Family Field Packs

Many years ago, one of my students included "feild kit" on his Christmas wish list.  We had just begun using them for field work on field trips, and he wanted one of his own.  Last year I finally implemented a project that has been percolating a long time.  In college, I volunteered in an elementary classroom where students could check out Book Packs, backpacks with a set of books around a theme (weather or space, for example) with a reading journal in which families could respond to the books and tell about any associated activities they did together.  In order to connect science and literacy and make field work more accessible to our families, I adapted this idea to include the tools for field work.

Each field pack includes at least one non-fiction text on the topic, a biography of a field scientist who works or worked in this subject, a book on how to do this type of field work, and the tools and field guide(s) to do field work of your own!  Families can start their adventure by reading about the topic.  Next, they use the tools (and suggested resources) to explore the topic outside with family field work.

Our most popular family field pack is the Astronomy Adventure pack.

It contains:
* Starry Messenger by Peter Sis
* Find the Constellations by H.A. Ray (curiously, the author of the Curious George books)
* Constellations (A True Book) by F. S. Kim
* a Galileoscope
* a tripod
* a red LED flashlight
* a compass
* a star chart
* colored pencils
* a field notebook

Next is our Birding Adventure family field pack.

It contains:
* For the Birds: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Peggy Thomas
* Flute's Journey by Lynne Cherry
* Urban Roosts: Where Birds Nest in the City by Barbara Bash
* Take a Backyard Bird Walk by Jane Kirkland
* Houston Birds
* Birds of Southeast Texas & the Upper Gulf Coast
* binoculars
* colored pencils
* a feathered field notebook

Our third family field pack features a Coastal Exploration.

It contains:
* Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau
* One Small Square: Seashore
* Wild Beach by Marion Coste
* Take a Beach Walk by Jane Kirkland
* The Ultimate Guide to Shells & Beach Life of the Texas Gulf Coast
* Shells of Texas
* Gulf Coast Birds
* binoculars
* a hand lens
* colored pencils
* a beach-themed field notebook

Plates and playdough

Geology is a favorite topic in our classroom, and in the last few weeks, we've been digging in!

We learned about the layers of the earth and studied soil sediments under microscopes and tested their varying abilities to retain water.  We performed a series of tests to identify mystery minerals.  This week, we've been exploring changes to the earth's surface caused by plate tectonics.

First, we used graham crackers and (heavily) colored frosting to model the action of the earth's plates and the soft asthenosphere on which they float.  














The children experimented with divergent plates, slowly pushing the plates away from each other to create underwater rifts or mountain ranges.

Next, the children experimented with convergent plates, pushing the plates toward each other so that either one plate slips under the other (creating volcanoes) or the plates crash into each other creating a mountain range as in the photo below.  (The trick for this model is to moisten the edges of the graham crackers).

Finally, children modeled the cause of earthquakes at transform fault lines, where plates rub back and forth against each other.

To enhance this lesson, I was thrilled to discover (at the CAST conference last weekend) a Pangea cookie cutter and mat developed in Texas Christian University's Idea Factory by students from the College of Science & Engineering.  What an incredible hands-on way to explore continental drift!  Everyone needs a Pangaea cookie cutter!  Don't you think?

 This (making play dough late at night) is why I have a bag of old flour in my freezer labeled "For Science."

Note: Graham cracker activity based on activities from Geology Rocks by Cindy Blobaum

Happy Election Day!

In honor of Election Day, we held a Kids' Favorites election.
















Our third grade leaders caucused prior to the election to determine the choices that would appear on
the ballot in each category.  A sample ballot was posted on the door for voters to review prior to going to the voting booth.

Every citizen of our classroom community was eligible to receive his/her own voter registration certificate.  I'm proud to report that 100% of our citizens chose to become registered voters, and, despite long lines, we had an impressive 100% voter turn-out at the polls.








Voters showed their voter registration certificates, signed in, received a paper ballot, voted in private booths, and placed their ballots in the ballot
box.

When the ballots were cast, the polls were closed and votes were counted.

Election Results:
Favorite Musical Artist: Taylor Swift
Favorite Fad: Pokemon cards
Favorite Toy: iPad
Favorite Movie: "Rainbow Rocks"
Favorite TV Show: "My Little Pony"
Favorite Book Series: Percy Jackson
Favorite Author: Rick Riordan
Favorite Museum: Children's Museum of Houston tied with Houston Museum of Natural Science




Update (11/5/14): Run-off election results are in!  When Houston Museum of Natural Science staff heard of this embarrassingly close election, there was talk of hiring a lobbyist.  It turns out such measures were unnecessary.  With an amazing 100% voter turn-out for our run-off election, the Houston Museum of Natural Science took Favorite Museum in a landslide victory!  We love science!

It's not too late for all you eligible adult voters to get out there and vote!
If you live in our area, research the candidates with the League of Women Voters Guide.
Enter your address here to find your polling location.


There's a Book for That!
Election Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays)
Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell
Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
Dig Into History (Nov/Dec 2014): The Beginning of Democracy

Pandas and parasols

A certain red-headed substitute was spotted heading into my classroom this morning.




















It's a curious thing.  Every year around this time, I find myself in need of a substitute.  Fortunately, Ms. Frizzle, driver of the Magic School Bus and science teacher extraordinaire, is always up for the challenge.  She has some unusual (and somewhat demanding) barter requests.  She will substitute for my class on Halloween if I will convince my seamstress and shoe-designer to work their magic.  Seems like a fair trade to me!





This year, inspired by my summer Fund for Teachers fellowship in Asia, she insisted on a new Imperial China dress complete with dragon fabric.  "The children will love the dragon fabric," she pointed out in the fabric store.  And she was right, of course.  By all reports, they did.

The Friz is a firm believer that the details are important.

Shoes would not be complete without pandas attached.
(Visit the Museum of Natural Science to see "Pandas: The Journey Home," an outstanding National Geographic documentary about the Wolong Panda Center in China.)






Earrings--a Chinese calligraphy brush and a golden fan (that actually folds open and closed!)--were a must to round out the ensemble.

Happy Halloween!

Got milk?

In every ger we visit, we are welcomed with milk products.

Once seated inside, we begin with bowls of milk tea.  Cow milk tea, yak milk tea, horse milk tea, reindeer milk tea.  Whatever the family herds, they seem to find a way to milk.

Today we visited a camel-herding family, . . .

and you guessed it!  

We were welcomed with camel milk tea











and some very sour (unsweetened) camel milk yogurt,













along with sugared pieces of crispy flat bread.



And I got to milk a camel!

After I spent some time photographing our hostess milking the camel, she noticed my interest and invited me to try.  To milk the camel, especially if you're as short as our hostess, you stand one-legged with the bucket balanced on your elevated knee.

Now that I am a more experienced exotic-animal dairymaid, it was easier to get a stream going into the bucket right away.

Next, it was my turn for a camel ride through the sandy dunes.  Camel Time!  Notice that these are Bactrian camels with two humps (versus the one-humped Dromedary).  The ride is a little easier because the rider is nestled between the two humps, but it’s a tad unsteady hanging onto the front hump as the camel lurches forward to get her legs under her to stand.  

We rode out into some beautiful dunes with Chris joking about my camel’s “droopy humps.”  They were much more flexible than I expected.  Keenan pointed out that it is a little like having a joy stick-operated camel. 

At one point a young boy came up behind us and shouted something, and my camel began to run.  Our camel herder host quickly put a stop to that, but it was a breathless moment or two as I held onto that hump for dear life.  

Not only are the camels used for milk and transportation, but as temperatures rise, the camel's shaggy wool sheds in clumps.  In the summertime, it is pulled out in handfuls and used for a variety of purposes.

Our hostess demonstrated how to make rope, pulling the wool to “card” it as you might sheep’s wool and then twisting two pieces at the same time as twisting them together.  































She made it look effortless, but my attempts were decidedly clumsy.  





We also watched her use the fibers to make a thick, sturdy felt.  She began by laying out the fur in strips—first horizontal and then a layer with strips in a vertical direction.  

 She then placed a thin piece of fabric over the wool and wet it and added soap, scrubbing and scrubbing  

 and then rolling it and wringing it out. 

It produced a very nice layer of felt—much bigger pieces of which are stitched together to make the walls and roof of a ger.

How did you celebrate the Fourth of July?

Students, I am eagerly awaiting your guesses about this mystery country Fluffy and I are visiting.  Read the posts, put the clues together, and make a claim (based on evidence).