salmon science

Posted on April 1, 2015 by marybethrew

~ salmon science unit ~ provided a home for some salmon eggs in a tank on science counter ~ ate snack made with graham crackers, peanut butter, chocolate rocks and blueberries, that looked suspiciously like our tank bottom ~ played return to the redd board game and “great anadromous fish game” (for 4-5 grade practice with fractions, long division) ~ group art project and puzzle making a large salmon poster from individual coloring sheets ~

~ found our way home using our noses (each stream had its own characteristic essential oil fragrance in a packet clothes-pinned to each fork in the stream ~ watched eggs hatch out alevins ~ recorded observations ~

~ science counter with tank full of eggs, and finished poster ~ we also sculpted and embossed fish in art class ~

~ large floor diagram of internal salmon anatomy ~ adding the heart ~ all parts taped on and labeled ~

~ filling in their internal anatomy diagrams ~

~ dissection of an adult salmon (provided by fish and wildlife, who had some leftover from a trap survey ~ thousands of eggs! this was a female, and we got to see a male, too ~ one egg ~ the lens removed from the eye ~ there is an ipad app of a fish dissection that can be used a an alternate lesson for kids who want to opt out of dissections ~

~ fry growing rapidly in science counter tank ~ returning carcasses of dissected fish to the stream ~

~ group project: stop-motion animation of the entire life cycle of a salmon ~

~ setting up insect prey and making salmon eat them ~

~ the finished film ~

~ returning a week later with our ready-to-release fry, we observed the way the ecosystem was utilizing the salmon carcasses; all but one had been “utilized” completely, and this one remained, covered in snails ~ each student got to release individual fry, carefully netting it and setting it free in the stream, along with a “wish for a fish” for health and survival prospects and optional naming of the fish ~ a fun frog was found on release day as well, lots of exploring to do at big creek park ~

~ quinn released swimmy and sammy ~

~ the free fry, swimming in the stream ~

additional options… game making – have them make their own games to help others learn about salmon, salmon data math for various skill levels, stream water quality testing… can expand rather limitlessly!

where fedex fears to tread

Posted on March 26, 2013 by marybethrew

i love our home. i love the laundry running on the super-dry cycle by the woodstove. i love the christmas lights twinkling all around the rooms. i love the enormous trees surrounding our home like they are the world’s tallest sentries standing guard. i love the moss on the roof. i love the long gravel driveway, where fedex fears to tread. i love that our mailbox is a mile from our house, in a line with 15 other mailboxes. i love the newts peeking out from under the duckweed in their little pond haven. i love the kale that overwintered and is growing new lovely vitamin-rich leaves by the armload. i love the night air that is thick with the sound of peeping frogs. i love the lichen-covered tree limbs, the daffodils, the hummingbirds zooming around with each other at the feeders.

we have been watching a busy male rufous hummingbird as he dominates the social scene around our feeders and backyard. rich nicknamed him flash, due to his iridescent red throat coloring that looks dark brown or black from the side but if you catch him at just the right angle, in just the right amount of sunlight, he blinds you with shimmering red.

i’ve burned through two rolls of film trying to catch his flashy red throat, and eked out one or two representatives.

i used the heart bokeh trick that i talked about a while back, because sunny spring mornings with last night’s rain dripping off the trees particularly lend themselves to this photography technique. you need something in your background that catches enough light to make your hearts twinkle a bit, like the wet leaves of the trees catching sunlight in your own wooded paradise, if you are lucky enough to live in one, too.

the ups driver has no qualms about leaving a sticky note on the door indicating “woodshed” which is a natural location to leave packages around here, in my opinion. sure, the road has bumps you can lose an axle in and we have some curmudgeonly neighbors with big dogs… but it’s lovely out here. i’m not sure what fedex is worried about. perhaps they are just borrowing trouble.

borrowing trouble is the newest phrase i’ve introduced quinn (aka mr. literal-pants) to. we were driving and he was fretting about things in the backseat that will never happen and could never happen and clearly had his undies in a bunch. wanting to gently encourage him to de-stress a bit, i explained that he was borrowing trouble, to which he giggled his “i have no idea what you mean” giggle. when i spelled it out, however, he embraced it, and now will come up to me and say, “i was just borrowing trouble accidentally about….” and i give myself a psychic high five for helping him do a little less worrying – or at least, identify it as worrying when he is.

the joys of coparenting have continued to be… anything but joyous. however, there seems to be a local, less-intense means of obtaining an asperger’s evaluation (but still with highly qualified neuro-developmental-peditrician folk running it) and it seems like both parents are on board with that. there is also funding for it, which is the only way it was going to happen. not only that, but if occupational therapy is indicated by anyone with an m.d., that will be covered by state health insurance, too. because that’s how we roll in our backwoods state of oregon.

meanwhile we are dipping our toes into the curriculum pool (gasp!) and it seems to be empowering for quinn. i did choose things based on wanting structure that would help him feel contained and successful, and both the bob books for reading and jump math workbooks are proving to be what they claim to be in the area of helping bolster self-confidence.

still, even curriculum can’t hem in our unschooling-ness, and when he read me frog sat (book 8 in the kindergarten sight words bob series) the other day, we didn’t just read it, we acted out each page in our living room. also, when i commented to quinn after he blew through the first 13 pages of the first grade jump book that, “math is fun, huh?” he replied, “yeah! ‘cause you can do it in bed!”

in other homeschool kindergarten news, ewok technology is still a very hot topic.

just enough curriculum to promote self-confidence but not enough to take the simple poetry out of the boy. such as when i turned on the car after picking him up the other day and the intro to the beatles’ happy birthday came on the stereo. he had been tilting his head looking at something out his window, and then he excitedly exclaimed, “that was the perfect song for a seagull flying down the street!”

a summer of unschool

Posted on September 3, 2012 by marybethrew

tomorrow is quinn’s first day of school! but not his first day of unschool… it’s roughly his 2020th day of that. and counting… by the way, in case you are catching up here after a while away (i know i have been missing some posts on blogs i follow throughout the summer months) quinn is attending our living school this coming year, a radically cool school that i believe will seamlessly mesh with our unschooling life. you can read my education manifesto here, and get excited with me.

i haven’t done a month of unschool post in 3 months, so here’s the whole summer in a nutshell! this summer featured lots of gardening of course. i have found that quinn chooses to participate occasionally, and more often than not is content to let me do my garden thing while he does his thing. and this way, the times he does choose to join in seem all the more quality. he participated with abandon, for example, in planting sunflower seeds we saved last fall, and our vast sunflower crop is just about to burst into bloom!

lots of fruit was harvested- huckleberries, cherries, blueberries, and again, there were times i went off and foraged and quinn chose to abstain, while the times he chose to join me were in general very good. (grumblings of “i’m never ever coming to pick cherries with you again!” were heard, but he easily shifted back into eating 1107 more cherries off the tree with sparkle stories coming through his headphones. he’s a good sport.) he helped with other odd chores, such as picking up grass clippings, watering in the greenhouse, feeding our friend’s goats, washing and setting the table, mixing pancake batter, and more, on his initiative.

we worked on interpersonal skills. (i always find it so funny to have to label such things- camping with friends is just life, it’s not just about socialization of children. but we did do some socializing.)

we spent time with baby pancake, who is doing her own unschooling, and excelling at it i might add. (here she is working on her fine motor coordination by picking up black beans and dropping them in a mason jar.) we spent time outside as much as possible!

indoors, we learned a lot of new games! we played twister, several kinds of monopoly, and quinn has begun a love affair with chess. he likes it in a box, he likes it with a fox. he likes it in a house and with a mouse. uno was also played, which is not new, but much loved in our family.

artsy craftsy things were a constant. quinn is way into coloring and sticker books these days. we also did some collage art, some computer “paint” program, and a large t-rex drawing in a cool coffee shop that had paper and colored pencils laid out on every table for customer doodling. that last photo shows how even stickers provide real-life skills needed as a bill-paying adult. (there are some in our household who might postulate that we may be approaching sticker excess….)

literacy. solidifying his grasp of letter sounds. keeping score at a baseball game. pretending to read the newspaper. actually sounding out a few words here and there in storybooks (but he is often reluctant to do so and i am not pushing it!) and playing dinosaur train on the computer (one day at mama’s work). books we’ve read this summer: books about dinosaurs, mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh, and my side of the mountain, as well as lots of storybooks i didn’t keep track of. nimh is an old favorite for quinn, while my side of the mountain is becoming a new favorite.

he worked on numbers. he seems to like to see them in front of him, and will initiate this type of counting (with strawberries, or tortilla chip “volcanoes”) on his own frequently. legos are a big hit right now, and i can see the way they help with number concepts, just simply through play. he does some simple grouping/multiplying at times.

how is it that i have only one single dinosaur picture from this entire summer? this one is from the laughing planet cafe, the day he got a filling (hence the expression as he tries to suck through the straw with half of his face numb), and the cafe has dinosaurs on every table. what a find! oh, and the food is good, too! i happen to know that dinosaurs remain firmly on his very most favorite things list, so don’t be fooled by the lack of dino footage. he will talk your ear off about them and you will learn a lot. watch out.

there’s always so much i forget about as the days rush by. my haphazard phone camera method of keeping track of it all misses many subtle skills learned and projects undertaken. also missed are the things that are so fleeting and can’t be photographed- like when he learned on his own that when he stuck a toy propeller out his car window, it was super awesome and spun really, really fast. i know this somehow translates into his eventual love of physics as a high school junior, i just can’t articulate it at the moment. sometimes it’s just that i forgot to charge my phone and can’t take a photo due to low battery syndrome. but looking back, it seems to me we did have quite a full summer of learning and living and loving!

(and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t feel like this last day before kindergarten was a big deal. a big deal it is, i admit it! a happy one! a rite of passage, yadda yadda. oh, the mixed emotions of motherhood!)

educational priorities ~ a mamafesto

Posted on August 6, 2012 by marybethrew

custody mediation is a roller coaster ride. focusing on one of the peaks of the experience, i had the opportunity to spend time writing up my priorities for quinn’s education, and i find that i continue to think about it and tweak it even though the decision has been made and quinn is, for reals, going to attend our living school (insert excited jumping up and down mama emoticon). i am glad to have had the motivation to articulate these thoughts that represent many years of contemplation, research and reflection. when i shared my list with my mom, she expressed that as a former public school teacher, this is what she and every other teacher she knew would want for children, if only they could accomplish it in that setting. to say the least, a grammy emoticon is also jumping up and down in excitement about her grandson attending our living school. and it got me thinking that i should post my educational priority manifesto publicly, and hope that in some small way, via ripple effect it influences someone in some way until someday our public schools provide this kind of educational experience for our children. feel free to distribute wildly. this thing is so going to go viral and change the world. ;))

My priorities as Quinn’s mama for his educational experience focus on surrounding him with nurturing environments and people and preserving his love of learning. While I do not distinguish between learning and the rest of life, as I believe the two are inextricably linked, I will do my best to list my priorities for how I believe Quinn can best be supported so that he may thrive as a life long learner. I believe this will be achieved by prioritizing:

1. Safety- A learning environment where physical safety is a no-brainer. First aid, booster seats, sunscreen, and other reasonable precautions are all taken as a matter of course, and all caretakers are attuned to his (and all childrens’) safety as the utmost priority.

2. Connection Between Student and Teacher- A bond between student and teacher that ensures priority #1 through open communication and positive regard of one another. Quinn’s teacher is someone he knows he can confide in immediately if he ever felt unsafe, and count on to immediately provide safety. In addition to how connection enhances safety, it also promotes an enriching educational experience, because of the comfort in which he can learn. From connection flows the sense of nurturing, unconditional positive regard, and feeling of equal dignity that all humans deserve and require in order to do their best learning.

3. Connection Between Teacher and Parents- Rapport among teachers, student and parents will allow for real, tangible assessments based on the individual student. Teacher observations are translated to parents in detail through open channels of communication. Daily experiences, triumphs and disappointments that Quinn has, rather than letter grades and test scores, (or worse: diagnoses and labels) are emphasized. Connection allows for his strengths and areas needing extra support to be known to all involved, because his teacher is attuned to his unique learning styles and pays attention to his experiences. Parental involvement at school is frequent and meaningful.

4. Sense of Belonging- Quinn feels ownership of his school as a place that is Home to him, with a positive sense of caring for his fellow students, who in turn care for him as part of their community. Values are instilled by the teacher towards this end, and extend outward to include his greater community, in which his school is an active participant.

5. Whole-Child Approach- A worldview that sees children as intact beings who are destined to grow into their innate competence (given their basic needs are provided for), as well as prosocial beings whose desire by default is to cooperate, belong, and get along. This can be expressed as giving kids the benefit of the doubt in their intentions and abilities. The opposing worldview is one in which children are deficient and need to be filled up with knowledge and morals through a hierarchical framework that places them below their teachers and other adults, and re-shaped into good human beings, and must prove through standardized testing that they have reached competence.

6. Emergent/Constructivist Curriculum- Choice is very important to a successful education. Quinn is able to learn what he is drawn to, with teacher guidance to help him create meaning for himself about what he learns. He is able to approach each component of academics as he is ready for and drawn to it, in a way that he can absorb it efficiently because it’s meaningful to him. He has the freedom to opt in or out of lessons he feels compelled or uncompelled by, and there is plenty of enriching material for him to engage in and be challenged by. Further, the lessons offered are set at a level that is most likely to compel him, given that they are based on his/the student body’s emerging interests/intrigues/questions/thoughts/votes. He sets his own balance of autonomous learning time to cooperative group learning time. Extending this to middle and high school years, Quinn’s preparation for his life/career goals (college, trades, conservatory, world travel or whatever they may be) is in his own hands and he is confident in his ability to craft his own educational curriculum, one that will land him squarely where he desires to be, wearing a set of wings to take him far beyond.

7. A Yes Environment- Opportunities, space and materials are available to him whenever he takes initiative to express and explore. When he reveals an interest, the tools and materials he needs to follow that thread appear in a timely manner so he can continue and take it as far as he wants, until he is satiated. If he is engrossed in dinosaurs today… books and activities show up in following days based on that theme and are strewn in his path for him to gobble up. His teacher’s role is to observe what is sparking his interest and tend the flame- requiring an individualized approach, attentive observation, and one-on-one time with each student. In turn, this requires small class size and ability to steer curriculum to tailor to the students at hand. Also required are outlets for fine art, drama, choral/instrumental music, dance, creative writing, world culture, cooking, sports, etc. (When I refer to a Yes Environment, this is one of the things I find it hard to extract from Life and label it School: Many of the interests Quinn will develop will be honed at home, e.g. woodworking with dada or sewing with mama, and at private (dance/music/art/sports) lessons or through outside-of-school classes, so I apply this concept to Life in General as well as educational goals.) Again, extending to his life goals beyond K-12, Quinn is encouraged and supported in his goals and help is always available to guide him in the right direction to meet them.

8. Developing His Own Internal Moral Compass- Rather than responding to external triggers like “do I get a sticker for sharing,” or “do I lose a sticker if I talk in the line,” Quinn gets to grapple with right and wrong based on his own inner knowing, as he practices and calibrates his internal compass. He receives lots of guidance and suggestions to help him navigate territory that is new for him, but never force, coercion or bribery, rewards or punishments.

9. Steering Clear of Rewards/Punishments With Respect to Learning- Rewards and punishments are avoided in order to protect his intrinsic motivation to learn. His desire to learn comes from within, and that is honored in a way that maintains its integrity within rather than pulling it outside of him and replacing it with an external stimulus. My belief is that rewards and punishments backfire in the longer term when used as extrinsic motivators for learning academic subjects.

10. Play- Time and space to be a kid, with both structured and unstructured time to play. Play is of extreme importance to learning, and again, not separate from learning. Play is learning.

11. Academics, while held at high priority, do not eclipse other important lessons. Some of the lessons/skills I value most, in no particular order, are:
social/emotional skills
healthy bodies
mindfulness practices
self esteem
compassion
writing
good relationships
empathy
communication
movement
sustainability
arts
reading
conflict resolution
scientific reasoning
practical life skills (everything from gardening to making things to voting)
being a citizen in a democracy
critical thinking
math
social justice
music
community-mindedness

12. Age integration- Kids who are older to look up to, admire, imitate, (who have skills he has yet to acquire), and kids who are younger, to keep things infused with imagination and wonder. involvement of people of all ages from the surrounding community, because the real world is a place where people of all ages interact, to everyone’s great good fortune.

It is my belief that by prioritizing these values and qualities in Quinn’s education, Quinn will be set up to lead a fulfilling life. He will know himself well, never having been divorced from his own internal motivators, conscience, or self-knowledge. He will have confidence that he can achieve whatever he sets out to do, and will have obtained skills and knowledge that are required for that journey. He will know what it is like to be surrounded by supportive, encouraging people, and will recognize them in society. he will be attracted to workplaces with similar atmospheres and friendships featuring positive regard and nurturing. He will be unwilling to tolerate injustice because of his intimate experience of participating in a compassionate, justice-promoting community. He will know how to be respectful as well as to live in a way that inspires respect. He will know how to be flexible, how to think critically and creatively, and how to navigate real world situations because the real world is the place he will always have dwelled. He will be fully competent in making choices, as choice has been a key component of his entire educational experience- he will know that life is made up of choices, and he will be empowered to make them, to lead where others might defer to someone else, or wallow in indecisiveness and let decisions be made by default rather than empowerment. These approaches to Quinn’s education will produce a strong, capable, caring, well-rounded, enthusiastic, empowered, joyful human being.

mb

magic & bioluminescence

Tag Archives: emergent curriculum

salmon science

where fedex fears to tread

a summer of unschool

educational priorities ~ a mamafesto