Native Plant Assignment & Lists

Today, we began looking at our year-long plant study. We began with a look at corporate logos - the Nike swoosh was instantly identified - and moved to plants. The hope is to identify plants as easily as corporate logos.

On each due date (listed below), two plants are due. Criteria:

• Name of the plant (Common & Scientific)
• A neatly & colored drawing of the plant that has key characteristics identified.
• Plant Habitat
  
• Range (i.e. is it found only on the west side of the Cascades?)
• Uses for the plant (medicinal, etc.)
• 2-3 interesting facts
• Places that the student has seen the plant
• Source (where information was obtained)

The pages should be neatly done. At the end of the year, students will put them together with the hope that a useful book has been completed.

Due dates (2 plants / date): Oct 9, Nov 21, Jan 23, Feb 27, Apr 9, May 8


6th Grade List

Common Name Scientific name

Red twigged dogwood Cornus sericea

Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii

Western redcedar Thuja plicata

Big leaf maple Acer macrophyllum

Big leaf maple Acer macrophyllum

Oregon grape Mahonia aquifolium

Thimbleberry Rubus parviflorus

Snowberry Symphoricarpos albus

Nootka rose Rosa nutkana

Stinging nettle Urtica dioica

Wild strawberry Fragaria virginiana

Sword fern Polystichum munitum

7th Grade List

Vine maple Polystichum munitum

Red alder Alnus rubra

Willow Salix sp.

Indian Plum Oemleria cerasiformis

Elderberry Sambucus canadensis

Oxalis Oxalis oregana

Waterleaf Hydrophyllum sp.

Bedstraw (cleavers) Galium aparine

Duckfoot Vancouveria planipetala

Woods buttercup Ranunculus uncinatus

Fringecup Tellima grandiflora

Maidenhair fern Adiantum pedatum

8th Grade List

Red huckleberry Vaccinium parvifolium

Red flowering currant Ribes sanguineum

Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis

Vanilla leaf Achlys triphylla

Wild ginger Asarum caudatum

False solomon’s seal Maianthemum racemosum

Dock Rumex sp.

Bleeding heart Dicentra formosa

Trillium Trillium ovatum

Piggyback plant Tolmiea menziesii

Licorice Fern Polypodium glycyrrhiza

Bracken fern Pteridium aquilinum

Community Meal - reflection

Harvested on 9/16/2008
Prepared on 9/25/2008
Served and enjoyed on 9/26/2008
Reflection due on 10/3/2008

Thanks again to all of the people who made this meal possible and a special thanks to Jim for inviting us to his farm to pick pears and berries.

Reflection:

Our community can be defined many different ways. In general, it is the supporting network of where we live, play, go to school and meet/interact with other people. It is important to continue to build ties within our community and food plays a central role in many communities. It strengthens bonds and brings people together to share their lives and enjoy the company of each other.

This year, you traveled to Jim’s farm to pick pears that you then prepared into a dish for your peers. By doing this, you were able to see the process of bringing in food from the harvest, to preparing food, to inviting others to participate in your meal, to serving food to others. Wow! What a great time! Thanks for all of your hard work in making this a wonderful experience.

Whenever you invest your time and energy into a project, it is a healthy act to think back over what you did and what it means to you. As a reflection, please do the following two parts in a way that is thoughtful, beautiful and captures the meaning of harvesting, preparing and serving food to our SES community.

Written Reflection

Please write a one-page reflection that addresses the following points (it does not have to be in this order but should flow from one idea to another):

1. What does community mean to you?
2. What role does food play in your community?
3. In a retelling of your story, describe everything that you did that went into the serving of this meal. Make sure that you include events that led up to the meal: harvesting pears, preparing the meal, creating invitations, writing thank you notes (why is this important?) serving the meal, etc.
4. What did you learn through this experience?
5. How do you think community can be strengthened when lots of people come together to share food?
6. What was fun about this experience?
7. Describe any other fun/interesting side story that took place during any of the stages of this experience.

Creative Piece

How can you capture this entire experience (harvesting, preparing, inviting, serving)? Using at least one page, make a creative piece using photos, drawings, a poem or any other idea that you may have. The goal is to make a beautiful and creative piece that invokes the memory of your Community Meal experience and a sense of celebration.

Recap of Mt. St. Helens Trip

We left the school at about 8:30 on Tuesday morning, we were all packed up and ready to go.
We arrived at Ape Caves and began the decent into the pitch black darkness. It is very cold inside the cave and it's dead silent except for the noise of our footsteps and voices. We looked at the walls of the cave and determined that the lava must have flown threw multiple times. The cave was created by lava flowing in the path of the river which may have been there at one point in time, many years ago. The cave was discovered by a lumberman in the 1950's. He did not want to enter the cave, so a boy scout troop that was in the area went in to check it out. The cave was named Ape Cave because the troop was looking for sasquatch at the time.
We hiked through the cave carefully stepping over rocks and looking around with our flashlights and lanterns.
We exited the cave, got back on the bus, and drove over to the Trail of Two Forests. We ate lunches and then and then took a short walk through the forest. We saw these perfect circles in the ground that were formed when lava came through the forest and made molds around the trunks of the trees, then the trees rotted away leaving circles in the hardened lava. We also crawled through a tiny
tunnel that was formed when lava surrounded a fallen tree. The trees have pretty much grown back now, but the moss and shrubs are just started to grow back.
We climbed back onto the bus and rode over to the Silver Lake Visitors Center. We walked around and viewed the exhibits and then we watched a movie about the Mt. St. Helen's eruption. I learned lots of facts about the mountain like it was named after Barron St. Helens.
We boarded the bus again and drove to the camp site. We set up our tents, ate dinner (burritos) had a campfire (with songs, skits, and a story from Ginny) and then we went to bed. The next morning we woke up at 7:30 and took down our tent. One of the girls in my tent had brought a giant three room tent, so I shared a room with only one other person.
We ate a breakfast of bagels and tea, and then we got on the bus.
Our first stop on the way home was the Johnson Ridge Observatory. The mountain was only about five miles away, so we had a great view! The wind was really blowing, so it was quite cold. We then went inside looked at the exhibits, and watched another movie about the eruption of the mountain.
The last place we went was Coldwater Creek. We stopped to eat lunch, and we took a small hike. It was really fun, and a very beautiful place.
We got back on the bus one last time, and began the long drive home. :)

posted by Sophia

Mt.Saint Helens

We first first packed up the bus and got on. The Ape Caves were really cold even with layers! It was pitch black. At one point there was a bolder that was stuck in between the walls. I got so cold I began to get hot. We had to climb over rocks and jump of small ledges. At points we stopped and talked about how it got there. We went to Trail of Two Forest. We had lunch and it started to rain a bit. We took a short walk and we got to see tree molds. It was really cool to see how they were make. There was one that went in one part and came out another. I didn't do it but it was fun to see people come out. At one point people took a wrong turn and had to turn around. After, we got on the bus and went to Silver Lake Visiting Center. I liked reading facts about the history there. We got to see a movie about Mount St. Helens. Then we went to the camp site we were staying at. We all set up our tents and went to dinner. Each tent site got a bag with a few props and we make a skit using volcano, pyroclastic flow, tree molds and lava tube. Our group was not very good. Then we went to bed. The next day we pack up the tents and put our luggage in the bus. Then we had breakfast. We got on the bus and went to Johnston Ridge Observatory. It had really nice views. It was so cold and the wind whipped our faces making our faces freeze. We went up a hill to a view point and drew a picture of Mount St. Helens. We went and looked around inside. We watched a movie that was cool but looked really fake. It made me dizzy with the motion. Last we went to Cold Water Lake. We had lunch and went on a walk. We saw a cool views. We got on the bus and headed to school. The bus driver got mad a lot and we had to pull over. It was annoying that the people in the back were standing up and sticking things out the window. We finally got back to school and everyone is tired. We got our stuff and left. I had a lot of fun even though it was so cold.

Annie

Camassia / Willamette Falls / Jim's Farm

Tuesday, September 16

Today we went first to Camassia nature area where we hiked to the top and thought about how it may have been formed and where the rocks came from. I learned that if you look at the flaws of your idea, you might come up with another one.

Next, we went to Willamette Falls to do a sketch. It looks like a man made falls being used to power paper mills. Intresting, but not the happiest picture. I learned if you see paper mills, you'll see why we need to use less paper.

Then we went to Jim's Farm to finish up the day. After we had eaten lunch, we headed to the fields to pick berries and pears. I learned picking berries in the sun really is hard work. After that we got to play for about 30 minutes. We could swing on the rope in the barn, or try to go through the berry picker outside. I did and it hurts! Then we drove back to Sunnyside to do reflection.
By Jeffrey

Mt Tabor Trip

tuesday september 9 2008

We went to mt tabor for a volcano rock observatory. We hiked up mt tabor to a little section with a whole bunch of rocks. We all picked a rock and drew it and wrote about it and wrote what we think its story was. After that we went up a little higher and drew the city from a view. Then we took a marker and drew a circle on our knuckle, we kept drawing circles around and around each circle, what that represented was Topography. After that we hiked all the way to the top of mount tabor and we made a poem out of a poem by Mary Oliver. We scrambled the words together and it made a whole different poem. Later frank read to us what the original was. each group had a different poem to do. After that we went on a trail leading us back down. we stopped at a little field type of thing and we chose another rock and drew that one to see the differences. some of the differences were the rock was heavy, no holes, and more solid. after we drew that and wrote about its story we played a game called eagle eye. After that we walked all the way back to sunnyside. It was a really fun field trip.
by Julia

Forms & Volunteers

In order to go on field studies, I need permission and medical forms for all students. Also, I need at least one adult on each trip. Today, an extra form is going home with students that I would like returned. It will indicate which trips this fall you will join the class with. This truly is a great time to spend with your child and other students in the class. (Extra note: for the Willamette Falls trip drivers are needed. Please indicate how many seat belts your vehicle has for students). Thanks!

Msg from Sarah: No Early Release

After much thought, I have decided to end the schoolday at 3:00 / 3:10 each day. This additional hour on Wedensdays will be used to provide instruction and support to our students in many important ways including remedial math for middle school and additional PE for first and second graders.

Early release played an important role in forming the school but now that we are at near capacity, I believe it is something I have a responsibility to end. I did not feel that it served the many students who did not have afterschool opportunities and remained at school unsupervised.
If you have already arranged for lessons or medical appointments at this time, you of course can keep them. If you have young children and feel that they need quiet time with your family, please talk to your child's teacher about arranging this.

I apologize for the timing but trust the good result will be of value to those who need it most.

Thanks for coming!

Thanks to all of the parents who showed up last night. I appreciated getting to meet you and am looking forward to the arrival of your students. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions that may have come up once you left the class. I am excited about the upcoming year with your students.

Today: Welcome new students!