*Badger Claws* Clauses

A tip of the hat to retired teacher, Mrs. Ranney for this repost!

Mrs. Yollis' students have been reading about a Chumash boy named Badger Claws. It's been a great way to learn about the Chumash culture! We've also started learning how to improve our writing using dependent clauses. 

What are dependent clauses?

Dependent clauses start with special words:

After, Before, Since, While, When, If, During.

A dependent clause ends with a comma and cannot stand alone as a sentence. It must be followed by an independent clause, which is a sentence that can stand alone!

Here are some excellent examples of sentences with dependent clauses from our story about Badger Claws. 

1. If mischievous Badger Claws had not gone into the hot sweathouse, he would not have been caught by the Shaman!



2. After the Shaman left the brave Badger Claws in the high mountains, Badger Claws took a nap.



3. If Badger Claws shoots the fluffy, furry rabbit, he will have to skin it, clean it, and cook it before he eats it.



4. Since Badger Claws couldn't shoot a furry rabbit, he practiced shooting down the bumpy trail.



5. After Badger Claws shot a furry, little rabbit, he needed to skin the rabbit's soft fur.



6. When Badger Claws woke up in the freezing night,
he saw two monstrous "grizzly bears!"


7. Since brave Badger Claws found out the tracks were littleraccoon tracks, he was laughing like crazy!


8. Before Aged One got home, he devoured several acorn cakes and then lied about it. 

9. During the first two moons, Badger Claws was able to construct an ap, make acorn cakes, and adopt an orphaned raccoon. 


10. While Badger Claws slept, the little raccoon escaped and ate several acorn cakes.  

How did you like our dependent clauses?

If you have a sentence with a dependent clause that you'd like to share, we'd love to read it! (Hey, that was a dependent clause sentence!)

Maybe you can leave a sentence with a dependent clause about your biography subject! 

Again, dependent clauses start with special words: After, Before, Since, While, When, If, During.

Chumash Challenge!

Today we had an opportunity to experience

what it might have been like to be a Chumash Indian!

Our friends Karen and Ross from 
Camino Real Historical
and Historical Interpreters 
provided us with activities from  
The Natural World of the Chumash!

Please enjoy the slide show, and leave a comment to tell about 

what you enjoyed doing and what you learned!

Photos by Mrs. Ranney!

The Creative Hard-working Chumash! on PhotoPeach

What activity did you most enjoy and why?

What facts did you learn?

Do you know some other Chumash facts that you can share? 

Field Trip Photos for Student Blogger Use

Dear students,

Here are the photos I took at the Gillette Ranch field trip. Students have permission to use any of my photos in a blog post. Use the following citation one time in your post:  Photos used with permission from Mrs. Yollis. I have labeled a few of the photos so you will have correct spelling and capitalization. Remember, trees, plants, and animals are not proper nouns and should NOT be capitalized unless they have a proper noun in them. (For example, the Douglas fir would have a capital D because Douglas is a man's name.  California redwood would have a capital C because California is a state.)

 I encourage you to use World Book Online to research additional information about the Chumash tribe, trees and plants (native and non-native species) you saw, as well as any wildlife you spotted. Organize your post in a logical way. Put any Chumash information together. If you want to zoom in on birds, put all that information together. If you'd like to research information about State Senator Fran Pavley, here is her website. Be sure to use high-level vocabulary words!
 

When you are finished writing and proofreading your post with your parents, please add a link to the comment section, and I will tweet it out for you!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Yollis

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Wow! Mia already published something on her student blog!

 Check out her fabulous post! She'd love a comment!

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Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority (MRCA) sponsored our field trip

rabbit

Chumash fishing net

Chumash tomol (model)

Chumash basket

Nick's handmade Chumash tool (replica)

hunting tool

musical instrument: rattle

musical instrument: clapper sticks kept the rhythm (elderberry wood)

musical instrument: rain stick

bull roar

Mrs. Yollis tries to work the bull roar

eucalyptus leaf (imported from Australia)

flowering eucalyptus

acorns from coastal live oak

valley oak

valley oak hollow

sycamore tree

pine tree

great blue heron

great blue heron

turtle

snowy egret

Canadian goose and her goslings

talking about snowy owls and great horned owls

Owl eyes  are one third of the owl's face. Here we are with our owl eyes on! How do large eyes help the owl?

owl pellet

thistle

thistle leaves

State Senator Fran Pavley visits. She represents the 23^rd Senate District in the California State Senate.

Cheerful Chumash Assembly

By Taylor S., James, Lexi, and Jonah,

At our school, we experienced a fabulous assembly about the Native American tribe, the Chumash. In this assembly, we smashed acorns into flour, made string with yucca leaves, helped grind a Chumash bowl, tried to make fire, and created a rock art necklace.

Smashing Acorns

At the acorn station, we cracked acorns to make acorn flour. First, we took an acorn and cracked it out of its shell with two rocks.

Then we smashed the inside of the acorn into a powdery mixture.


Finally, we reached our goal… FLOUR!

(Warning: DO NOT EAT ACORN POWDER WITHOUT LEACHING IT. It's bitter!)

Yucca String

At another station we pounded yucca leaves.

After that, we soaked them in water for two minutes.

Once that was done, we separated the fibers and put them in a stack.

Later, we sat down all together and rolled the fibers together which made a sticky, but strong yucca string!

Beautiful Stone Bowls

The Chumash made their bowls by scraping sandstone with another rock. This was harder than it sounds though. A Chumash Native American would work on one bowl for a few years before it was finished!

They would start by searching for a round piece of sandstone. With another rock, they would scrape and scrape the sandstone until it was a deep bowl.


That’s a very long, but easy process. The powder from the rock looked like this.
Can you imagine having to do all that to have one small bowl?

Fire Station

At this station we used a spindle and a fire board to build a warm, cosy fire. First, we took the spindle and placed it in a hole in the fireboard. Next, we spun the spindle between our hands.

The friction caused the point of the spindle to heat up.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, no one was able to create a fire.

Rock Art

The Chumash were famous for their rock art. We were able to create rock necklaces using red berries (a red Sharpie) and coal (a black Sharpie).

Everyone drew their own unique design.

We even got to taste a few Chumash foods like chia seeds.

The terrific Chumash assembly was not only fun, but educational too!