Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Avenida and More

Avenida de la Playa:
It has been a whirlwind of weeks and the children have been busy learning all about Avenida de la Playa, La Jolla and times past. Today group C went on their last field trip to La Jolla Kayak where they were treated to a surfing lesson, a tour of the store, a question and answer session on the grass and a chance to practice paddling with a kayak paddle. Last week the children had a chance to visit Barbarella restaurant, meet Barbara make pizzas with and interview chef Justin. The friends that visited Surf Diva were able to meet sisters Izzy and Coco to learn more about why they opened up a surf store for girls. Avenida kept us busy!
K.F making pizza with chef Justin

Having flour on your face is part of being a chef!

How many people can fit in a kayak? ELEVEN!

Our interview with Chris

Carrie and her son, walking home.



















While searching for environmental print, this has been a favorite!

The children meeting Coco

Future Surf Diva's

Another Amazing Avenida Adventure             



Transportation:
For the past few weeks we have been learning about how children around the world travel to school, and the different means of transportation for the sky, land and water. When I asked them to tell me how they traveled to school they eagerly chimed in with how many cars their family had and when they used them etc.  This sparked an interesting conversation about San Diego's future parking problem. Originally I had intended on having the children create futuristic transportation vehicles (I was thinking of Back to the Future) but based upon our discussion our writing job became how they would like to solve the future parking problem in San Diego. After responding with their first idea (samples below) we then met the following day and I gave each of them a challenge question. Depending on each child's response, I asked them to solve my "what if" question. For instance, if a child said "I would connect 3 cars into one so it would only need one parking space." their What if.. question was "What if the big car didn't fit into the parking space and there wasn't enough land to make the parking spaces bigger?" The children loved their challenge and I enjoyed seeing them beginning to think deeply about their solution. Of course, the icing on the cake was that I told them I would present their solutions to "The City of San Diego" and they are thrilled!! Thankfully I've built a few relationships with La Jolla Light, The La Jolla Patch and NBC San Diego :) We are going to continue working on our solutions and are very excited to share the process with you!








"10 Layer Parking Garage"
"Use Bikes"  




Thursday, March 8, 2012

Avenida de la Playa

Let me start by saying that is it SO good to be back! We hit the ground running after the break and we are already 3 field trips in to our Avenida study! This week our community focus was on Jobs in the Community and people that contribute to the community (Community Contributors). This topic was a perfect fit for our visits with the Fire Fighters & Police Officers on Thursday. On Tuesday the children were able to visit the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club community and see how many people contribute to make the  club such a wonderful place to visit.
In preparation for each trip, the children read books, view pictures and share their own background knowledge surrounding the upcoming Avenida tour. Prior to each tour our class gathers as a group to discuss questions they have regarding the upcoming tour. Each child that goes on a tour is responsible for asking their own question as well as one or two questions for a friend. When the children return we share photos from the trip on the monitor while the children who went on the tour explain what they learned and answer any questions the class may have.
This week the children were amazing!! The children politely asked their questions to the adults providing the tours, shared their news and stories in a respectful way to their classmates and even completed the thank you notes for the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club! It was a good week!
Below are a few photo's of your darling children in various places within our little La Jolla Shores Community.
Away the go!

Cheese!

Juan giving a quick lesson

J.B found meeting Juan to be quite entertaining!

Add caption

Smile V.V!

I think she is having fun.

I'm not sure how she can concentrate on her writing with that scoop of ice cream sitting there!

Environmental Print

Their tropical vacation pic
S.P. trying on the police officers protections suit



K.F. getting ready to interview

R.L and Carrie found their home on the map!

We found our school!

Learning how to breathe (and speak) through the mask










Sunday, March 4, 2012

Tanzania Blog Update

Please see my postings from Tanzania on the right. Just click on "Tanzania and TCS" below Notes from Lisa D. to see and read about my trip to Tanzania.