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!

Science: Lovely Light

By Lexi, Clementine, and Chloe

In science, our class was learning about light. We specifically learned that objects can be translucent, transparent, or opaque.

Translucent is a science term that means only some light can pass through an object.

For example, this blue plastic T lets some of the light pass through it, so it is translucent.


Another term we learned is transparent.

If an object is transparent, all the light can pass through it. The cylinder above is transparent.

I can see Pelly the Pelican inside the object.

If you have a window at your house, notice that it is transparent.

If NO light passes through an object then it is opaque.

Opaque objects create a shadow. Your body is opaque. No light will pass through it. Shadow puppets are a fun way to show an opaque object. One shadow puppet you can make with your body is a bird.

How do you do it?

First, go outside on a sunny day. Make an X with your arms, hook your thumbs, and spread your wings.

See the opaque bird that you made with your hands?

Here are some other shadow puppet animals you can make.

Now you know about lovely light!

The Hello Song!

Today we had music with the the wonderful Mr. B and Mrs. Ranney's class.

We recorded a special song for our new 2KM blogging friends in Australia.

The Hello Song! from mrsyollis on Vimeo.

Sing-a-long!

Hello, bon jour, buenos dias!

G'day, guten-tag, konichiwa.....

Ciao, shalom, do-brey dien,

Hello to all the children of the world!

We live in different places From all around the world.

We speak in many different ways!

Though some things may be different,

We're children just the same-

And we all like to sing and play!

Special thanks to Mr. B.! We hope you liked our singing!

Our Global Friends!

Yesterday Mrs. Yollis' Class made new friends with some young classroom bloggers in the southern hemisphere!

We met the interesting students from Australia when Mrs. Yollis discovered their blog. Click here to view the fabulous 2KM blog and be sure to leave a comment. They have a fun sing-a-long song called the Skip Count Song! Give it a listen!

2KM informed us about another classroom blog in Texas called C-O Connections Blog. We are going to investigate and comment on their blog as well!

It has been fun reading about what other students from different places are learning.


We had a wonderful time exploring all the visitor dots that were visible on 2KM's ClustrMap!

We look forward to our global friendship!

Tutorial: Quadrilateral Queries

In our polygon unit we are learning about four-sided figures called

QUADRILATERALS!

Many people were confused about why some shapes have more than one name. Here are some tutorials to help you learn about quadrilaterals.

Tutorial #1 - What is a parallelogram?

Here is an interactive parallelogram.


Tutorial #2 - What is a rhombus?

Here is an interactive rhombus.


Tutorial #3 - What is a rectangle?

Here is an interactive rectangle.

Tutorial #4 - What is a square?

Here is an interactive square.

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Have you used our tutorials? Which one helped the most?
Please leave a comment by clicking the comment link right below this sentence.

Dazzling Dioramas!

Mrs. Yollis' class made outstanding dioramas to help them learn about the setting of a book.

Please enjoy the following video presentations of their dioramas. Listen for high level vocabulary. Listen for the voice variations that make the presentation more professional!

Space Figures!

In math, students have started a unit on geometry.

Today students partnered up to build 3-dimensional figures. Each group was given edges (toothpicks) and colored vertices (clay).

How many faces?
How many edges?
How many vertices?

How many space figures you can name?

Community Service: Recycling

By Jonah



The Boys in Action community service group I belong to went to a recycling plant after school last week.

There were many things I learned that I would like to share. First of all, the trash that comes into the recycling facility is separated by people, not machines. Also, other companies come to purchase some of the items and make them into new things such as pencils, new paper items, cans, and bottles.

I feel great to know that so many people are helping the community because it helps the world stay clean and not have everything go to waste. If that happens, there will not be enough resources to live.

A few things that can be recycled: plastic containers, bottles and cans, catalogs/magazines, clean cardboard, and newspaper. No oily pizza boxes ornapkins and plates with food.

This picture shows a bunch of items waiting to be recycled.

This tree is made of fully recycled objects!

What kinds of steps are you taking to recycle?

Let us know in the comments!

Native American Presentations

Mrs. Yollis’ class was learning about Native American tribes of the United States. We created posters to help us share what we learned for these four interesting tribes.

Each tribe was from a different region of the U.S.: Navajo, Cherokee, Iroquois, and Yurok. We used the U.S. map that we created earlier in the year to show where each tribe lived. Here are a few words from the “tribes” themselves.

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The Yurok

By Shane F., Sean, Taylor S., Amanda, and Marcus

The caring Yurok tribe lived along the northern coast of California. This region where the Pacific Ocean meets the land was full of fish, sea lions, deer, and acorns.


The men of the Yurok tribe did the hunting, and the women did the cooking. The shelter was made from the tallest trees in the world, the redwood trees. The plank house was partly underground and had a circular hole for a door. The Yurok money was made of long smooth shells called tooth shells. They came from shellfish that lived in deep water along the Pacific coast. In the Yurok tribe, the word for bald eagle was tohet, and the fish were called me’woo. In our opinion, we think that the Yurok tribe are helpful.

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The Iroquois

By Warren, James, Chloe, Shane J., and Lexi

The Iroquois lived south of Lake Ontario and west of the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. They hunted deer, bear, beaver, and what they could find in their environment. Also, they harvested the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash.


Their houses, called longhouses, were made out of posts, bark, and animal hide. About six to ten families lived in one shelter.

(Extra credit longhouse created by Lexi and Taylor S.)

Important to the Iroquois tribe were the five Iroquois nations. They fought in wars to see who could hunt and who could farm the land. There was a belt called the Wampum Belt. On this belt, Iroquois believed that the four squares and the tree represented the five nations. In our eyes, we think that the Iroquois tribe is the best!

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The Cherokee

By Taylor G., Clementine, Jonah, Garrison, and Alasia

The Cherokee lived in the beautiful southeast Appalachian Mountains. Because of the plentiful environment, they had deer and rabbits to hunt. Also, they fished, collected turtles, and gathered acorns and fruit. Another way they survived was to farm corn, beans, and squash.

The Cherokee had a winter home and a summer home for special seasons. The winter home was shaped like a small dome and the summer home was shaped like a modern day house, except that it was made of logs. The Cherokee towns had more than a hundred people living in them.

The Cherokee had a special language made by a smart man named Sequoyah. The language had 86 letters, or characters, in it. His daughter was the first one to use his language. Here are some of the characters.


Not all of the Cherokee life was great. They had a sorrowful journey that was called the Trail of Tears. They were forced to move from their homes and unfortunately, many people passed away. We hope you enjoyed our presentation on the Cherokee Indians!

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The Navajo

By Bethany, Emily, Matthew, Kyle, and Behyan

The Navajo lived in the Basin and Range region near the Rocky Mountains. It was a sandy, dry area, but they managed to farm. Beans, squash, and corn are what they harvested. They also tended sheep and goats.


The Navajo used mud and wooden poles to build their hogans, or house. When they where done they would let them harden in the sun. The doors to all hogans faced east, where the sun rises.

(Extra credit hogan created by Bethany.)

One thing that was sacred to the Navajo was sand painting They used it to cure the ill. The medicine man would carefully put colorful sand in place. That is how the Navajo tribe survived in the desert.

(Extra credit tipi created by Taylor G. This was the shelter for the Sioux of the plains.)


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Several students were interested in weaving mats like some Native Americans did . They used plants they found in their yards. Here are three mats that were woven by students. Clementine and Taylor S. used agapanthus leaves. They were long and they seemed like they would be a good material. Bethany and James both wove yucca leaves that we learned the Chumash Indians used to use.

After weeks of drying out, one weaving material turned out to be useless. It crumbled into pieces!

The yucca mats were strong, even after they dried out. The Chumash were smart to weave with such a strong material!

We enjoyed learning about America's history, and we hope you enjoy our post!

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Comment Ideas: Compare the tribes! How are they alike or different?

Do you know any other plants that can be used for weaving?

World Math Day 2009 Internet Project

Today the students of Chaparral participated in World Math Day 2009.

We played several rounds at school, and many students are planning to continue the Internet game at home. Each round is one minute long. Each of four players is trying to beat the other three opponents by completing the most problems in 60 seconds.

Each player creates their own avatar.

We kept track of the countries we were competing against.

So far we have played students from: USA, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, Ireland, Lebanon, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Guatemala, Germany, Poland, Romania, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, Egypt, Thailand, Ghana, Turkmenistan, Qatar, Brazil, and Finland.

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Let us know in the comment section who you have been playing!
(Spelling and capitalization counts if you want your comment published!)

Good luck players of the world!