Salmon Stories

MORNING MUSIC: Friday morning means Musikgarten. We made the one block walk over to the studio, Kirby in tow. The kids were excited to go, and 50 minutes later upon my return, I got to see them engaged in a great musical exercise using hula hoops. By my eye, they are enjoying this class immensely. It's especially gratifying to see CJ so engaged, as his default is so often to be somewhat guarded.

SALMON FEST PREP: Since tomorrow we will be attending the Salmon Festival at nearby Fisherman's Terminal (PDF list of events), I thought today would be a great day for us to study salmon. I started by reviewing The Salmon Life Cycle from the Department of Ecology with the kids. Then I found a salmon fact sheet, lifecycle chart and quiz on EnchantedLearning.com. I told the kids before hand that there was a quiz at the end, and I think that made them pay more attention. : )

The kids love games (especially Mr. CJ), so I found some salmon games online (have I mentioned lately how much I heart the Internet?). For starters we visited the GoldSeal Kids Zone . (GoldSeal is a Canadian company that kills, er, cans, salmon.) Fun, but not particularly challenging games.

Next, we tried the Salmon Challenge, a game (by the folks right here in Metro King County) to help the players see how their decisions help or harm our environment and our salmon. It was definitely above 1st grade level material, so I helped the kids through it.
ANIMATED SALMON: I wanted to add a little video to our salmon studies so I turned, of course, to YouTube. There I found a really charming Sammy the Salmon video made by a second grader and her father. The kids were absolutely rapt while watching it. We also watched a very informative Discovery Channel video about the life cycle of a salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

SALMON STORY: Our hot topic reading for the day was First Salmon, by Roxane Beauclair Salonen (with colorful illustrations by Jim Fowler). It wove together information about the life of the salmon and the importance of the Pacific Northwest Native American First Salmon celebration with a rather poignant story about a Native American boy who missed his recently deceased Uncle Joe. As has been our normal, we read it outside, on the swing.

FISHY FIELD TRIP: In hopes of seeing some of what we learned in action, we headed (on foot - a 4-plus mile, hilly jog round trip) to the Ballard Locks this afternoon. We have been there before, but armed with their new knowledge of the salmon life cycle, it really meant a lot more to the kids this trip, and they were very excited to see a couple of coho salmon making their way upstream. Today we had learned that of the 8,000 eggs a salmon deposits in the stream bed, only 2 make it back upstream to their birthplace, so the kids were aware of just how remarkable the cohos' return was.

PROUD PENGUINS: CeeJ & Bee spent about 15 minutes today playing Club Penguin and during that timeframe, each of them received an invitation to take a test to become a Secret Agent Penguin (someone who helps keep the penguin community safe by reporting bad/dangerous/predatory behavior). They took a test (where they basically had to prove they were doing it for the right reasons) and both achieved the coveted Secret Agent Status. Needless to say, they were THRILLED.

It's Raining Leaves

SO LONG SUMMER: Since fall is now upon us, I thought it would be good to review the calendar and the seasons today. First up, a favorite: Chicken Soup with Rice. The kids pretty much have this memorized and sang along. Having reminded them of months, I pulled Dora's Search for the Seasons off the shelf to remind the kids that months are grouped into seasons - periods of similar weather.


LET'S LEARN ABOUT LEAVES: The leaves are definitely raining down 'round here, so I thought today would be a great day to talk about fall and cobble together a leaf unit. To help explain why leaves change color, I resourced a great fact sheet from the US Forest Service. We also watched a Flash animated video (a state of Maine production) about how/why leaves change their colors.

LEAFING THROUGH THE LIBRARY: Thursday means it's library day for CeeJ & me (while Bee's in ballet). I found Investigating Why Leaves Change Their Color. We read it sitting outside on the couch swing, under a blanket, amidst a shower of falling leaves. We learned that leaves on deciduous trees fall when photosynthesis stops. We also learned about why certain leaves turn certain colors after the chlorophyll breaks down - and that those colors (the reds, yellows, oranges, etc) have been there all along, they were just masked by the chlorophyll. The book had a glossary and an index, so it was an opportunity to remind CJ & Annabelle what helpful tools those can be.



LEAF HUNTERS: This afternoon we took Kirby for a very short walk. I had the kids each find five different kinds of leaves on the ground. We'll save them and make a fall centerpiece out of them soon. The thoughtful people at Better Homes and Gardens sent me all sorts of ideas about using fall leaves in decorations 'round the home.


GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM: So, believe it or not, I actually spent part of the day exchanging emails with a woman @ NASA. ... When Web searching for why-leaves-turn-colors info online this a.m. I found a link to NASA Web presence - a special site just for kids. Unfortunately, the lesson plans on the site wouldn't load. But I would not be denied!! I found an email address on the site, shot off a message and she actually wrote back with a workaround. I thanked her and then she followed up with another email letting me know about all sorts of new-and-cool educational resources NASA is just launching. Awesome! She wrote:
The elementary program is called Our World. This program focuses on science and engineering within NASA missions. It can be found in two places ...
Here’s the YouTube link … http://www.youtube.com/user/NASAeClips
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=31002AD70975DC1B
Here’s the NASA portal link … http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/ourworld/index.html
There are some teacher resources for some of the segments ... and the Teacher Toolbox has some great tools, too.

I thanked her again, of course, and she wrote back: "So happy to share these resources. And thank you for sharing them with others. One student at a time ... one teacher at a time ... working together we can make a difference." Go us! : )

Oh, and back to the kids - one of the great things about the NASA leaf unit that I found this a.m. was it had a quiz about leaves changing color, so the kids could put their new knowledge to the test. Excellent!

ODDS & ENDS: The kids each did two math worksheets (simple addition and subtraction), and got some PE time in at the big park in Magnolia. Oh, and because I must torture CJ with coin values every day, our bedtime story involved Megaman being 25 cents (that's a quarter!) short of being able to buy a Rocket Pop. He enjoyed the story and whaddya bet he remembers what a quarter's worth in the a.m.?

PEACE OF MIND: Yesterday afternoon while CJ was in this Befriended class, I was listening to some parents of elementary aged kids trade stories about the trials and tribulations of their children's experiences during the first week of school. Man-oh-man did it reinforce my belief that an alternative educational approach would be best for my kids this year.

Barracuda!

SOMETHING'S FISHY: Straight out of the gate (we're talking pre-7 a.m.) CJ was hot to play Shark Tales video game he and his dad had played last night before bed. I fired it up for him in the bedroom and soon heard him talking about the importance of avoiding barracudas. BINGO! Barracudas would be the topic du jour today.

So, while CJ played his game, I poked around the Internet and found some resources. I was happy to discover the Discovery Channel has a terrific education resource Web site - including a barracuda lesson! Some of the interesting things we learned about barracuda are that they have no eyelids and that they've been around 50 million years. Like other fish, they have a spine (they are vertebrates), they have scales, they lay eggs, they are cold blooded, and they use their gills to breathe. They have a swim bladder that they inflate and deflate (hey, there are those words again!) to go up and down in the water. I had the kids each do a worksheet listing two facts about barracudas. While they worked, we had inspirational music, of course.

GONE FISHIN': The kids learned about the importance of being adaptive to one's environment by playing a couple of great online games. One was Build a Fish, where they selected the type of head, body and pattern and then found out how your fish fared in a given environment. In Squish the Fish, the kids had to choose Squish's color/pattern in order to blend in with the environs and escape the predator, Big Tooth Blob. Annabelle was frightened at the prospect of being eaten, so CJ did the driving in this game, so to speak.

ONE FISH, TWO FISH: The kids enjoyed a late morning snack (of Goldfish, of course) while watching the Dr. Seuss classic One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. It bored CJ, but Annabelle was entertained.

FISHY FIELD TRIP: I thought it would be a good day to go to Petco. We needed Kirby supplies, but I also thought it would be good for the kids to see all the different kinds of fish there so they could put some of what they learned this a.m. to use. They observed body and mouth types and markings and we talked about why the fish might appear the way they do. I, of course, also pointed out to them that a tank at Petco with florescent colored gravel was not the natural habitat of the fish. ...

OUTDOOR READING: After lunch, we went outside and read from The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau (a classic, from 1973). I showed the kids the book's index, and explained what an index is and how it works. We found 'barracuda' in the index, and then flipped to all 6 pages they were featured on throughout the book.


CJ was hot to play the fish-themed games again, so I let him have a few more rounds.

SPELLING BEE: In working with the kids on their writing, it occurs to me it would be ever-so-much-easier if there were a passel of words they could spell with next-to-no thought. They sight read hundreds of words, but spelling them when faced with a blank paper is another matter. So, we staged a very small, low key and often downright silly spelling bee. They had a blast, and probably even learned something, too.



AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Tomorrow is library day and we have some DVDs to return the kids haven't watched, one being a collection of the wonderful James Marshall's fairy tale adaptations. So, before heading out to the Befriended class, the kids watched Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. I turned the close captioning on, so they likely even read a little - bonus! Rick and Ken always loved James Marshall books. ...

BESTING THE BARRACUDA: Right before bed, CJ (with a little help from his dad) beat the Shark Tales game, including the pesky battery of barracuda. (That's right, today we learned a bunch of barracuda is called a battery.)

Tales from a Tuesday

OFF TO THE RACES RECESS: Our new morning (pre-9 a.m.) routine 'round here is CJ running to and fro across the yard with Kirby at his heels. They do lap after lap. It's good for both of them.


GIMME SOME SUGAR: I couldn't help myself; Yesterday while in Albertsons, there was a special (no doubt Halloween/seasonal) display of three blast-from-the-past cereals: Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry. I had to buy them all - for educational purposes, of course. Though they had no frame of reference, the kids were totally enchanted by the names and the graphics on the boxes. We conducted a taste test of the sugary trio, and then part of this morning's table time was writing assignment was to select a favorite and explain WHY it's. So often in life people are going to ask your opinion and it's almost always going to be followed by a question about WHY you have that opinion, so you need to be prepared with a reason. So they chose a favorite, wrote why it's their favorite, and then draw a little picture, too.


MO' MONEY, MO PROBLEMS: The Notorious B.I.G. & friends might have been rapping about CJ's coin counting skills when they sang that song. ... As the refrain goes, "I don't know what they want from me, it's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see." The good news is, that corny coin chant from yesterday seems to have helped some. We chanted and passed around coins and by the time we got to the table to do some dreaded coin IDing and math, there was a flicker of recognition there. ...

MONDAY REDUX: We reviewed the new vocab from yesterday as well as revisited the types of clouds we learned about yesterday. Hey, this blog is coming in handy!

MAGIC BUS: Today, for the first time, we checked out The Magic School Bus Web presence. It's not the flashiest site ever, but the kids did have fun creating insects, doing mazes, and such. One thing I did love about the site is they had a "Pop Quizzes" category under "Games" so the kids were gleefully taking tests about science, and CJ being CJ wouldn't quit until they had a perfect score. : )


STORY TIME: Right after lunch, we read a couple of library books. Princess Pig was a cute little tale of a pig who comes into posession of a princess' sash after the sash blows off the pickle princess in a local parade. The pig starts acting like a princess and it's fun at first, but she soon realizes it's not her true identity. The story bothered CJ, because all he could do was worry about the poor pickle princess who had lost her sash on Page 1, and how she'd ever get it back. ...


Next, we read a book by Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond fame. It was CJ's choice at the library - I think he was intrigued by the title: Why I Love and Hate My Brothers. The illustrations were great, but I wasn't wild about the book - it was more slice of life than a story. CJ loved it, though, and isn't that what counts?


MUSIC TO OUR EARS: The 35 minute drive to yoga was a great time to do the homework from music class last week - listening to a CD. A lot of it reminded me of the Sound of Music-and I mean that in a good way.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What's a 'kill code'?" asks CJ. I give him a definition, but I can't help but ask him where he heard the term. He tells me heard it from yesterday's movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," in which a food-weather machine goes awry.

Weather Wonders

WEATHER WATCHERS: Knowing the kids were going to go see "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" this afternoon, I decided that weather would be our main theme for the day.

HOP ON THE BUS, GUS: Together, we read Magic School Bus Rides the Wind. Fun story that helped the kids learn about weather-related tools like weather balloons, wind socks and anemometers. We also learned that wind is caused with heavy air pushes into lighter air.



CLOUD COVER: Also in the weather vane (get it? weathervane?!), I thought we'd learn a bit about the different types of clouds we see hanging overhead. There are lots of cloud resources online, many of them not so engaging. We wound up on the National Center for Atmospheric Research Web site. (Their Kids' Crossing and Educators' Bridge are definitely resources we'll revisit.) Today, we played the Cloud Match game (matching photos to the proper cloud name/type. We also spent some time studying their cloud chart.



COIN CONUNDRUM: After lunch, I thought we'd review coins and their values - something we've been working on for weeks/months. Poor CJ, it's just not happening for him. I've tried worksheets, games, videos, you name it. He, for whatever reason, just cannot remember which coin is which. If you don't know which coin is which, then you're probably not going to be able to do much with counting/sorting, etc. We didn't dwell on it. Tomorrow's another day - and I found a song/chant I think he might like:

Penny, Penny, Easily Spent, Copper brown and worth 1 Cent!;
Nickel, Nickel, Thick and Fat, You're worth 5 Cents, I know that!
Dime, Dime, Little and Thin, I remember, You're worth 10!
Quarter, Quarter, Big and Bold, You're Worth 25, I Am Told!

CJ's body language in this photo tells you everything you need to know about his money frustrations ...


MIGHT AS WELL CATCH THE WIND:This afternoon the family headed up to "Hilltop Play Park" (formally known as Ella Bailey Park, and formerly Magnolia School). True confession time: Today was the First Day Ever that our kids have flown a kite. We have like 3 kites, we just haven't gotten around to flying them before now. : / However, the weather was just right for today's maiden voyage. Needless to say, we all had fun.







MONDAY MATINEE: In preparation for the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," we visited the film's official Web site. There, we read each of the character bios. They used some pretty big words. So today, CJ and Annabelle learned the meaning of several new words ...

Tourist = visitor or traveler from somewhere else
Mayhem = trouble, confusion
Smorgasbord = a bunch of food spread out all over
Self absorbed = kind of bad, think mostly/only of themselves
Optimist = thinking good things will happen
Sidekick = someone who helps
Stump = outsmart or out think
Inflate = make something bigger by blowing something (like air) into it
Deflate = make something inflated smaller by letting the air (or whatever) out

Christian took the kids to see the movie in 3D at the Pacific Science Center's IMAX theater. Upon returning home, Annabelle declared the movie "Awesome!" Christian was slightly less enthused. CJ is already working on a sequel to the movie, involving "the revenge of the weather-food-machine." : )

NO NINTENDO?!: As CJ and Annabelle were playing around the house tonight with the new pup, I realized that CJ had not played even one minute of a Nintendo Wii or Nintendo DS game today. He never asked - and I certainly never offered. Interesting.