July 19, 2004

Dear Parents,

We are drawing near the end of another incredible year at Salmonberry.  This will be my last week before heading off to the Smoky Mountains for a course in traditional woodworking and wood carving.  I will leave the program in Mairi's able hands.  She will be lead teacher for the four days of school next week.  Dacia will assist during roughly half of these hours.  I know they will do a terrific job in my absence.  I will return late on August 1 and will be in and out throughout August, undoubtedly spending a good deal of time with Salmonberry projects.  I will be mailing out progress summaries to you in mid-August.

Last week we harvested our authentic California Gold Rush variety wheat with a scythe, bound it in a sheaf, and brought it to the porch to dry.  It was a triumphant moment.  Now it dries and later this week: threshing, winnowing and next week: grinding.  The garden was a great success this year and an important part of our pioneer experience.  We got a few more logs up on the log cabin.  We will continue to work through this quarter and likely into the fall, another slow but rewarding project.  

The quilting unit has also taken off and has been an exemplary model of how progressive and holistic education can work.  Guided by the students' interests and discoveries in the context of a meaningful, relevant and holistic thematic unit, the learning has been powerful, unexpected, and will be remembered.  Baird, who deserves huge kudos for leading the way on this one, has helped the kids to complete their 9-patch squares, each square using a fabric piece from each child (most have personal connections and stories - Brigid's mom's pillowcase from college, Quinn's curtain fabric from his old bedroom in Portland, Lee's baby sheets, etc.)  Baird will assemble these and sew on the border, batting, and backing.  Then the kids will work around a quilting frame to do the quilting.  They will apply their stitching skills which they have been learning in the creation of the sample books.  We have learned the running stitch, the chain stitch, and the cross stitch and will be doing the blanket stitch this week.  This project has led us to discover some outstanding literature which centers on the theme of quilts.  We have also been working on a separate "quilt" project with no sewing.  First we reviewed some art concepts, particularly pattern and contrast and the kids created their own paper "fabrics."  Then they studied some traditional quilt patterns and chose one they liked.  We did some scale drawings and cut pieces from their fabrics to create quilt squares.  The kids have gained familiarity with geometric design, fractions and symmetry through their work - not to mention patience and determination.  We have further incorporated the quilt theme into their math skill work through the use of some quilt design computation sheets.  Many of the kids have brought in actual quilts from home and gotten practice with oral speaking as they have told the stories of their quilts.  Finally we will incorporate some writing as they write and/or dictate their quilt stories at school this week.  If you have additional quilts at home which can be shared at school please send them in.  We'll have them all hanging to display at Thursday's year-end celebration.

Speaking of which, Thursday will be a Board sponsored luncheon at 12:00.  Preschool, elementary school, and prospective families have all been invited.  Please join us if you can to meet some new Salmonberry families and share in the celebration of an amazing year at Salmonberry School.

On Friday, we are riding the ferry to Friday Harbor and driving to American Camp.  There we'll be met by some interpretive guides who will do a program with us focusing on the Pig War, about which we have read in class in some detail.  General Pickett himself (as portrayed by a park ranger) will teach us some history and lead us through a series of activities focusing on peaceful conflict resolution, nonviolent communication, and negotiation.  We will return to Orcas at 3:15.  Pick up can be either at the ferry landing or back at school around 3:40.

Have a great and wonderful vacation!

Paul

June 28, 2004 

Dear Parents,

So, the return from the unforgettable field trip to Oregon, combined with the warm weather and the endless summer days has lead to a week of high energy and lots of excitement.  Mairi and I are reinforcing some limits and reestablishing classroom routines and expectations.  I appreciate your continued help in supporting us and helping your kids to settle in appropriately at drop off, and attempting to get sufficient sleep each night.

A few highlights for the coming week include: The kids will continue writing fictitious Orcas history stories based on old photographs we have from the museum.  They are working with partners and spent much of last week brainstorming, prewriting and then learning about and starting to write engaging story beginnings.  We will be visited again by Errol Speed on Tuesday afternoon, who will help us to continue the log cabin construction.  Monday afternoon we will be hosted at the Living Room by artist Peter Fisher, who has just completed his show on early Orcas postcards.  We will see the images and he will explain his artistic process.  Parents are welcome to join us.  Also, on Thursday, Baird Nuckolls, Caitlin's mom, will begin teaching a weekly unit on quilting and sewing.  During this unit the kids will learn about this pioneer art form while learning some practical skills.  They will sew buttons, learn several different stitches, make a sample book, and design and piece a "nine patch" class quilt.  There may be a few more surprises too.  This sounds like a wonderful unit which Baird has designed and taught before at Caitlin's school in Mountain View, CA.

We are requesting that each child bring one approximately 18"x18" piece of fabric of their choosing.  This should be a woven cotton material (not a knit t-shirt material) and not too thick (no denim or canvas).  This could be an old item of clothing they have outgrown, which might help to make it personal.  If these could be at school by this Tuesday that would be great, by Thursday at the latest.  (We'll have extra fabric in case you have trouble coming up with a piece.)  We are also in search of a quilt frame.  If you have one, or can locate one to borrow for about a week, it would be much appreciated.  Let me know, thanks.

This Saturday is the 4th of July parade and, of course, we're in!  We will borrow the Millers' flatbed truck and the kids will ride while demonstrating some pioneer skills: woodworking, carding wool, washing clothes on a washboard, working a spinning wheel, etc.  Rumor is the preschool will join us dressed as sheep, horses, etc.  There is a float decorating party after school on Friday and participants are asked to be at the elem. school at 10:30 on Saturday (I think 11:00 will be fine.)  The rest of the day on Saturday, I'll be demonstrating some traditional woodcraft at the Historical Days fair in the square.  Please bring the kids by, if you're around.

Finally, there will be no school on next Monday, July 5.  The holiday was accidentally omitted from the calendar, sorry.  I believe there will be preschool offered that day, for those with younger kids.

Have a great week!

Paul

June 8, 2004

Dear Parents,

What a terrific start we had last week to our unit on local Orcas Island history and homesteading.  Supplemented by an amazing collection of photos and artifacts from the Orcas Island Historical Museum, we began with a review of all the work we did last quarter on Lewis & Clark, the Oregon Trail, and westward movement.  Then we discussed James Francis Tulloch's wanderings as described in his Diaries before settling on Orcas.  We brainstormed important attributes of homesteads.  Then, using this knowledge, the kids chose from a large array of fictitious property descriptions.  They looked through contemporary real estate magazines to find photos that reflected their chosen homestead site and created a collage.  They also wrote some beautiful utopian poetry about their "homestead dreams," focusing on the literary devices of metaphor, simile, hyperbole and word choice.

In an effort to move beyond the sense of history being limited to "back then" or "in those days," the kids played a guessing game in which they tried to chronologically order a list of Orcas Island happenings and events.  After the correct dates were revealed, the kids began to create their own timelines which they will continue to add to and use as a reference throughout our studies.  The concept of scale was emphasized and we got a chance to review counting by 5's too.

The next day we began to create another reference resource, a map of Orcas.  The kids each took an outline map and began to label the towns and significant geographic features of the island.  They will add places and sites we encounter during our studies as well as points of personal relevance or interest.

On Friday we took a walking tour of Eastsound.  Jen Vollmer met us at the museum and gave us a personal tour of the cabins and artifacts.  We visited the Boede cabin, the store and post office exhibit, the fruit industry exhibit, the tool room and especially the oral history displays.  Afterwards, we continued on and noticed some other historic sites in town: the Manse House (Coldwell Banker), the Outlook Inn, the site of Templin's store, the Our House building and most noticeably, the Episcopal church, stories of which we had heard regarding Rev Gray who established the church in the 1870's, partly in an effort to attract more settlers to Orcas.  We also walked out to experience the lowest tide in nineteen years - incredible stuff!

This week, the adventure continues: we took a trip down to Deer Harbor where Bob Connor met us at the old Deer Harbor School, 1905.  He showed us photos and told us stories about Deer Harbor history.  Then we walked across the street and he walked us around his stunning acreage.  Literally popping out of the bushes arrived some other of Bob's visitors, notably a young ethno-botanist, completing her doctoral dissertation on the Cammas plant.  She taught us about the ecology of Deer Harbor and some of the edible plants all around us (ask your kids about Sheep Sorrel).  We also met a gentleman who has worked with the Smithsonian, been faculty at University of Washington and is currently working with the Samish Nation as a consultant in charge of salmon recovery - a great storyteller too!  Finally, the ostensible purpose of our visit, Bob walked us down to see the remains of Louis Cayou's cabin, Louis being the very first white settler on Orcas, 1859!  It was incredible and tied in perfectly to our previous work on envisioning the idea homestead site.

After lunch on the beach, we returned to school and I talked with the kids about contrasts between homesteading and modern home building and settling.  The discussion rambled towards technology and its appropriate and thoughtful use.  I introduced the kids to the scythe and discussed the pleasures of hand work in general and the scythe specifically.  We sung "The Scythe Song" (yes, that's really the title) and I demonstrated the use of this traditional tool.  The kids each got a turn to give it a try!

This, of course, is only a sampling of the work we've been doing these couple of weeks.  We have been reading some Pig War stories, Tulloch's journal entries, and much more.  Antoinette, our storyteller, has been instrumental in creating the museum's oral history project and will be sharing many of these stories with us as well.

On Friday, Irene O'Neill, lifelong Olga resident, and her 91-year-old mom, Jane Barfoot Hodde, will come to school and tell us some personal memories of life on that side of the island.  I'm hoping we can later head down to Olga and Doe Bay as there is much to see and people to meet there as well.  We will also be busily preparing the kids for next week's trip to Oregon.  We'll look at maps and preview all the incredible sites we'll be visiting down there.  

The kids continue to work on reading and writing every day and the math groups are doing great work!  (Place value, area, and fractions).

As usual, I am learning a ton and am having a great time.  The kids are all so receptive and seem to be blooming!

Have a great week!

Paul

June 1, 2004

Dear Parents,

Welcome back!  Hope everyone had a restful and restorative May break.  I am so excited, this week, to begin our new thematic unit on local homesteader history.  I have been poring through historical texts, photos and artifacts, and needless to say, have been learning a ton!  It's all fascinating.  It seems the earliest island history (beginning with white settlement) included a rather nefarious assortment of characters owing to the "no man's land" status of the disputed islands' governance.  There are many interesting and shady stories - not all kid-appropriate but rather compelling for any of you who may be interested.  Anyway, our focus will be on the agricultural settlement, homesteading, and founding of the Orcas community.  In fact the interplay of rugged individualism embodied by western settlers and the need for a sustaining interdependent community will be a salient theme in our studies.

The segueway will be something like this: after a long and difficult journey westward, what would happen to the western settlers?  How would they establish a land claim, and then what?  What do people need to survive, and how can these needs be met?  What choices were made and why?  How can one achieve self-sufficiency and is that enough to be happy?  We will explore these and other questions.

This unit will include visits by several island elders, beginning with Irene O'Neill, a lifelong Olga resident and historian and her 90-year-old mother, Jane Barfoot Hodde.  We will take several field trips to explore island geography, historical sites, and working farms and craftspeople.  We will continue log building and woodworking, candle making, textile arts, and cooking (I have a wonderful collection of Irene and Jane's authentic Olga Potluck favorite recipes!)  We will also be tending and harvesting from our amazingly productive pioneer garden.  We will set up some simulated pioneer jobs for the kids in the classroom, including but not limited to postmaster, general store keeper, weather recorder, and journalists.  There will be some visiting instructors, too, including musicians, dancers, architects, and fiber artists.

This week we'll begin with a review of the Oregon Trail.  Then we'll discuss what a settler would look for in a homestead.  The kids will brainstorm some utopian visions and write some poetry about their homestead dreams.  Then we'll go shopping.  The kids will have some real estate descriptions and will file a claim from these varied possibilities.

We will be looking forward to and preparing for our trip to Oregon.  Look for the itineraries and travel guides in your boxes at the end of the day today!

In all it looks like another full quarter of thematic work!  It looks like some very engaging material.

Mairi and I will also be focusing on readin', writin', and 'rithmetic this quarter and will devote most of our morning times to skill work, both individual and small group work at the kids' instructional levels.  More on this next week!

Have a great week!

Paul

April 28, 2004

Dear Parents,

Sorry I didn't get the usual Monday newsletter out to you this week - a sure sign we are approaching a much needed break.

I just wanted to share with you a small glimpse into what was a spectacular day at school yesterday: The kids spent much of the morning working on a journal entry about their characters' adventures on the Oregon Trail.  Quotes include: "I don't know if we'll make it across the river, it is so swollen with rain."  "It was a fine day when Dr. Dan Cotton said, 'Esther, let us go to Oregon.'"  "Before the rains began, water used to be my friend, now it is my enemy."  "I am worried for my animals.  I hope they make it."  "I am terribly discouraged."

Although misspellings abounded, I want you to appreciate the beauty and passion with which the kids are writing.  They have precise and vivid word choice, a poetic and unique voice and creative and original ideas and content.  The conventions will come.

Then we went outside and the kids proceeded to act out amazing cooperative dramatic scenes during their recess.  They built trading posts, forts, and barns.  They gathered "hay" and traded for water and dandelions.  Some were mules and donkeys pulling wagons which they constructed.  Others were pioneers, Native Americans, etc.

A couple of kids helped me split wood and made a campfire in our usual trench.  This has become an expected weekly ritual.  Others watered the garden.  Taj said, "Paul, look how good the peas are doing!" Then we gathered with Andria who taught us about sead saving and heirloom vegetables.  We touched and tasted a documented 1830's variety of bean, the "Red Calypso."  Then we prepared a soup to which the beans were added.  We noticed that beans can be eaten as well as planted.  Sasha said, "It's like a cycle!"  Of course, we launched into a discussion of life cycles and our responsibilities as earth's stewards.  Then, while the soup simmered over an open fire, we planted a garden bed, which the kids had prepared, (dug, weeded, added compost,) with the red calypso beans and watered them in.

We played some more, then returned for the feast.  To accompany the soup, Andria helped the kids make ginger/vinegar water (yes, it contained significant amounts of sugar.)  As we ate and drank I read a passage from Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter in which Laura describes with incredible passion the joy with which she drank ginger/vinegar water at her first haying.

The afternoon included music with Matthew and then time for the kids to work on their shoe box model wagons.  Kids added accessories such as butter churns, axes, sacks of grain, bedding, etc.  I worked with kids sawing wooden axels with a dovetail saw and boring holes in the wheels with a 19th century brace and bit.  To close the day we read from the real diary of a young girl headed for Oregon in 1849.

We read a few fate cards, I think there was an encounter with Native Americans and a lost child who wandered off picking wildflowers.  Just another day at Salmonberry Pioneer School.

Have a great week!

Paul

April 19, 2004

Dear Parents,

What an exciting and emotional start we had to our Oregon Trail simulation last week.  The kids chose fictitious identities and got to know their character and family.  Then we completed the arduous process of selecting supplies.  Many interesting strategies emerged: some kids focused on bare bones survival: others focused on the needs related to their future occupations upon reaching Oregon; some were concerned with preserving family heirlooms; still others were determined to keep the overall wagon weight down so as to spare any undue hardship on the mules and oxen who are pulling the wagon.  The kids all completed their first diary entries and received their first fate cards - all about the scarcity of water and firewood.  Finally each group cooperatively arrived at their first trail decision upon being faced with outrageously high prices for water in Prairie Wells.  So far, all wagons are in good health and good spirits although anxiety is running a little bit high.

The coming weeks will be full of specialists and enhancements to the already full curriculum.  Antoinette will teach a series of lessons on group decision making using Native American Council process as a model.  Valerie will tell stories from various Indian traditions corresponding to our geographical location on the Oregon Trail.  Matthew will continue to come for music and Elsie will teach yoga.  Andria will be cooking authentic Trail recipes with us, mostly on the open campfire - there are rumors of doughnuts, cornbread, dried applesauce with dumplings, and even homemade toothpaste!  Errol will be back for more log cabin construction.  I will do some additional pioneer woodworking demonstrations including bark peeling, weaving, stool making, using a shaving horse and turning chair legs on a spring pole lathe.  The latest addition will be square dancing with Jean Hennigson, Monday and Thursday afternoons at 1:30 - parents are welcome!  Wednesday afternoons will continue to be gardening time in the Salmonberry Pioneer Garden; Ronda and a couple of interns from Maple Rock Farm (our local CSA) are very interested in our project and will be coming to help us out.  Please join us if you have some time on Wednesday.

Thursday is the annual Earth Day parade.  We will be walking with costumes made from recycled materials.

There is a preschool/kindergarten parent meeting Wednesday at 1:00.

Don't forget to sign up on the volunteer sheet on the door for May Day.

We could use some supplies from your home collections for:

1.  Shoebox based covered wagons - we need fabric scraps, wood scraps, anything which might be transformed into mini-pioneer artifacts (no pre-made plastic accessories, playmobil, lego, etc.)

2.  Earth Day costumes - tubes, tubs, cardboard in interesting shapes, you name it as long as it is a recycled material.

Thanks and have a great week!

Paul

April 12, 2004 

Dear Parents,

The Corps of Discovery returned safely, and miraculously intact back in St. Louis on September 23, 1806.

Now, a little history lesson by way of transition: The thirty-five years following the return of Lewis & Clark Expedition witnessed many changes in the United States.  The frontier, including the territories along the Mississippi River continued to attract settlers, grow in population and achieve statehood.  In addition, "Mountain Men" continued to trap and trade with Native American groups throughout the west.  British and Americans sailed to settlements and trading posts in the Oregon Country (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia.)  The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver under the leadership of John McLaughlin and became a commercial trading center in what is now Vancouver, Washington.  Missionaries came west to Oregon Country in the 1830's, these included the first "overlanders."

Our attention in class now shifts to the mass overland migration that began in 1841, bringing approximately 100,000 settlers over twenty-five years to Oregon (The Oregon Trail) and many others to California, Utah, and later other western destinations.  The Oregon Trail was a 2,000 mile long walking trek as farmers and other seeking to stake a claim brought all their possessions by covered wagon, traveling in large groups called "wagon trains."

To get a realistic sense of this incredible historical event, we will embark on an exciting simulation.  This week, the kids will be divided into cooperative groups, or wagon trains.  Each student will assume a fictitious identity of a family, complete with occupations, family members' date, and livestock.  The wagon train will choose a wagon master who will help keep order and oversee decision making on the trail.  Then we will go through the great challenge of selecting supplies for the trip.  Each wagon can carry approximately 1,000 pounds and each student will choose from a long list of items with associated weights.  Mairi and I will help to get everyone outfitted appropriately.  Then, we'll write a diary entry and set out on the trail.  As we go, there will be many ways for the kids to earn travel points for their team.  These will be calculated and then the wagon trains will slowly move across the map.  (It's all super complicated but it really works!)  The groups will also have to make several critical trail decisions, and they will also encounter "fates," many of which will be affected by decisions that are made along the way.

In the meantime, we'll continue to build our log cabin.  We'll work in the pioneer garden (all parents and friends are encouraged to help out on Wednesday afternoons - 1:30-3:00.)  We'll be cooking outside with Andria, (this week Johnny Cakes with wild greens - dandelions!)  We'll continue making candles, telling stories, learning songs, and...maybe a surprise or two.

This week, Ethna's son, Peter will join us as his 2nd grade class is on Spring Break.

There is a Board Meeting this afternoon at 3:15.

Have a great week!

Paul

April 5, 2004 

Dear Parents,

Wow, the kids did so well on the four mile hike around Mountain Lake.  Moana and Lynne joined us and we had spectacular weather.  There were virtually no whines or complaints, the spirits were high and the mood was one of mutual support and teamwork.  The group was well prepared, enthusiastic, and generally terrific.

This week we'll wrap up our studies of Lewis & Clark and The Corps of Discovery.  On Monday, at the coastal winter camp, Fort Clatsop, we will distill some ocean water to produce salt crystals - Clark wrote that the salt was much welcome to help disguise the taste of the rotten elk meat!  We will also cook smoked salmon chowder on our outdoor fire pit with Andria.  The salmon was a gift from the Clatsop Indians - the recipe is authentic, from the journals.  On Tuesday we'll make some beeswax candles, another authentic Fort Clatsop pastime.  We should finish peeling the alder logs for our log cabin this week and we'll continue notching the logs and raising the walls.  Antoinette will again regale us with tales from the trail, Valerie will visit once more and will further discuss Native American shamanic traditions and we may even talk Matthew into playing a fiddle tune or two to celebrate our return to St. Louis.  We'll add a final journal entry or two and then close out studies.

Next week it'll be on to the Oregon Trail.  I have an incredible simulation all ready to go.  It involves assuming fictitious identities and working on cooperative wagon train groups.  The groups choose supplies, make difficult trail decisions, do some short research projects, write journal entries (of course,) and face fate cards which reveal hidden dangers on the trail.  More details next week!  We will continue much of our "real" work too - cooking, crafts, gardening, etc. as well.

Speaking of gardening... the Historic Salmonberry Pioneer Garden is up and running.  The peas, garlic, wheat, and turnips are all poking through the soil.  All are heirloom varieties (pre-1840) and are doing great!  We'll be working in the garden every Wednesday afternoon from 1:30 on.  Come and join us if you have time.  I'd love for you guys to model some nurturing of plants and of school grounds, connecting to the Earth and committing to a meaningful long-term project (not that you don't all do this every day, but this is another great opportunity.)  I'd also like to request that each child bring to school a little gardening kit (a hand trowel and fork, a pair of gloves, a small bucket, and any other small accessories they'd like - I know the accessories are half the fun.)  We also desperately need to hose nozzle if anyone can donate a spare.

We are having a Board-sponsored barbecue lunch on Thursday, April 8 at 12:00 to welcome the new team of Gretchen Shaw and Ethna Flanagan.  Please come if you can.

Have a great week!

Paul

March 29, 2004

Dear Parents,

We finally have a new preschool staff in place and just about ready to go.  Ethna Flanagan and Gretchen Shaw will be co-teaching the preschool/kindergarten program.  Ethna will begin on Monday, April 5.  So, while she prepares herself and plans with Gretchen, we will be sharing Mairi with the preschool for one more week.

Last week was wonderfully busy and rich, despite the shortened week.  Rivka did an amazing presentation of Pan Oh Kee Yo, her wonderful original adaptation of Pinnochio.  She is an amazing author, artist and person.  I'm sure we'll be seeing her again in the future.  We had to postpone log cabin construction due to the weather, (we are now rescheduled to start the cabin today, we have 24 logs peeled and the site is ready!) but we did make it to Cascade Falls, an impressive simulation of the arrival of the Corps of Discovery at the Great Falls of Montana.

With the arrival at the falls, we enter the last phase of the westward part of the journey.  We will  now trade for some horses from the Shoshoni and meet Sacagawea's brother Chief Cammeawhaite (he's the one who loved the berry pudding.)  As we struggle over the Bitter roots, a norther part of the Rocky Mountain chain, Andria will help us prepare the dreaded "portable soup," as our travel was delayed a bit last week.  We'll barely survive the descent into the Nez Perce community and will struggle on to the Snake and Columbia rivers and finally to the coast.  Ginny will continue her leather and bead lessons with the kids on Thursday as we make a leather shoulder bag.  Valerie will come Thursday as well and will continue to talk about the encounters from the native American perspective, and will teach us more about the shamanic tradition.  On Friday we are planning on a long hike in Moran State Park, perhaps around Mountain Lake.  We will go slow, take snacks, drinks, lunch, and journals.  This four mile hike will hopefully give us some sense of the endless walking which the Corps endured, and it might even be fun!

Have a great week!

Paul

March 22, 2004

Dear Parents,

Happy Spring!

So, we made it to Fort Mandan in present day North Dakota and are settling in for the winter.  It was funny, we were cooking Fort Mandan Berry Pudding over the open campfire (Chief Cameawhaite's - Sacagawea's brother's favorite dish) last Friday and, just to make the simulation more realistic, just was we pulled the dutch oven off the fire to serve the pudding the lovely springlike day clouded over and it began hailing!  What timing.  Lewis and Clark spent a hard and freezing winter there.

Last week we added several entries to our journals.  We also did some simulated buffalo hide pictograph paintings to tell a story from the journey so far - the encounter with the prairie dogs was a favorite.  We were visited by Antoinette who told us more Sacagawea stories, Ginny who helped us make some amazing beaded deerskin medicine pouches, and Valerie who taught us a bit about the Native American shamanic traditions.  Matthew even stretched his classical violin skills and played us some fiddle tunes like those played by French Canadian river man Paul Cruzatte on the expedition.  And we got around eight logs peeled for our cabin!

This week we will struggle through that unbelievably cold winter at Fort Mandan.  We will meet and hire on Sacagawea, Toussaint Charbonneau, and little Pomp, before heading out further west along the Missouri all the way to the foothills of the Rocky Moutains, in present day Idaho.  We will write letters home to our parents to send back on the keel boat from Fort Mandan - the last communication to our families for a year and a half.  We'll make peace certificates, and we'll write in our journals about some difficult decisions we'll be making along the way.  On Monday, Antoinette will demonstrate for us how to begin construction of our log cabin.  We may even get the first few logs in place.  Parents are most welcome Tuesday at 2:00 to help out, or just watch.  On Wednesday, Rivka Sweedler will join us and will present another slide show and tell the kids her original story entitled Pan Oh Kee Yo.  On Thursday afternoon we'll take a quick field trip to Cascade Falls.  We'll bring our journals along and stretch our use of metaphor and hyperbole as we try to mimic Lewis' famous descriptive journal entry upon seeing the Great Falls in Montana.  By Friday we should be at the Rocky Moutains.  Here, during very hard times, the Corps resorted to eating Lewis' dreaded "portable soup."  It was a thick, greenish yellow concoction, much loathed by most of the Corps who preferred to slaughter their own horses to eat, and were surviving on candle wax and leather.  Andria promises that our version won't be quite so distasteful, but it'll look plenty gross!

Mairi will be assisting Gretchen at the preschool for the 9-1:00 hours Monday-Thursday this week, filling in for Suzanne, who, as you know, has had to stop teaching at this time.  Mairi will still be at the elementary school for roughly half of the kids' time and will continue to be an integral part of the elementary classroom.

No school this Friday for Parent Conferences.  There'll be a sign-up at school.

Have a great week!

Paul

March 15, 2004

Dear Parents,

So, we are on the Lewis & Clark Trail!  Last week was a terrific kick off.  It was great to see all the kids again.  Everyone seems rested and renewed (and tan!)  This will be our first ever historically based integrated thematic unit at Salmonberry.  The kids are getting old enough to have some cognitive understanding and perspective on history and there has been great interest in the pioneer era, through many of the kids' at-home reading.  So...here we go!  We are beginning this quarter in the early 1800's.

We have borrowed some amazing, museum-quality artifacts to adorn the classroom, and collected some wonderful books to aid us in our studies.  Last week we began with some historical and geographical contextual work.  We filled our maps of the United States with significant geographic features and made some journals - kids made covers out of simulated leather.  The journals that Lewis & Clark kept were an integral part of their experience.  We learned about the political state of North America at that time and discussed the Louisiana Purchase.  We even briefly touched on "the Enlightenment" and Thomas Jefferson.  Then...the fun stuff.

Antoinette came and told some stories related to Sacagawea, a particular area of expertise of hers!)  Ginny came and did some bead work with the kids - one of her many areas of expertise!  We learned why trade beads were so important in the early 1800's and looked at many examples of Native American beadwork.  Then the kids strung beaded necklaces, complete with grizzly bear claws and bone hair pipes (simulated of course.)  This will be the first in a series of lessons on leather and beadwork.  On Thursday, Andria came and began her series on pioneer outdoor cooking.  We cooked "Camp Dubois hominy fritters" based on an authentic recipe from the journals of Lewis and Clark, which they enjoyed in their winter camp near St. Louis before beginning the journey.  The kids also split wood with axes and froes, dug a fire trench, according to authentic plans, built camp benches, and tried to start a fire with flint and steel, (luckily Lewis & Clark brought along sulfur-tipped matches, a brand-new invention in 1804!)  It was a great day!  In addition, we made supply lists of what we thought we'd need on the journey and wrote letters home to our parents and friends as we said "good-bye."  We also began a time line which we will add to as we go along.

This week we will head out along the Missouri River.  We will meet our first Native Americans and have our first "parley" at Council Bluff.  We will suffer our first casualty - Sergeant Floyd - burst appendix, and look for another in the party who will get lost.  We will encounter the friendly Yankton Sioux and the menacing Teton Sioux (Lakota).  By the end of the week we may make it to Fort Mandan, home of the Mandan and Hidatsa nations.  We may even meet Sacagawea.  We are using multiple voices and sources for learning the plot: I am telling the story orally, Mairi and I are reading third person accounts, we are reading excerpts from the Lewis & Clark journals themselves, we are listening to audiotapes of actors portraying the characters in "The Corps of Discovery," we will read accounts from Sacagawea's perspective and other Native American perspectives, we even have a chapter book told in the first person (er...first dog) told by Seaman, Lewis' dog who accompanied him on the expedition.

This week Ginny will make beaded leather pouches with the kids.  Andria will be cooking some of the Mandans' favorite berry pudding.  We will also begin peeling bark from alder logs in anticipation of the log cabin we'll begin next week.  We will write and orate speeches to Native Americans we may encounter.  We'll do some nature, observation drawings - another important part of the mission, and we'll create "Certificates of Peace" to give to Indians we meet along the way.  We'll write in our journals at several points as well.

I hope you all had a chance to read the article on studying history holistically with kids which I put in the cubbies last week.  This'll give you some idea of what this is all about.  Basically, the gist is, even with young kids we are trying to enable them to do the work of historians and social scientists: using primary sources, artifacts, first person accounts, multiple perspectives, and simulations, enables the material to come to life.  They will taste, touch, smell, hear as well as see and hear the history.  Compare this to your typical textbook chapter.

For anyone who is interested, the Orcas Library has a terrific two-part video by Ken Burns on the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  It'd be a great supplement to our school studies.  I have checked out just about every book on the subject, but feel free to borrow one from school if you'd like to follow along at home.  There are also amazing on-line resources.  This is the bicentennial year of the beginning of the expeditions so there is tons out there.  Does anyone know how to square dance?

I have been thoroughly enjoying myself, and I do believe the kids are quite engaged as well!

Happy birthday to Crosby!

Welcome to James Paules, first grader, who joined us for his first day last Friday.

Saturday is also the Vernal Equinox.  We will celebrate the arrival of spring with a whole school celebration: picnic, dancing, and planting on Thursday.

Have a great week!

Paul