Happy Halloween

Lots of pics from today.  Thanks to Tita, Ali, Sara, Joan, Moira, Ann & Elizabeth for helping out today in the classroom and with basket making in art.  You made the day go extremely well.

See yesterday's blog for upcoming events and Fort Ross postings (that have been the same all week).

Don't forget the Fort Ross costume!  For the Dress Rehearsal on Wednesday (8:45-9:30ish), adults are welcome as guests.  Any Officers that want to appear in costume are welcome too, but not required.  The students will plan their presentations on Tuesday, and rehearse at home that night.

 Making tin lanterns.

 Making Staves sticks.

 Sewing fur hats!

Happy Halloween!

Home Assignments:

1. 

5th Grade Math: Candy wrapper assignment

4th Grade Math: No homework

2. Fort Ross COSTUME:  Due November 6!

3.   Reading (20 min. every night)– Students may read from their assigned Book Group books.

FORT ROSS PREPARATION

• Packing List
• Reminders (important dates and events leading up to Nov. 11)
• Letter samples:  The letter to your child is due to me by November 6.  Remember this is a special surprise for the kids to receive on our trip.  The letter can be as creative as you like.  Scrolls, parchment paper, wax seal, quill pen writing, written on wood, leather, tree bark,  a clam shell or bone . . .
• Costume Reminder and links to Fort Ross website information

Other Upcoming Events:

Thursday, October 31, Halloween Parade, 8:45: Students should come dressed in costume for the parade.  Please no masks or violence represented in the costume.  

November 1 & 4:  Conferences/No School

Wednesday, November 6:  Dress Rehearsal for FORT ROSS.  Students will present about their characters in costume.  This is the same day the secret letter is due.  Your child will be bringing home an assignment to help you get to know their character.

Friday, November 8:  Sleeping bags, pads and pillows due to be packed in cars.

November 11-12 (Monday-Tuesday), Fort Ross trip.  Arrive at TBS by 7am on November 11 for our early departure!!!

Wood Carver visit tomorrow!
I just learned that Jesus Sosa, the wood carver from Oaxaca will be on campus tomorrow with Julianne in the Art room.  He has visited TBS the past few years.  We will observe him work and get to ask about his craft. At the end of the day he sells his decoratively painted carvings in the Labyrinth starting at about $5.  Please stop by.

Home Assignments:

1. 

5th Grade Math: Packet

4th Grade Math: Packet for 10/28 & 10/29 (no math homework 10/30 or 31)

2.  Wordly Wise:  Goal: Depending upon where they are, finish lesson 1, and/or make progress toward the last part of lesson 2.  Due Wednesday.

3. FORT ROSS contract and travel permit:  The students are brining home a contract for Fort Ross for you to read over with them and sign.  Please use this as an opportunity to talk with them about their person to help you plan your letter.

4. Fort Ross COSTUME:  Due November 6!

5.   Reading (20 min. every night)– Students may read from their assigned Book Group books.

FORT ROSS PREPARATION

• Packing List
• Reminders (important dates and events leading up to Nov. 11)
• Letter samples:  The letter to your child is due to me by November 6.  Remember this is a special surprise for the kids to receive on our trip.  The letter can be as creative as you like.  Scrolls, parchment paper, wax seal, quill pen writing, written on wood, leather, tree bark,  a clam shell or bone . . .
• Costume Reminder and links to Fort Ross website information

Other Upcoming Events:

Thursday, October 31, Halloween Parade, 8:45: Students should come dressed in costume for the parade.  Please no masks or violence represented in the costume.  

November 1 & 4:  Conferences/No School

Wednesday, November 6:  Dress Rehearsal for FORT ROSS.  Students will present about their characters in costume.  This is the same day the secret letter is due.  Your child will be bringing home an assignment to help you get to know their character.

Friday, November 8:  Sleeping bags, pads and pillows due to be packed in cars.

November 11-12 (Monday-Tuesday), Fort Ross trip.  Arrive at TBS by 7am on November 11 for our early departure!!!

Today in Strawberry:  We wrote about a fictitious night watch experience in our Fort Ross journals.  Students teamed up to create a shared story about their night watch, and used maps of Fort Ross to plan where the events took place.  We also began our research into kelp forest animals.  The students chose an organism to study, and based on research questions they designed yesterday, they used the Monterey Bay Aquarium website as a first stop for information about their chosen organism. 

 Researching kelp forest organisms.

 Planning the night watch journal.

 Book Groups:  the students worked with their group to create a character trait map of the main character in their books.

Each trait was backed up by evidence from the book.

Plankton Party

Home Assignments:

1. 

5th Grade Math: Packet

4th Grade Math: Packet for 10/28 & 10/29 (no math homework 10/30 or 31)

2.  Wordly Wise:  Goal: Depending upon where they are, finish lesson 1, and/or make progress toward the last part of lesson 2.  Due Wednesday.

3. FORT ROSS contract and travel permit:  The students are brining home a contract for Fort Ross for you to read over with them and sign.  Please use this as an opportunity to talk with them about their person to help you plan your letter.

4. Fort Ross COSTUME:  Due November 6!

5.   Reading (20 min. every night)– Students may read from their assigned Book Group books.

FORT ROSS PREPARATION

• Packing List
• Reminders (important dates and events leading up to Nov. 11)
• Letter samples:  The letter to your child is due to me by November 6.  Remember this is a special surprise for the kids to receive on our trip.  The letter can be as creative as you like.  Scrolls, parchment paper, wax seal, quill pen writing, written on wood, leather, tree bark,  a clam shell or bone . . .
• Costume Reminder and links to Fort Ross website information

Other Upcoming Events:

Thursday, October 31, Halloween Parade, 8:45: Students should come dressed in costume for the parade.  Please no masks or violence represented in the costume.  

November 1 & 4:  Conferences/No School

Wednesday, November 6:  Dress Rehearsal for FORT ROSS.  Students will present about their characters in costume.  This is the same day the secret letter is due.  Your child will be bringing home an assignment to help you get to know their character.

Friday, November 8:  Sleeping bags, pads and pillows due to be packed in cars.

November 11-12 (Monday-Tuesday), Fort Ross trip.  Arrive at TBS by 7am on November 11 for our early departure!!!

Today in Strawberry:  Our highlight this morning was the Plankton Party led by Jonathan Stillman.  We had a special presentation in the depot about plankton.  The students worked with water samples from the bay taken in a plankton trawl.  A microscope was used to project images of the plankton on the screen.  It was a terrific experience for the kids. We followed up with this later in the afternoon to view a section of Blue Planet about plankton.  The kids were totally engrossed having seen live plankton earlier in the day.

 Placing plankton samples on petri dishes.

  Explaining what is seen on the microscope.

 Taking notes and sampling plankton.

 Petri dishes in line for the microscope.

A jelly!  Visible, but extremely tiny.

Mission Dolores and Fort Ross Info.

We had a great trip today.  See photos below.  Thank you Rodrigo, Joan, Tita and Leah for joining us on our outing.

FORT ROSS PREPARATION

• Packing List
• Reminders (important dates and events leading up to Nov. 11)
• Letter samples:  The letter to your child is due to me by November 6.  Remember this is a special surprise for the kids to receive on our trip.  The letter can be as creative as you like.  Scrolls, parchment paper, wax seal, quill pen writing, written on wood, leather, tree bark,  a clam shell or bone . . . Also, a "homework" assignment is going home on Monday that will hopefully provide more insight into the character your child is role playing.  
• Costume Reminder and links to Fort Ross website information

Other Upcoming Events:

Thursday, October 31, Halloween Parade, 8:45: Students should come dressed in costume for the parade.  Please no masks or violence represented in the costume.  

November 1 & 4:  Conferences/No School

Wednesday, November 6:  Dress Rehearsal for FORT ROSS.  Students will present about their characters in costume.  This is the same day the secret letter is due.  Your child will be bringing home an assignment to help you get to know their character.

Friday, November 8:  Sleeping bags, pads and pillows due to be packed in cars.

November 11-12 (Monday-Tuesday), Fort Ross trip.  Arrive at TBS by 7am on November 11 for our early departure!!!

Mission Dolores Field Trip: 
North Berkeley BART (photo courtesy of Joan Bostian)

 First stop.  The playground!

 Lunch at Dolores Park

 Tour in the mission church.

 Ringing the mission bells.

 Diorama - what the complete complex once looked like.  Today, the church in the foreground is all that remains of the original buildings, and the cemetery.

 Ohlone style tule house in cemetery.

 The walk back to Mission Street.

BART trip back.