Hello families! I apologize for not updating more frequently. I have been sick a lot in the last month!
We have spent time working on our maps of the Pacific Northwest. We created a relief map showing out of salt dough, and this last week we painted it to show the locations of the 4 major native cultural groups. One week I was out and the kids were read aloud a PNW native story, Frog Girl, and talked about symbols of colors and totems in PNW art. They then created their own totem designs. (Thank you to Teacher Christy and Jennifer!)
Coming up this month we are taking a trip to the Washington State History Museum. In order to save on costs we are not taking an official museum field trip, but are taking advantage of the free third Thursday of the month admission and doing a self-guided field trip. You should see field trip permission slips coming home next week. We will be gone 4th hour, and continue on until 3:00 (that’s after the end of co-op). Families have the choice of coming to the museum and getting free admission as well, to pick up their child, or waiting for us to return to the church. If you plan to come and pick up your child please make this arrangement with me ahead of time!
Teacher Genne sent me info about a special guest presenter at Ft. Nisqually this Saturday. http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/calendar/?cid=4307&park_id=129 Heidi Bohan is the author of one of the books I have been using, and this would be a great time to go and visit Ft. Nisqually. We have plans to visit later this semester, on a Friday, as an elective activity. However, new scheduling conflicts have come to light since I made the outline for the class, and I am not sure of the date at this moment. Perhaps seizing the day and going on this Saturday as a family activity would be worth it. I am working on a new schedule and will post it to the blog/email it to you ASAP.
~ Ms. Shannon
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Week 1
Hello Families!
Welcome to PNW Natural and Cultural History. In our class we will be covering a lot of both cultural (civics, economics, anthropology, culture, etc) and natural (geology, ecology, geography, etc) history of the Pacific Northwest. We won’t necessarily proceed in a chronological order, but a thematic order. I will post the weekly schedule in a separate entry. There are several field trips on the schedule, bolded, some of which are during co-op and some are optional field trips on Fridays or Saturdays. On these days I would love it if your student, or all of your kids/family could attend. The schedule is subject to change as I am waiting to hear back from some liaisons about dates.
Besides field trips we will be doing a lot of hands on projects in class. We started by generating a list of things which make the PNW a place, distinct from other places. It is these elements of place, which are directly related to our natural and cultural history, that make life in PNW what it is. I asked each of the kids to bring, if they choose, a cut out picture or drawing of one of these elements we listed (eg. a salmon, a mountain/volcano, something related to tech-industries here, a Seahawks logo, a lighthouse, an apple or other ag product, a totem pole, etc). We will put these on a PNW poster, which we will add to through the semester.
We will use histories, maps, stories, artifacts, and even music and video to explore what is the PNW. This week we will be starting our salt dough maps. We will finish them next week. For class this week you will need a willing-to-work attitude, and your cut out picture.
~Ms Shannon
Welcome to PNW Natural and Cultural History. In our class we will be covering a lot of both cultural (civics, economics, anthropology, culture, etc) and natural (geology, ecology, geography, etc) history of the Pacific Northwest. We won’t necessarily proceed in a chronological order, but a thematic order. I will post the weekly schedule in a separate entry. There are several field trips on the schedule, bolded, some of which are during co-op and some are optional field trips on Fridays or Saturdays. On these days I would love it if your student, or all of your kids/family could attend. The schedule is subject to change as I am waiting to hear back from some liaisons about dates.
Besides field trips we will be doing a lot of hands on projects in class. We started by generating a list of things which make the PNW a place, distinct from other places. It is these elements of place, which are directly related to our natural and cultural history, that make life in PNW what it is. I asked each of the kids to bring, if they choose, a cut out picture or drawing of one of these elements we listed (eg. a salmon, a mountain/volcano, something related to tech-industries here, a Seahawks logo, a lighthouse, an apple or other ag product, a totem pole, etc). We will put these on a PNW poster, which we will add to through the semester.
We will use histories, maps, stories, artifacts, and even music and video to explore what is the PNW. This week we will be starting our salt dough maps. We will finish them next week. For class this week you will need a willing-to-work attitude, and your cut out picture.
~Ms Shannon
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
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