For the past month or so we've studied the traditional lives of the Kumeyaay Indians who are the original native people of San Diego county. Using what they learned in this unit, students  created wonderful, beautifully detailed collages that depict life in a traditional village. They also created an online resource all about the Kumeyaay's traditional lifestyle and traditions.
 
 
A few months ago we planted a winter/spring crop in the Three Sisters Garden. Today we visited the garden and harvested carrots, onions, and strawberries. The strawberries are from an adjacent bed that was actually planted last year. What a crop! Everything is huge, juicy, and smelling delicious...and even a little peculiar. Check out the pictures. Tomorrow we will eat strawberries and cream as a special treat. Do you have any ideas what we can do with the onions?
 
 
This week students completed hot air balloon paintings. Students learned about the color wheel--they painted a color wheel using primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. They then used this knowledge to paint bright hot air balloons.
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This week in art we created a piece of artwork called People Contours. I  emphasized drawing very slowly and drawing what you see, not what you think you see. During this lesson I introduced concepts such as foreground, middle ground, and background. Students learned about the illusion of depth created by drawing overlapping figures.  Students studied the models very carefully and drew contours without looking down at their paper...they were allowed to peek a few times but overall students concentrate on the subject and don't look at their papers when they are drawings. (Visit our photo website http://mrsmckelvey.shutterfly.com to see them all.)
 
 
Last week we visited the Kumeyaay-Ipai Center. Students learned about the daily lives of the Kumeyaay as they hiked through the canyon and looked at native plants, explored an ancient acorn grinding site, and participated in activities like acorn grinding, and storytelling. Check out what we learned in the following videos. Photos from the field trip are available on the class Shutterfly website too at http://mrsmckelvey.shutterfly.com.
 
 
This month's genre for our Home Reading is non-fiction. I'd like you to try and read at least one non-fiction book that's related to our social studies units on geography and Native Americans or read a book related to our science unit on energy and matter. Here's a few topics you may want to read about:
  • California
  • Earthquakes and other natural disasters
  • Native Americans of California, such as the Kumeyaay
  • Sacramento, our state capitol
  • Climate
  • Conservation
  • Solar energy
  • Water cycle
Then I'd like you to share any fascinating or interesting facts you've learned here on our class blog. Don't forget to include the title and author of the book you read. Also, would you recommend this book to your friends? If so, why? Happy reading and I look forward to seeing your comments.

 
 
About six weeks ago a student returned from the garden with what looked like a huge, rather plump zucchini...at least that's what he thought it was. When we took a closer look we decided it wasn't a zucchini but a pumpkin that hadn't turned orange yet.
Now I knew that green tomatoes turned red when I put them in a sunny window, and so I wondered...will our pumpkin turn orange if we put in a sunny window. We thought it was worth a try. So it sat and sat in our sunny window next to our library books. And we almost forgot about it when we came back from Winter Break. Lucky for us we didn't.  Over the past two weeks it slowly turned orange and so we decided it was time to make something yummy with our pumpkin.
Today the students made pumpkin bread and chocolate pumpkin squares. We followed two recipes, carefully measuring and mixing. Both of our treats turned out delicious! Although I'm partial to the chocolate in the pumpkin squares. Now I can't wait until our next baking adventure.
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Last week Mr. Juergens, a professional artist and parent, stopped by to share some of his fantastic artwork. These painting are all different but are the same subject--a cute cat. The students were very impressed and inspired. Mr. Juergens has promised to return to our room soon to teach us how to create our own masterpieces.
 
 
Last week we visited the garden and planted lots of vegetables and herbs. We planted broccoli, beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and parsley. Some of these were plants which we started from seed in the greenhouse a few months ago.
We also took some time to take care of our strawberry patch. We weeded and tended to the plants. We should have a lot of strawberries in the spring since the plants are thriving in the bed.
Students enjoyed getting involved and getting their hands in the dirt.
 
 
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Analyzing soil
This fall we are working with high school students from UC High in the school garden. The first week we planted seeds in the greenhouse. Eventually we'll transplant these plants into the garden. Last week we pretended to be aliens from the planet Zog who were on a mission to find out all about soil. We analyzed soil for three different locations and even tried to make our own dirt. We learned that it takes 100 years to make one inch of soil.