INVASION

Today our classroom was invaded by people from the land of the portables in the middle of math. Karrie and her class invaded our room because they liked our space. They noticed that we had lots of great resources that they could use. If we agreed to become portable people with them we received a sticker or a post it note. Some learners took stickers and others didn't. The learners with stickers were asked to sit on the rug and give up their desk spaces to the people from the land of the portables. Then they were asked to give them their snacks. Some learners obeyed because they were unsure what to do, but one group of learners refused to cooperate with the portable people and actually ended up dividing the learners from room 11. Karrie, the leader, noticed that we had lots of great supplies and asked for all our pencils. I offered the class set to prevent learners from getting their desks ransacked. Upset with the learners that wouldn't cooperate, the people from the land of the portables took three captives with them.

After the experience we reflected on what had happened. Learners talked about their feelings. They shared how they felt angry, invaded, confused, and sad. They also pointed out how much of a mess the portable people left our room in. I then asked them to think about why we did this activity. We made the connection to California history and what we knew about California. Learners connected that they were representing the Native Californian tribes who may have also had similar feelings when they encountered European Explorers. We used these emotions to write in our perspective journals from the perspective of a Native American who felt invaded by explorers. Here are some excerpts from their journals:

Dear Journal,

"When these unknown people came they took a lot. It felt awful and I was sad and scared. They took me to their land. They put me to work. They made me build, I had to nanny for their kids, I had to cook for them, I had to do everything. I felt like I was a slave." - Sam C.

"Today we saw a thing in the water. I learned later they were called boats. People walked off of them and they said that this was their land and I felt bad. I've been in this land for years. They wanted to trade. They messed things up. I felt lost." -Kaia

"They took me hostage. I kept on trying to escape. I succeeded a lot and then they grabbed me again. They held me tight, so tight it hurt."- Jasper

"I was not prepared for what came next. Three of our people were captured. I was confused and upset for I loved all my tribe dearly. I was scared that I might be next. As I said I will never forget the day that I first spotted that dot on the horizon and our lives were changed forever. No more deer roamed the green hills and meadows, no bears frolicked and played in the spring, and never again will life be the same without those three people who never came back." -Carmen

"Today a big group of people in a huge mob came and invaded our tribe. We were working when they invaded. They came in and said something like, "We are from the land of the portables! We like your goods! Let us use your fancy stuff! You are now part of the portables!" Then they made us give them our food. I felt half angry and half annoyed."- Ben

"Today a group of unknown people came into my tribe. They did not care for our space. I felt funny when they came in. They gave us stickers to take our resources. That felt unfair. They commanded us to do things. It was a bit confusing. They also took our food. They even took our people!!!" -Jake

"Today people came to our land. They took our things, our food, our land, they even took some of us! When they first arrived I felt scared, confused, and especially mistreated. They had came without asking. We were here first! This is our land!"
- Camille

"They took our stuff and all we got back was post it notes and stickers. They took some or our people captive. It was the worst experience in my life. They trashed our land and left their stuff. Why us?" -Katie

For homework tonight, learners are asked to share this experience with their families and answer some specific questions about their feelings and what this experience meant in relationship to early California exploration.

Running of the Bulls

Today has been a busy one. This morning we continued learning subtraction methods for solving problems. So far the learners are becoming familiar with the open number line and the trade first methods (similar to borrowing, but using base ten blocks first to understand what is being traded). Today we learned a new strategy. I was at first puzzled by how this method worked, and some learners left today with questions about how to figure out why. In this method you use some rules:
1. Subtract from left to right, one column at a time
2. Always subtract the smaller number for the larger number.
-If the smaller number is on top, the difference is subtracted from the answer
-If the smaller number is on the bottom, the difference is added to the answer

Example:
846
-363

subtract the hundreds 800- 300= +500
subtract the tens 60-40= -20
subtract the ones 6-3= +3
Find the total 500-20+3= 483

Some learners have a couple more of these problems to complete at home tonight. See if you can figure out why it works?

We also started our problem of the month today in class. We completed Level A of the Wheel Shop today and then created "status posters" to show our thinking and how we approached the problems. It was really exciting to see the learners share and explain their work.






Today we also continued with our gummy bear experiments. Learners created testable questions and then came today with materials to find out what would happen. What do you think will happen to a gummy bear soaked in soy sauce, what about a gummy bear frozen in mineral water? We will observe the results tomorrow and share.









We had our first all school assembly today to read for the record the story of Ferdinand. Learners simulated a running of the bulls before we read the book. It was a lot of fun.

Writer's Workshop Experience

There have been many things going on in the classroom the past couple of weeks. Here's just a sample...
Writer's Workshop
We had the most wonderful writing session a few days ago. After reading a book called, I'm in Charge of Celebrations, a story of a Native American who writes about and celebrates things observed in nature, we took off with our Writer's Notebooks to the grove of tall trees at the end of the playground. Learners found a quiet spot and started writing. Later, we came back to the room, we "lifted lines" from our notebooks. We read in popcorn style, where one learner shares and another does right after, with no raising of hands or calling on someone. What transpired sounded like a perfect piece of poetry to hear so many learners volunteering beautiful and diverse writing about what they observed in the grove of trees.
Writer's Workshop usually follows a similar model. A minilesson on craft, this time sharing a good piece of writing, focused writing time, and a time for sharing. We are going to use our "seeds" we are collecting these few weeks, to write a narrative/memoir. We continue where the 2/3 left off, increasing stamina for writing and expectations during the writing process.

First Science Lab Days

We started the day on Tuesday knowing that a guest scientist would be visiting our classroom. Interesting to note, several learners asked when "he" would be arriving. Some were surprised to find out that not only was the scientist a woman, it was our very own Resource and Curriculum Coordinator, Stacy Emory. She squashed any doubts that a woman can't be a scientist. Stacy gave the children some background on her life as a scientist and facilitated an engaging discussion about what scientists do. Children came up will all sorts of ideas and agreed that all scientists ask questions. The question of day was in regards to covering a gummy bear in room temperature water for 16 hours. I am sure you heard about the results we happened upon the next morning. The children got to practice important data collecting behaviors including measuring with metric rulers and graduated cylinders, weighing the bears on scales, drawing visual observations both before and after, and writing notes about the experiment. It was a great way to kick off Science instruction and exploring the scientific process. Next up, the learners will create their own gummy bear experiment based on the new questions that were created from conducting the experiment. The enthusiasm and learning about science will hopefully carry over to our first unit on Magnets as well as our upcoming field trips to USGS and the Lawrence Hall of Science in October.

Picasso Portraits

Here are some samples of our Picasso study last week. We used the cubist style to create portraits. Stop by the classroom to see all of the portraits.