasons with the new fruit that is ready and ripe. People in the community have shared many apples, and instead of letting them all go bad, we used 5 of them and turned them into a vegan apple crumble.
Apple crumble recipe (vegan)
We have a guest educator coming in on Monday, 9/25 so we hope the Temescalians are all present and ready to learn about the Ohlone culture.
Warmly,
Lisa
Upcoming Events:
September
25 – In-class Guest educator: Keith Gutierrez
October
5 & 6 – Parent Teacher Conferences (no school, childcare available) Link to signup here!
9 – Indigenous Peoples’ Day (no school, no childcare)
22 – Fall Fest (10am – 1:00pm)
31 – Halloween Parade on UAC (9:00am)
November
3 – Oakland Ballet: Luna Mexicana at the Paramount Theatre (limited chaperones needed, leaving TBS at 8:30am)
10 – Professional Development (no school, no childcare)
20 to 24 – Fall Break (no school, no childcare)