Saturday, May 17, 2008
Composting at CLC
The learners were given a challenge on their overnight to Coloma Outdoor Discovery School (CODS) to go back to their community and take action to help the environment. They chose reducing litter and composting. They came back to school to realize
that due to construction, the previous food waste composting program
that the school was working on through Allied Waste had for all intents
and purposes, had been "scrapped". The fourth grader decided to try to
rally interest and provide education around composting again. In their own
words:
C.H.: Why is it important to compost?
It is important to compost because
soil is the #1 thing that we lose every year and compost turns food
into soil. In an article Susan Lang says, "Around the world, soil is
being swept and washed away 10 to 40 times faster than it is being
replenished, destroying croplands around the size of Indiana every
year." You can make a compost bin at your house. You can't put meat or
dairy in it because animals can get in it. We can compost meat and
dairy here at school because our waste goes straight to Allied Waste
services to make compost. The upper graders had already brought
composting to our school, but then when the construction started, we
stopped using the compost bins.
A.K. and E.M.: Announcements
The fourth graders took on composting as a project. We had many different elements. One of them was to announce what we were doing. We announced in pairs right before
lunch to tell everyone about the composting. We did that for a week.
Our announcement basically reminded people to compost and gave tips
like to reduce waste by having a reusable lunchbox. The announcements
really helped.
C.V.: Composting Skits
The fourth graders at the SCCLC have been composting and wanted a fun way to show the younger kids at our school how to use the compost bins. We thought of different ways,
and in the end decided that we would make up skits. So we got into
groups and started making skits, one for each of the three K/1
classrooms. We practiced and tried toincorporate fun into our skits. Two of the groups had superheroes in their skits. We used props like trash cans and biodegradable bags
that we would use for the K/1 bins. We hope that after our skits the
K/1s will know and understand composting better. The more people that
compost, the more quickly the effects will show.
A.F. and C.H.: Monitoring
During lunch we have monitors standing by the compost bins and helping people decide where to put their food scraps. Before we did this, the trash cans were always full and the compost bins only had one or two things in them. Now the trash cans barely have anything in them and the compost bins are full! There is a huge difference and we are really helping the environment. We are also trying to reduce waste by reusing plastic bags. We are planning on doing this the rest of the year.
Our next step is to lower the food waste because we are lucky we have this
much food. Kids all over the world need food, and it's wasteful to get
rid of it. Now we are going to give away extra food to ourafterschool
program instead of composting it or throwing it away, so they can have
some snacks.
It was great to see the learners noticing all the
interconnections between their choices and environmental impact, both
good and bad. Many have concluded through this process that composting is a
wonderful way to help the earth, but waste and consumption are really part of a
larger complex problem. They continue to meet at least once a week to
check in with the progress and think about ways to continue to help the
environment and continue a successful program at school. To show
reducing waste in action, Marty, our beloved lower grade PE teacher,
gave a demonstration of his wastefuel powered car. He described the difference between using "regular" gas, biofuel, and wastefuel. He explained the rising food costs in relation to the increased demand of biofuels among other environmental topics.
Learners filtered oil from the local, popular Coyote Cafe, and poured this fuel into Marty's modified gas tank. They were amazed to see the leftover oil from frying tortilla chips being filtered and used to power his car.
It has been a wonderful experience seeing the learners really thinking about environmental issues and exploring ways they can make a difference. I believe this group will continue to work on and tackle these issues once they leave our
classroom and head to the "upper grades" and, hopefully, beyond.
that due to construction, the previous food waste composting program
that the school was working on through Allied Waste had for all intents
and purposes, had been "scrapped". The fourth grader decided to try to
rally interest and provide education around composting again. In their own
words:
C.H.: Why is it important to compost?
It is important to compost because
soil is the #1 thing that we lose every year and compost turns food
into soil. In an article Susan Lang says, "Around the world, soil is
being swept and washed away 10 to 40 times faster than it is being
replenished, destroying croplands around the size of Indiana every
year." You can make a compost bin at your house. You can't put meat or
dairy in it because animals can get in it. We can compost meat and
dairy here at school because our waste goes straight to Allied Waste
services to make compost. The upper graders had already brought
composting to our school, but then when the construction started, we
stopped using the compost bins.
A.K. and E.M.: Announcements
The fourth graders took on composting as a project. We had many different elements. One of them was to announce what we were doing. We announced in pairs right before
lunch to tell everyone about the composting. We did that for a week.
Our announcement basically reminded people to compost and gave tips
like to reduce waste by having a reusable lunchbox. The announcements
really helped.
C.V.: Composting Skits
The fourth graders at the SCCLC have been composting and wanted a fun way to show the younger kids at our school how to use the compost bins. We thought of different ways,
and in the end decided that we would make up skits. So we got into
groups and started making skits, one for each of the three K/1
classrooms. We practiced and tried toincorporate fun into our skits. Two of the groups had superheroes in their skits. We used props like trash cans and biodegradable bags
that we would use for the K/1 bins. We hope that after our skits the
K/1s will know and understand composting better. The more people that
compost, the more quickly the effects will show.
A.F. and C.H.: Monitoring
During lunch we have monitors standing by the compost bins and helping people decide where to put their food scraps. Before we did this, the trash cans were always full and the compost bins only had one or two things in them. Now the trash cans barely have anything in them and the compost bins are full! There is a huge difference and we are really helping the environment. We are also trying to reduce waste by reusing plastic bags. We are planning on doing this the rest of the year.
Our next step is to lower the food waste because we are lucky we have this
much food. Kids all over the world need food, and it's wasteful to get
rid of it. Now we are going to give away extra food to ourafterschool
program instead of composting it or throwing it away, so they can have
some snacks.
It was great to see the learners noticing all the
interconnections between their choices and environmental impact, both
good and bad. Many have concluded through this process that composting is a
wonderful way to help the earth, but waste and consumption are really part of a
larger complex problem. They continue to meet at least once a week to
check in with the progress and think about ways to continue to help the
environment and continue a successful program at school. To show
reducing waste in action, Marty, our beloved lower grade PE teacher,
gave a demonstration of his wastefuel powered car. He described the difference between using "regular" gas, biofuel, and wastefuel. He explained the rising food costs in relation to the increased demand of biofuels among other environmental topics.
Learners filtered oil from the local, popular Coyote Cafe, and poured this fuel into Marty's modified gas tank. They were amazed to see the leftover oil from frying tortilla chips being filtered and used to power his car.
It has been a wonderful experience seeing the learners really thinking about environmental issues and exploring ways they can make a difference. I believe this group will continue to work on and tackle these issues once they leave our
classroom and head to the "upper grades" and, hopefully, beyond.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Persona Link
http://books.google.com/books?id=fDJfjjefKagC&pg=PA220&lpg=PA220&dq=Boyhood+Days:+Ygnacio+Villegas'+Reminiscences+of+California+in+the+1850s&source=web&ots=wdXnrpZ5yW&sig=w8J2yJVh0jw0hkMfE7q6TEOm7XQ&hl=en#PPA73,M1
Monday, April 21, 2008
POM OPEN DISCUSSION
We should be well into our current POM by now. I created this discussion for families that might have questions or ideas about the current problem. Please post them in the comments section here so we can share with one another.
THE LATEST 4TH GRADE NEWS
CODS (See newly posted photos on previous blog.)
Their experiences continue to be a regular conversation point in our class meetings and lessons. One of the challenges presented at CODS was for learners to come up with a way to help their community as a “Miner of the Future”. Keep your eyes out for more information of how the 4th graders are meeting this challenge. They are planning on wearing their CODS green bandannas on Monday (and/or green shirts if they have them.) to help kick off this project. (A reminder: if you happen to have any of the shirts and dresses from school, we’d love for them to be returned so learners can have them available for next year.)
ROPES/PLPs
We know that learners are working very hard on their ROPES projects. We did a check-in on Monday and most reported good progress and a few butterflies. We’ll continue to be available to chat with learners about questions and feelings they have. We’ll schedule some in class sharing time in late May early June, so that everyone can showcase their hard work. Thank you for your facilitation and support of your learner during this big undertaking. We hope that it has been a rewarding experience for all, and welcome your feedback about the process.
LANGUAGE ARTS
We jumped right into focused work, by committing a large portion of the beginning of the week to the District Writing Assessments. All learners will have time to complete the assessments, which focus on one type of writing genre (summary of informational text). We’ll be putting our finishing touches on our in class summaries in the next week or so as well. We continue to work on word work with Kim Holl, as well as editing tips on conventions such as proper use of commas, capitalization, etc., and other topics through mini-lessons and writing conferences. Our last round of book groups will start in a couple of weeks. We’ll be reading some great novels and picture books that tie into important events surrounding many different Californians in the late 19th and early 20th century.
SCIENCE
(See “Science Rocks!” blog below.)
MATH
Math has been filled with the study of fractions, decimals, and percents. Learners have been discovering ways to add fractions with the use of a clock face. We have learned several new games to support these concepts. Many of these games are in the learners homework folders, so please encourage them to play some of them at home in the next few weeks. We also created posters that compared different sized fractions. The learners have learned a lot the past several weeks (pictures to follow). We will be moving into division next! We’re also continuing math studies in geometry and other areas. We plotted coordinates (x,y) on a coordinate grid to copy a design and then made our own designs using blank grids. We then explored this concept in SS using longitude and latitude to find ports of call in 1849. We also solved some math problems involving the number of people using the Panama Route vs. the Golden Horn Route, and then used that information to draw conclusions about those routes.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We’re slowly tying up the Gold Rush unit of study and moving forward in time. We don’t want to forget to thank Christian, Carmen’s dad for preparing and presenting an interesting lesson about the Gold Rush and it’s effect on California. The learners were able to use their new information from their visit to Coloma to address the interesting questions that Christian posed. In the next few weeks, learners will be choosing important people in history to focus on as part of a larger project that will hopefully synthesize much of the information we have learned this year. We will also begin to learn about SF after the gold rush in order to support the milestone in June.
FAB & SEL
We are using our Wednesday FAB time to focus on some important things. Christina, our beloved instructional assistant, is running a six-week unit on Social Emotional Learning. Although, classroom meetings and SEL language are used in the classroom, we’re sure these SEL related activities will be enriching for the learners and the classroom culture. Lucia is continuing to share her interest and talent in music and history. She’ll be focusing on preparing our merry group of sailors as they prepare for the Age of Sail through song, dance, and sailing lore and skills. We hope to have some other experts help us get us “ship shape” come June.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please send us an email at clc4@gmail.com. Thanks again for all of your support, from helping in the classroom and other school activities, to supporting field trips, to being your child’s cheerleader for ROPES and at least one thousand and two other things!
Warm regards,
Lale & Elysha
Their experiences continue to be a regular conversation point in our class meetings and lessons. One of the challenges presented at CODS was for learners to come up with a way to help their community as a “Miner of the Future”. Keep your eyes out for more information of how the 4th graders are meeting this challenge. They are planning on wearing their CODS green bandannas on Monday (and/or green shirts if they have them.) to help kick off this project. (A reminder: if you happen to have any of the shirts and dresses from school, we’d love for them to be returned so learners can have them available for next year.)
ROPES/PLPs
We know that learners are working very hard on their ROPES projects. We did a check-in on Monday and most reported good progress and a few butterflies. We’ll continue to be available to chat with learners about questions and feelings they have. We’ll schedule some in class sharing time in late May early June, so that everyone can showcase their hard work. Thank you for your facilitation and support of your learner during this big undertaking. We hope that it has been a rewarding experience for all, and welcome your feedback about the process.
LANGUAGE ARTS
We jumped right into focused work, by committing a large portion of the beginning of the week to the District Writing Assessments. All learners will have time to complete the assessments, which focus on one type of writing genre (summary of informational text). We’ll be putting our finishing touches on our in class summaries in the next week or so as well. We continue to work on word work with Kim Holl, as well as editing tips on conventions such as proper use of commas, capitalization, etc., and other topics through mini-lessons and writing conferences. Our last round of book groups will start in a couple of weeks. We’ll be reading some great novels and picture books that tie into important events surrounding many different Californians in the late 19th and early 20th century.
SCIENCE
(See “Science Rocks!” blog below.)
MATH
Math has been filled with the study of fractions, decimals, and percents. Learners have been discovering ways to add fractions with the use of a clock face. We have learned several new games to support these concepts. Many of these games are in the learners homework folders, so please encourage them to play some of them at home in the next few weeks. We also created posters that compared different sized fractions. The learners have learned a lot the past several weeks (pictures to follow). We will be moving into division next! We’re also continuing math studies in geometry and other areas. We plotted coordinates (x,y) on a coordinate grid to copy a design and then made our own designs using blank grids. We then explored this concept in SS using longitude and latitude to find ports of call in 1849. We also solved some math problems involving the number of people using the Panama Route vs. the Golden Horn Route, and then used that information to draw conclusions about those routes.
SOCIAL STUDIES
We’re slowly tying up the Gold Rush unit of study and moving forward in time. We don’t want to forget to thank Christian, Carmen’s dad for preparing and presenting an interesting lesson about the Gold Rush and it’s effect on California. The learners were able to use their new information from their visit to Coloma to address the interesting questions that Christian posed. In the next few weeks, learners will be choosing important people in history to focus on as part of a larger project that will hopefully synthesize much of the information we have learned this year. We will also begin to learn about SF after the gold rush in order to support the milestone in June.
FAB & SEL
We are using our Wednesday FAB time to focus on some important things. Christina, our beloved instructional assistant, is running a six-week unit on Social Emotional Learning. Although, classroom meetings and SEL language are used in the classroom, we’re sure these SEL related activities will be enriching for the learners and the classroom culture. Lucia is continuing to share her interest and talent in music and history. She’ll be focusing on preparing our merry group of sailors as they prepare for the Age of Sail through song, dance, and sailing lore and skills. We hope to have some other experts help us get us “ship shape” come June.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please send us an email at clc4@gmail.com. Thanks again for all of your support, from helping in the classroom and other school activities, to supporting field trips, to being your child’s cheerleader for ROPES and at least one thousand and two other things!
Warm regards,
Lale & Elysha
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Science Rocks!
Our class has been studying rocks and minerals for the past couple of weeks. Stacy came by one day with bags full of her family's collection of rocks. She shared the collection of metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks with the class. The children had very good observations that led them to note certain characteristics of these different types of rocks.
On another day the class used crayons to demonstrate the rock cycle. The learners each started with their single color igneous rocks (no grains, layers, or streaks). They made shavings of their "rocks" which represented erosion and combined and pressed different pieced together to create a layered, grainy sedimentary rock. They exposed these rocks to some more pressure and to heat which created metamorphic rock. They seemed to have a lot of fun creating pressure on their individual samples. It's not everyday that you get to stomp up and down on your work. You may seen their metamorphic rocks when they brought them home last week. The learners will continue to explore rocks and minerals in the upcoming weeks.
CODS: A Miner's Life
As you have heard and seen from your children, as well as from the parent chaperones, this trip was an amazing experience. It was so impressive to watch the children explore so many different facets of learning on so many levels. They should feel very proud of their accomplishments over the three days. Thank you so much to Vivian, Denise, Neil and Ross for being chaperones; to Amy for being backup; and to Pam, Sonya, and Amy for driving "stagecoaches". Thanks again to each and every one of you for supporting this trip. Watching them read your creative letters on the second day was very moving. They absolutely loved them! I witnessed many special moments like this throughout our time in Coloma.
From the moment the learners stepped beyond the "School in Session" sign, they were transported to 1849. They tackled many challenges and enjoyed many experiences similar to miners California searching for riches years ago. Making a shelter that can withstand the elements, bartering and buying supplies, making cornbread, singing, and learning about the hardships of mining towns Dry Diggin's or Humbug were just some of the fun to be had the first day.
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