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E very year each class in

Thornton Creek delves into a

year-long investigation: an

Expedition in learning. These ad-

ventures in begin with our teachers

planning and implementing cross-

disciplinary projects. They devote

significant time and energy to their

projects involving parents and com-

munity along the way. The spirit of

adventure, community service, crea-

tivity, and character development

are at the heart of these projects

based on the Expeditionary Learn-

ing Outward Bound (ELOB) model

(see page 22).

And what adventures 2013-14

brought to us! Our scientists ex-

plored the trees and the lives of

creatures living right on our school

grounds, learned the art of storytell-

ing, became experts on our local

birds, designed their ideal play

ground, investigated sounds and

music, studied cultures of the

Northwest, and dove into human

bodies beyond any science text-

book. We highlight their efforts

here.

KINDERGARTEN

ROOM 1: Seeing Trees ……………...…………………..……………. 2

ROOM 11: The Creatures of Thornton Creek…………………. 3

ROOM 4: Tell me a story...……………………………………. 4

FIRST GRADE

ROOM 5: The Birds of Greenlake ...……...……...…………...….. 6

ROOM 9: What is the formula for fun?.............................. 7

SECOND GRADE

ROOM 2, 13, & 7: Good Vibrations:

Sign language, Sound, and Hearing………………………….. 8

THIRD GRADE

ROOM 8, 14 & : People of the Salish Sea ……….………….. 10

Lighthouse: NW Native Peoples:

Proving Resources Impact Culture………………………… 12

FOURTH GRADE

Cabin and Lodge: The Expedition Expedition:

Multiple Perspectives of Lewis and . Clark Expedition ………………………………………………...…. 14

FIFTH GRADE

Bungalow: Early Seattle & the Klondike Gold Rush……. 16

Cottage: Human Body ……...……...……...……………………… 17

K–5 SELF-CONTAINED

Rooms 3, 6, & 10: Community…………………..……… 18

ARTS .……...……...……...……...……...……...……...……….. 20

GYM ……...……...……...……...……..…...……...……...…….. 12

LIBRARY ...……...……...……...……...……...……...……... 5

ABOUT ELOB ……...……...……...……...……...……...…. 22

In This Issue

Expeditions in Learning: What a Year!

Kindergarten—Room 1

The big ideas for this expedition are:

Trees are essential for our surviv-al.

Trees have a life cycle.

Trees provide food, shelter, and oxygen.

Our investigations are guided by the following questions:

What is a tree?

What makes a tree a tree?

What are the parts of a tree?

What are the different types of trees?

What is the life cycle of a tree?

Why are trees important?

What do trees provide?

How do trees help people, animals, and the earth?

How can we help trees?

What do trees need?

How do trees communicate?

If trees could talk, what would they say?

For this year’s expedition, I wanted to explore something that was accessi-ble, familiar, and offered the oppor-tunity for a variety of investigations. Trees are all around us, and some-thing that can easily be taken for granted (especially here in the Pacific Northwest). My over-arching goal was for students to recognize that trees are essential to our survival!

We started out the year by digging in

to the Wood science kit, which helped us answer questions such as: What makes a tree a tree? What are the parts of a tree? What are the differ-ent types of trees? We enjoyed learn-ing about different kinds of wood, and even making our own plywood and particleboard! We discovered that a great many things we use every day came from trees.

For our second investigation, we dug into the life cycle of a tree. We worked with Whistlestop Dance Com-pany to choreograph a dance that interpreted the seasonal changes ex-perienced by deciduous trees, and we loved performing our dance in front

of our friends and families. We also researched how trees help people, animals, and the earth.

Finally, we asked ourselves, “How can we help trees?” We took field trips to the Washington Park Arboretum and Seward Park to look up-close at trees and find out what they need to survive. We wrote poems about trees, and published a book of our illustrated poems as one of our culminating projects.

Our other culminating project was to publish a book of tree facts. We worked very hard on multiple drafts of text and

illustrations to share some of what we learned over the course of our expedi-tion.

Seeing Trees

Teacher: Liz Robinson

2

Kindergarten—Room 11

Room 11 Kindergartners spent the year learning about the invertebrates that live in the soil, plants, and air around Thornton Creek School.

Our guiding questions are:

What is an invertebrate?

What invertebrates live around Thornton Creek School?

How do invertebrates change over time?

What makes a good habitat for each kind of invertebrate we found?

What is a museum?

How can we show what we know to our families?

Investigations:

1. Spiders in the Fall - On foggy fall days we found many glistening webs around the school, particularly in the bird sanctu-ary. We studied the webs and the spiders. We wondered about the different web shapes, how they were made, the behav-ior of the spider, and fate of the bugs tan-gled in the web. We read nonfiction books about spiders and drew accurate pictures of spiders. We also made spiders from found objects and used them in plays.

2. Arthropods, Mollusks, and Worms in Winter and Spring – Beginning in January, the children had access to live specimens including: bess bugs, millipedes, centi-pedes, isopods, earth-worms, water snails, and land snails. The children learned to hold all but the centipedes, which are very lively creatures. After weeks of gentle study, we were ready to use the school trowels to explore the soils of our school grounds. We marveled at what appeared to be white threads to discover newly hatched millipedes. We wondered about each of the very young creatures and returned repeatedly to dig and find them grown

larger, often having changed colors too. We enjoyed speakers from, and visits to, both Seattle Tilth and Woodland Park Zoo.

3. Caterpillars, Chrysalis and Butterflies in the Spring – After spring break we be-gan watching very tiny caterpillars grow and turn themselves into chrysalises. We wondered what was happening inside the chrysalis. We watched crumpled butter-flies emerge only to transform themselves into beautifully formed flying insects. We might have wondered more about how they eat or what might be a host plant for their eggs, had we been able to watch them. Alas, strong winds and curious hands left gaps in the netting and the butterflies flew away. We wonder if they

are happy in a new home.

4. What is a museum? – We made a natu-ral history museum to share what we know about the creatures around our school. We visited the Burke Museum where museum staff showed us how to sort specimens into categories, create labels and informational text, and finally, show our displays. We used that skill set

to create a natural history museum in Room 11 using our paper mache crea-tures. Ginny taught us how to research and organize information about our crea-tures. We used the penmanship skills we had developed all year to prepare the museum signage.

Other Activities: Each child built a habitat for creatures found in the soil at Thornton Creek. The habitats had to provide every-thing the creatures needed and could not mix predators and prey. We spent many hours drawing our creatures. The children kept a science journal covering all aspects of their science explorations this year. Maria helped us make anatomically cor-rect paper mache models. We worked with Morpho Man (Christian Swenson) to create a theatre piece using what we learned about how invertebrates move. In the story we created for this piece, we incorporated our Responsive Classroom Agreements. We also wrote stories using invertebrates as characters which were “published” for Expedition Night.

Expedition Resources: a fantastic collec-tion of nonfiction and fiction books (assembled by Ginny Allemann, our librar-ian); field trips to Tilth, the Zoo, and the Burke Museum; online resources, used in our school library; wonderful parent vol-unteers; parent-supplied class funds which supported the purchase of live specimens and more; Maria’s patient and bold teaching about paper mache; Debbie Kosman’s secret life as an entomologist and her cool teaching materials; SPS kin-dergarten science unit on insects; the classroom teaching kit from Tilth; the wonderful bird sanctuary maintained by Liz McCormack and families; the butterfly garden started by Ray; and the endless wonderings of the children of Room 11.

Culminating Project: Room 11 Thornton Creek Invertebrate Natural History Muse-um for Expedition Night.

The Creatures of Thornton Creek

Teacher: Joan O’Connor

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Our world is full of stories. They engage us, teach us and entertain us. This year Room 4's expedition focused on storytell-ing. Storytelling is part of our cultural history. It is what comes before we com-mit the story to paper. It is our chance to engage with an audience and make a sto-ry grow. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the world around us.

Over the year we looked at how stories can be told through pictures, movement, puppets, drama, and verbal and written words. We analyzed stories and we learned about ourselves through stories. Everything we studied, whether it was math or science, art or literacy, was con-nected to story. Stories played a part in the daily life of the classroom and were the major focus of our work.

We visited the home of letters and sounds - Letter Land. Two to three times per week, over the course of several months, we donned our capes and flew to Letter Land to join Lily Ann and Dave the Dragon on their continuing adventure

through Letter Land. Each day we met inhabitants of Letter Land. There was Ben who owned Ben's Bike Barn and loaned us bikes for a few days, Freddy the Fish who longed to go to the fjord, San and Zan, twins who sold sto-ries from their storymobile, Yakov the Yak whose passion was yodeling, and many

other interesting characters. To-gether we explored Letter Land, watching the raccoons racing on roller skates, listening to the acts at the Vaudeville Variety Show, and walking through the maze in the mine. In fact, we are still getting letters from Handsome Harold the Hat Seller, who has found that if he teams up with different letters (such as "s", "c" and "t") he can make a whole new sound! As with any ad-venture, we kept travel journals noting each day's adventure through pictures and words.

Did you know that one story can be varied to create similar, but differ-ent stories? We studied the story of "The Gingerbread Man" and read every version we could find. We

analyzed the stories and decided the de-fining characteristics: the main character

is baked or cooked, it runs away and gets chased, it comes to an obstacle, some-one offers to "help" it across or through the obstacle, and finally the main character is eaten or es-capes. We cho-reographed a dance about The Ginger-bread Man. Then the chil-

dren created their own Gingerbread sto-ries. Using Kamishibai, an old Japanese form of story telling with pictures, each child told their story to an audience using the Kamishibai that they had created.

What are the parts of a story? We learned about the main character, setting, and problem. We read many stories, search-ing for the problems in a story. Then we thought about these elements to create our own stories using our stuffies. Once the setting and problem was decided, each child or pair of children acted out their story with their stuffy, photo-graphed the story, and then wrote and published their story. These stories be-came the favorite reading material in class. The children in Room 4 can tell a great story!

Kindergarten—Room 4 Tell Me a Story

Teacher: Debbie Kosman

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At Thornton Creek, our library pro-

gram thrives with incredible support

from our community! The Mary

Cooper Library supports the array of

expeditions by providing more ex-

tensive materials for certain topics

than would be found in a typical

elementary school library. Ginny

Allemann, our librarian, works with

each teacher to supply materials on

expeditions that range from 5th

graders studying early Seattle or the

human body to Kindergarteners

studying bugs or trees. Building our

extensive collection of print materi-

als saves the time of our users. Cur-

ricular materials are of high quality

and are easily available onsite. Col-

lectively purchasing literature group

sets and housing them in the library

means we can differentiate more

efficiently for each class, rather than

each teacher or grade level having a

narrower set of titles of their own.

We save time and money by pur-

chasing together for our whole

school and by using a system that

keeps track of where the materials

are.

Our library exists to support and

meet the needs of all of our commu-

nity—students, staff, and parents--

but promoting reading and infor-

mation literacy could be deemed the

“expedition” of the library. We know

that the best way to become a good

reader is to read. Promoting literacy

is at the heart of all of the “special

events” that Ginny, our teacher-

librarian plans. This year we wel-

comed author and artist Barney

Saltzberg (Beautiful Oops!), Paul

Owen Lewis (Storm Boy, Davy’s

Dream, Frog Girl), Book It Theatre

performing Norton Juster’s Phantom

Tollbooth, and the Theodore Boone/

Jon Grisham “Thrill of Rights” tour.

Each time we host an event, a buzz

of interest in that book or author

runs through the school. Kids gain

new perspectives on how individuals

write and create their art. The books

are circulated more and kids become

more well-read (and better readers).

In the spring, the school wide Dress

as a Book Character Day brings fun

to our day as we think and talk

about literature with our families

and friends. Poem in Your Pocket

Day is a low-key way to remember

poetry as an easy-to-love and easy-

to-share form of literature. Visits

from our local Seattle Public Librari-

an remind kids to keep reading and

using their re-

sources in the

summertime.

This year, promo-

tion of non-fiction

was the spring

“expedition” that

Ginny undertook.

Focusing specifi-

cally on grades 3,

4, and 5, we shift-

ed our read-

alouds to primari-

ly informational text choices. The

Washington Library Media Associa-

tion’s inaugural year Towner Award

offers some great choices. Some of

these were available in ebook for-

mats. Our kids especially loved the

Giant Squid ebook and Nic Bishop’s

Snakes with its amazing photo-

graphs. We read narrative non-

fiction in the form of picture book

biographies like Vaunda Nelson’s

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remark-

able Story of Bass Reeves. Students

were encouraged to read and check

out non-fiction; then each student

wrote a non-fiction title recommen-

dation to share with other students.

Look for these poking out of books

in the north area of our library. Stu-

dent recommendations are often far

more compelling to kids than one

from a teacher or parent.

Teaching kids to be self-reliant and

resourceful information seekers and

users…it might not be obvious that

reading helps with that! But beyond

reading, we also do a lot in library to

understand how to find information.

Starting with second grade, students

learn library organization, use our

online catalog, and find their own

books using their knowledge of the

system. By fifth grade, kids check out

their own books and access online

resources to find information. A

touchstone of EL is that we are

“crew, not passengers.” This year,

for the first time, all upper grade

students in grades 2-5 did some

shelving, thus contributing to the

smooth operation of our library.

Interestingly, this task also improved

their skills at independently using

the library. As students become

more competent, they become more

confident and powerful. Every inter-

action in our library is an opportuni-

ty to build that sense of power.

L I B R A R R Y

K to

5

Mary Cooper Library

Librarian: Ginny Allemann

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The first graders in Room 5 are wrapping up our expedition, “The Birds of Green Lake”. In this expedition we explored the big ideas of the basic needs of organisms generally, and then apply this learning to a specific group of organisms – birds. Ad-ditionally, we learned about the variety of birds that can be found at Green Lake during the year. Finally, we learned what a field guide is and how to use them, by studying them, using them for research, and ultimately writing our own field guide.

Our guiding questions are:

What makes a bird a bird?

What do birds need to survive?

What birds live at Green Lake? When are they there?

What is a field guide?

Investigations:

1. Bird Anatomy/Physiology – We are fortunate that Seattle Audubon Society offers a number of bird related science kits, including “Birds of Seattle”. This kit includes actual bird skins (preserved birds that have died), which the children were able to hold, observe closely and draw. Additionally, it included bird skulls and feet. We also enjoyed “A Symphony of Birds”, an Audubon kit that helped us learn to identify birds by their songs and calls.

(Skills developed: Observation, record-ing, and scientific illustration)

Resources: Seattle Audubon’s “Birds of Seattle” and “A Symphony of Birds” kits Variety of books on birds (Thank you, Ginny, our Librarian!)

2. Birds’ Basic Needs for Survival – The district’s science kit, “Organisms” pro-vides a general overview of the basic needs of organisms. Using this kit, small groups composed terrariums and aquari-um habitats that were home to tree seed-lings, moss, sow bugs and pill bugs and to duck weed, elodea, cloud fish, and pond snails, respectively. All of our observa-tions were recorded in our science note-books. We sprouted various seeds and recorded their growth in a plant journal. We designed and conducted a “fair test” to answer the question, “Do isopods pre-fer moist or dry soil?” We maintained healthy terrarium and aquarium habitats over time.

(Skills developed: Applying concept of basic needs to organisms generally, as well as to individual species (our Green Lake birds, recording data and observa-tions)

Resources: “Organisms” Science Kit & Variety of books on birds

3. “Birds of Green Lake” Field Guide – We are writing a class field guide called “The Birds of Green Lake”. Each child is researching one bird and drawing a scien-tific illustration of that bird. Each family will receive a copy of our field guide. Ad-

ditionally, we’ve visited Green Lake once each season with a master birder. Fami-lies have been encouraged to go birding at Green Lake, as well as other local bird-ing spots.

(Skills developed: Observation, scientific illustration, research - books and internet, multiple drafts, handwriting, basic writing conventions.)

Resources: Master Birder Martin Muller, Green Lake (field trip each season), Vari-ous Bird Field Guides and Books

Other Activities: In Art sessions with Ma-ria, we practiced drawing our birds and we made banners of our birds in order to look closely at our bird’s shape rather than its color and field markings. We also made papier-mâché representations of our birds.

We studied our birds’ movements and feeding behaviors, which we incorporated into our dance, “The Birds of Green Lake”, during our artist residency with the Whis-tlestop Dance Company. This was per-formed for the school and for our families at “Family Dance Night”.

Culminating Project: Room 5’s Birds of Green Lake Field Guide (to be published in early June)

First Grade—Room 5 The Birds of Green Lake

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Teacher: Mari Brockhaus

Room 9 students are engaged in a year-

long study of fun! Specifically, our Expedi-

tion this year is science- based and looks

deeply into playground design. Through

the use of two science units, Weather and

Balls and Ramps, we will begin to expand

our understanding of what makes a great

space for play. But the Formula for Fun is

more complex than having a spectacular

place to enjoy your friends. Six and seven

year olds first need to learn what makes a

good friend and how to navigate the

emotional and social terrain of friend-

ships.

Guiding questions:

What makes a good friend?

How can we best play with everyone?

How do we need to act at school to build a community?

How does weather affect our play and playground design?

What would you put on a fantasy play-ground?

How do balance, friction and gravity affect playground design and play oppor-tunities?

What makes a good play-ground?

What elements of play can you find in nature?

Investigations:

1. What makes a good friend?

Room 9 students are en-riching their feelings, literacy and prob-lem solving skills through work with a special classmate, Tiny Turtle. Tiny comes to visit and shares stories from his life that are remarkably like those that hap-pen right here in our room. Tiny teaches the kids about how to calm down, when to ask for help and how you even know

that you have a problem in the first place. The kids learned how to rate situations and feelings on The Big Deal Scale. Some issues are simply bigger than others and require immediate attention!

2. How would you create your personal Fantasy Playground?

We brainstormed and dreamed, we drew and drew and we created amazing places to play. Each Room 9 writer and artist created multiple drafts of one playground that they wish could exist in the real world. There

are snack bars and flying les-sons, dragons and hot tubs, secret tun-nels and unlimited gold! Revision is a so-phisticated tool for first graders to master and, looking at their own work with a critical eye, they improved their designs with each attempt.

3. How would you design a real play-ground?

In our final investigation, Room 9 stu-dents will design a playground that could be used as a model for our new school building, scheduled to be built in 2016. Using their knowledge of playing with friends, weather resistant materials, ele-ments of play in nature and playground physics, students will draw or build a functional model of a playground. This model will be presented to the actual playground designers themselves as well as other members of our school commu-nity.

First Grade—Room 9

What is the Formula for Fun?

Teachers: Julie Clayton Trilby Cohen

7

Good vibrations resonated through Thornton Creek School as second graders from Rooms 2, 7 and 13 learned about sound. These were our guiding questions:

What is sound?

How is sound made?

How do we hear sound?

How do we react to sound?

How do we communicate with and without sound?

How do other creatures hear and communicate?

Investigation 1: What is Sound?

We investigated the physics of sound by using the Seattle School District’s science kit. This led us to explore how sound is made, how it travels through different matter, and how vibrations cause variable pitches and volume.

Students made their own instruments with at least three different pitches. They visited the Sound Bridge at Benaroya Hall. And they learned to play the ukulele.

Room 7 students performed a dance about the sounds different instruments make and the mood we create with them. Jamtown work-shops helped us understand how percussion instruments could have different pitches. Our work with Christian Swenson, a.k.a. “Morphoman,” helped us explore the different pitches we could make with our voices and bodies.

We also used our bodies in response to sounds, creating interesting movements. After learning how to play the ukulele from our teacher John Leder, we performed in front of a live audience at the Northwest Folklife Festi-val.

Investigation 2: How do we hear? How do other creatures hear?

Our hearing system is amazing. Sound waves upset air molecules, creating vibra-tions that quickly move through the out-er, middle and inner ear, sending signals to the brain. The result is sound!

We learned how to protect our delicate cilia, located in the cochlea (inner ear) by being careful about the loud sounds in

our environment. Seattle Public Schools audiologist Kea Swartz-Ireland taught us about the workings of the cochlea and how cochlear implants work to help peo-ple who have lost their hearing. Parent Alan Chitlik taught us about decibels and which sounds in our environment pro-duce high and low sound. Room 2 stu-dents performed a dance with Whis-tlestop Dance Company demonstrating the hearing system.

Wondering how other creatures hear, we researched animals by reading nonfiction

text, watching videos and ob-serving the ani-mals at the Woodland Park Zoo. First, we researched owls that have an amazing sense of hear-ing. They can locate their prey from 100 yards away with their just their hearing. A classroom visit

Second Grades— Room 2, 7 and 13 Good Vibrations

8

Teachers: Shawn LeValley Lori Fujimoto Jeanne Gleason

from “Woody,” the owl from the zoo, was a highlight as he asked, “Whooo” had questions for his handler.

Then, each student chose an animal, read about it and, by using the writing process, converted their notes into a published report, paying particular attention to how they hear and communicate. Some ani-mals have peculiar ways of hearing and many don’t even have ears. Our projects were displayed during expedition night and some parts were made into books.

Investigation 3: How do we communi-cate without sound?

We wondered how people communicate with each other if they are hearing im-paired or deaf. Conducting our own re-search, we wore ear plugs one day at lunch and noted the differences in behav-ior, emotions and sound.

Our new friends, Emily, Brianna and Claire from Roosevelt High School, are studying American Sign Language for their gradua-tion requirement and they helped us learn sign language. They came in to our classes at least once a week, teaching us finger spelling, numbers, signs for family members, directions, and even Halloween creatures. Students in all three classes learned how to sign the song, “Let Us Walk in Peace,” which we signed at a school assembly celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. Room 13 also per-formed a dance with Whistlestop, entitled “There is a Fine Wind Blowing,” which included signing and interpretation.

Vibrations are all around us. We can hear, feel, see and interpret them in many ways. Sound can be amusing, inspiring and essential to all living things. However, be cautious: Loud sounds can damage your hearing. Here are some words of advice from second graders: When around loud, constant noise, wear ear-plugs, move away from its source, and turn down the volume.

9

Second Grades— Room 2, 7 and 13

This year, the third-grade students focused their learning on native people in Washington State and beyond. We learned about a varie-ty of topics, from the Western red cedar and salmon to birch bark trees and buffalo, including how natural resources and the land-scape shaped the lives of people long ago.

Throughout this expedition, stu-dents learned about the diversity of tribes long ago, as well as the rich cultural history of Native Americans today.

We began our expedition by look-

ing at how commu-nities met basic needs and by com-paring our lives to-day with the lives of different tribal groups long ago. A documentary film featuring interviews with tribal members from more than a dozen nations helped us understand how people used natu-ral resources within their commu-nities to address basic needs, such as food and water, shelter, cloth-ing, and transportation.

A local expert in eth-nobotany and tradi-tional ecology visited us to share her knowledge of North-west Coast tribes and their use of the West-ern red cedar, the “Tree of Life.”

A field trip to the Uni-versity of Washing-ton’s arboretum deep-ened our understand-ing of native plants and their uses both today and long ago. Hands-on activities working with cedar, cattail, and other plant fibers helped the stu-dents enrich their knowledge and under-standing of these con-

cepts.

Throughout the winter, we learned more about the culture of the Coast Salish people.

At the Burke Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), and the Tulalip Tribes Hibulb Cultural Center, stu-dents explored exhibits to learn about the Native American tradi-tions of fishing and weaving, the techniques of basket-making and carving, and the significance of stories and ceremonies. Our stu-dents explored artifacts and made models of fish traps and bentwood boxes.

In the art studio at school, Maria worked with the students to cre-ate artwork using the Coast Salish design elements of circles, cres-cents, and trigons. In addition to reading for information, students read myths, legends, and fictional stories focusing on the traditional storytelling and art of people of the Pacific Northwest.

Throughout our study, the stu-dents worked on a variety of pro-

Third Grades—Room 8 & 14 People of the Salish Sea

Teachers: Elizabeth McCormic Nora Scully

10

jects including posters and reports on plains, intermountain, and coastal tribes. Students compared and contrasted how geography and resources in the area influ-enced the cultures of people living in those regions. Based on what they learned, students developed a Coast Salish character, and then

they created stories about geologic formations in-spired by Northwest myths and legends. The students also built a Northwest Coast village complete with plank hous-es and artifacts of pre-contact Northwest Coast

people.

In the spring, families participated in a drum-making night led Saan-ich musician and story-teller, Che oke’ ten (Paul Wagner). Each student made an elk-skin hoop drum. For our culmi-nating event, we per-formed a celebration of songs and dances on Expedition Night.

Third Grades—Room 8 & 14

11

12

Teacher: Sue Doty

Physical Education class at Thornton Creek is an opportunity for children to begin the journey of a lifetime experiencing the joy of movement by ac-quiring new skills and knowledge.

A broad baseline of physical, cogni-tive, and social skills are introduced. From basic locomotor skills of run-ning, skipping, and galloping, to more complex movement patterns of sending and receiving—for exam-ple—throwing/catching; kicking/trapping; volleying with a partner are skills that are taught. Many combinations of individual, partner, and team activities are introduced to promote physical literacy. Stu-dents are introduced to activities such as roller skating/blading and bicycle safety to encourage a life-long commitment to physical fitness while recreating.

Cognitive aspects of focus, perse-verance, awareness of self and oth-ers, and goal setting continue to increase with age and experience to assist in skill acquisition. Fitness exercises and warm ups are taught along with the components of fit-ness. Then, beginning at third grade; children are given fall and spring fitness assessments. These include cardio-respiratory fitness—the mile run, muscular endurance—one minute curl-ups, muscular strength—push-up test and flexibil-ity—the sit and reach test. These components along with the 15 me-ter pacer test, comprise the fitness measurement model for PE in the district. Also, new this year the

Physical Education For Progress (PEP) federally funded grant random sample data collection for all schools in the district. We had several children/families participate by documenting the number of steps they took with a pedome-ter over several days during 5 different sample times.

Social Skills—Personal safety and the safety of others is paramount in this dynamic learning environment. Using the framework from The First 6 Weeks of School classes set the group expectations for the year. This includes coop-erating, taking turns, trying ones’ best, prob-lem solving, sportsmanship and teamwork. These skills help to contribute to an environ-ment where students are willing to be risk takers in a safe way .

A basic introduction of food for energy and health teaches about the importance of food choices and nutrient values. Games using food cards with the food groups and labels increase awareness of all the choices available.

The PE Central Challenge is a 6 skill series which 4th and 5th graders participate in to earn a pin for the completion of 4/6,5/6 and 6/6 skills which incorporate many of the afore-mentioned skills---physical, cognitive, and so-cial. The tasks are Balance Shuffle (cooperation with a partners to complete a

balance beam challenge, Partner Throw and Catch (consecutive successful throws and catches from 25’), HulaHoop-(20seconds), Jump Rope challenge(continuous jumping without missing for 90 sec-onds), Volley up (with 3 total people strike a volley-ball up 10 times without missing, and Racket ups (Hit a ball up with a racket for one minute without missing while staying in a 36” diameter).

Other opt in extracurricular activities include partici-pation in Athletic Skills and Art Night for anyone interested and for 3rd grade and up National Ar-chery In The Schools Program for those interested in competing in the State Tournament.

G Y M

Gym

This was an adventurous year of re-search, discovery and sharing in third grade. Through each avenue of our Northwest Native Peoples expedition we sought to prove the big idea: Nat-ural characteristics can impact the development of culture. The students were beyond successful!

In the fall, we began exploring how native peoples across the entire Unit-ed States of America used natural resources to thrive by small group regional studies. Each cohort of researchers tackled a region, using video, audio recordings and texts to prove natu-ral resources shape how people lived. For in-stance, people who lived on the plains needed a mobile lifestyle so they could access their roving food/life source (buffalo) while people in the Puget Sound area lived in villages because the region provided what they need-ed. Students collaborated on large scale posters to show off their evi-dence and presented to their peers.

With a sound understanding of the interconnectivity between natural resources and ways of life, we honed our focus on the people of the Salish Sea or Puget Sound. We studied the Tree of Life or cedar tree and its tre-mendous bounty. We hosted cedar tree experts, scoured hundreds of cedar products and marveled at arti-fact collections at the UW Arboretum, Burke Museum, MOHAI and Hibulb

Cultural Center. Students then applied their understanding of natural resources to research projects rooted in various as-pects of Coast Salish life, like fishing, shelter or hunting. Once again stu-dents shared research and knowledge to write informative essays, build models and deliver presentations. Our classroom is bursting with longhouse models, hunting dioramas and a hand

crafted harpoon!

As our under-standing of Coast Salish life developed we began also to immerse our-selves further by reading and lis-tening to region-al folktales. As rapt readers we concluded that even folktales teach us about culture, ways of

life and ethical priorities. A common theme lifted and applied to our own classroom tribe is generosity. Stu-dents demonstrated their depth of knowledge by creating original folktales that reflect a melding of cul-tural clues and classroom ethics. It is humbling and fascinating to witness their acute understanding of Coast Salish life fold into their own moral priorities.

What a gorgeous ride, linking ways of life back to this gracious planet. Stu-dents have not only proven that natu-ral resources shape culture, but they discovered how to come together as a tribe themselves to tell their stories and share their spiritual wealth.

Third Grade—Light House NW Native Peoples: Proving Resources Impact Culture

Teacher: LaChrista Borgers

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Multiple Perspectives of Lewis and Clark Expedition and Westward Ex-pansion: An investigation of differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, fears, and experiences of all people during the westward expansion of America between 1801 and 1861.

Our expedition opened with an explo-ration of life in America during the early 1800s. Students gained back-ground knowledge about Lewis and Clark and the Louisiana Purchase by reading books, studying maps and watching documentaries.

Next, students formed corps groups and participated in a simulation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They en-countered dilemmas that the Corps faced, like which fork in the river to take or whether to engage in battle with a local tribe. Students enthusias-tically debated the issues and then

researched what really hap-pened. They took on rotating roles of Captains, Journal Writ-

ers, Interpreters, and Privates. Tasks included

recording latitudes and longitudes, keeping logs, writing postcards to Presi-dent Jefferson detailing the flora, fauna, and Na-tive American tribes en-countered, and writing detailed accounts of parts

of the expedition. Students engaged in individually chosen projects that related to the time period including making models (e.g. forts, pirogues, flags, maps, clay sculptures, timelines, art pieces, latitude finders, bearing boards). They studied sign lan-guage and wrote songs and po-etry. Students researched key characters including Sacagawea, Thomas Jefferson, and even Captain Merriweather’s dog, Seaman.

The third investigation had each stu-dent becoming an expert on a Native American Tribe that Lewis and Clark encountered. They developed inter-esting questions that they wanted to investigate and learned how to take effective notes from multiple sources, including: primary sources, nonfiction books, and websites. Students orga-nized their research and engaged in the entire writing process from outlin-ing to drafting, editing, evaluating,

Fourth Grades—Cabin & Lodge The Expedition Expedition:

Multiple Perspectives of Lewis and Clark Expedition

Teachers: Sandra Bretler

Lisa Calvert

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Fourth Grades—Cabin & Lodge

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and ultimately publishing.

To gain further insight and perspec-tive of the time period, students ex-plored museum artifacts of early ex-plorers and early pioneers. Some stu-dents made replica Lewis and Clark style journals with detailed drawings, maps, and quotations. Other students

showcased their research through portfolio presentations.

Students read historical fiction of the

Oregon Trail to deepen their un-derstanding of the hardships the pio-neers encoun-tered. Some stu-dents went on an optional camping trip to the Chi-

nook Nation and visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Each student, with a family mem-ber, made a traditional hoop drum under the guidance of a Coastal Native American resident artist. Students studied and performed traditional rhythms, songs, and dance, which culminated in an Ex-pedition Night drum and song cir-

cle.

Through the study of these historic

events and perspectives, students

developed 21st century skills of communication, personal responsi-bility, planning, effective coopera-tion, teamwork, and perseverance.

What was Seattle like before it became Seattle? What did it look like and who was here? What was life like for the indig-enous tribes who had lived here for thou-sands of years? What historical events helped to shape Seattle into the biggest city in the Northwest?

These are a few of the questions that have inspired this year’s expedition with Todd’s class at Thornton Creek School. The history of Seattle is relatively brief when compared to other, older cities. However, Seattle is full of intrigue, trage-dy, larger than life characters, and a dras-tic transformation of the physical land-scape.

Students will spend this year studying historical events of Seattle from the per-spectives of local native tribes, as well as those of the early settlers.

Investigation I: From Duwamps to Seattle

Our expedition began in the fall with the story of a place once known as Duwamps, a name originally given by local tribes such as the Duwamish.

In the 1850s, settlers travelled from the eastern states along the Oregon Trail and began establishing settlements in the Northwest. At this time, there was a clash of cultures between the local Indian tribes and the early settlers.

We have looked closely at how people’s views about the land, natural resources, commerce and cultural norms affected

the early development of our city. Through curriculum provided by the Mu-seum of History & Industry (MOHAI) and HistorLink.org, plus a number of books, we developed a picture of Seattle from the 1850s through the 1880s, from before colonists came to shortly thereafter.

Events and influential people we studied included Chief Seattle and local tribes, the Denny Party early American settlers, the interactions between tribes and colonists, treaties such as the Treaty of Point Elliot, David Swinson “Doc” Maynard, Henry Yesler’s mill and “Skid Road,” the devel-opment of railroads, and the Great Se-attle Fire of 1889.

Investigation 2- The Gold Rush Hits Se-attle!!!

Close to the turn of the century, the Klon-dike Gold Rush began, causing a stam-pede of prospectors to come to Seattle. Perhaps no other event in Seattle’s histo-ry has had a more pronounced effect on the growth of our city.

To explore this event, we used curriculum developed by the National Parks Service to investigate Seattle’s stake in the Klon-dike, Yukon event. Ideas we explored in-cluded:

How did Seattle become the gateway to Alaska?

Why did people go crazy for the gold rush? (For example, many quit their jobs and left their homes behind.)

In what ways did the gold rush change Se-attle? In particular, how did it affect local businesses, population growth, and over-all city development?

Investigation 3-Alaska! The Road to Yu-kon Gold

Our final investigation took us all the way from Seattle up to Alaska.

Students studied the four main routes to the Klondike used by miners. In particular, students studied the Chilkoot Pass, which was the most famous and also the great-est in terms of physical challenge.

Students engaged in a classroom simula-tion, where they worked in small “expedition” groups to research the sup-plies they would need to head up to the Klondike. They also considered the pros and cons of each of the four routes head-ing north, and the hardships they faced after they arrived in the Yukon.

Questions students investigated through the simulation included:

What role did the physical world play in shaping this event?

What role did the mountains and rivers play?

What about the gold itself? (What role did it play?)

What about the climate? How did that affect everyone?

What was gold mining actually like?

How did the native Alaskan tribes and the gold miners view each other?

What kind of work did the native people do?

How did all of these relationships change over the course of the gold rush?

Fifth Grade—Bungalow

Early Seattle and the Klondike Gold Rush

Teacher: Todd Bohannon

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The human body is an incredibly complex and engaging topic for a learning expedi-tion. This challenging subject provided limitless opportunities to engage the mind and to express our creativity. The fifth graders in the Cottage took on these opportunities and exceeded expectations.

Guiding questions included:

What goes on in our bodies every day that we don’t have to think about?

What goes on in our bodies when we get sick?

How do cells work?

What’s inside a cell?

How do our organ systems work?

What have been some of the most beneficial medical discoveries and how did those discoveries come about?

The first investigation focused on one of the smallest and, arguably, most im-portant parts of the human body: cells. Highlights of this investigation included learning about analogies and creating an analogous cell model encompassing all the major cell organelles. The students showed exceptional creativity, coming up with models that clearly explained various cell function.

Another highlight was a creative project in which the students had to “advertise an organelle.” In other words, they need-ed to create an awareness campaign to highlight the important aspects of a par-ticular cell organelle (e.g., ribosome, nu-cleus, mitochondrion, etc.). The students produced brochures, comic strips, and even songs and dances to get the word out about their particular organelle.

The second investigation was on body systems. The first part of this investiga-tion was a simulation in which the stu-dents trained as “medical specialists” (for example, cardiologists, gastroenterolo-gists, or orthopedists) and they needed to research and learn about a specific body system. Next, they took a board exam to be “certified.” The students prepared intensely, using multiple resources, in-cluding books, videos, and the Internet to research for and ultimately pass their board exams.

The next piece was to teach other stu-dents about their specialty, so they worked in specialty groups (for example, cardiologists or neurologists) to create a display and model of their specific body system. The groups presented a 5-10 mi-nute “lecture” on their specialty to their colleagues. These presentations were shared with the families at a stimulating and educational evening event this past winter.

After their “MD” training, the students spent a month or so researching and diag-

nosing simulated patients. A parent vol-unteer who works as a physician came in regularly to help the students learn about asking the right questions to lead to a diagnosis. This was a fascinating exercise in reasoning and problem-solving. The students really enjoyed the challenge.

A highlight of the year had to be the field trip to an actual working operating room to dissect real hearts—pigs’ hearts, that is. After donning their surgical scrubs, the students were lead by a team of physi-cians through the dissection process. The medical staff was truly amazed at how much these fifth graders already know about the heart. What a special oppor-tunity that provided.

Another high point of the year was writing our original play, “It All Started with a Sneeze.” The students partnered with playwright/director Kristina Suther-land from the theater company Macha Monkey to write an original play about the battle that rages within the body when someone catches a virus. It proved to be a great learning tool about a com-plex subject, and the final product was entertaining and fun for the audience.

As the year came to a close, the expedi-tion culminated with a biography re-search project. The subject was any per-son who has made significant contribu-tions to medicine or public health. The students were exceptionally creative with this project, because the format required students to create various materials as part of the subject’s personal scrapbook. Included in the scrapbooks were time-lines, professional awards, personal jour-nal entries, news articles, and so on—all created by the student and written in the first-person voice of the biography sub-ject.

It has been a year to remember!

Fifth Grade—Cottage

The Human Body

Teacher: Steve Chavez

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Rooms 3, 10 & 6: Grades K-2, 2-3, and 4-5

Students in self-contained special

education classrooms at Thornton

Creek spent the year studying

about living in our community. The

year-long expedition was broken

up into monthly “themes,” cover-

ing topics that related to living in

our community during different

parts of the year. Topics included

our school, as well as the local gro-

cery store, the fire station, a res-

taurant, and the post office.

Room 10 We participated in a joint expedi-

tion with Rooms 3 and 6 on living

in our community. We split up the

expedition by month covering

community topics of: start of

school, October fun and fall, gro-

cery store, library and winter, fire

station, post office, restaurant,

and spring. In addition to the com-

munity expedition, we tied in the

seasons to help the students un-

derstand how weather and the

seasons change. Pictures captured

the excitement of this spring’s kite

-making and flying, grass caterpil-

lars, and a visit from the firemen.

We have had a great year learn-

ing!

Community Teachers: Katie Zisserman David Swanson Carissa Bryant

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Rooms 3, 10 & 6: Grades K-2, 2-3, and 4-5

Room 3 For the Room 3 expedition this

year, we learned about our com-

munity. Each month, we explored

a different place in the communi-

ty, the people who work there,

and why they are important. The

places we learned about included

school, buses, the grocery store,

library, fire station, post office,

hospital, restaurant, the zoo, and

the beach. We delved into litera-

ture, created art projects, and lis-

tened to music related to each

theme. As a culminating activity,

we went on a field trip to several

of the places, including a restau-

rant, the grocery store, and the

post office. A highlight was when 2

firefighters came to school to talk

about fire safety and they let the

kids try on all of their gear.

Room 6 The students in Room 6 learned

about the people and places that

play an important role in our com-

munity. Each month, we explored

a different place in the communi-

ty. These places included the com-

munity here at Thornton Creek,

grocery stores, libraries, fire sta-

tions, the post office, hospitals,

restaurants, the zoo, and the

beach. Students explored the peo-

ple and places in our communities

through literature, group discus-

sions and presentations, art pro-

jects, and field trips.

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Visual Arts Teacher: Maria Callahan

The art studio is a place where most of our projects are driven by the students’ expedition learning. Whatever the project, we focus on the Elements of Art (shape, line, color, texture, form and space) and Principles of Design (balance, emphasis, proportion, variety, rhythm & unity) to guide us in sharing our knowledge about each of the expedition topics.

The kindergartners begin by learn-ing about the art room expecta-tions and agreements. They learn where materials are in the studio and what they can do inde-pendently within the space. Our time usually begins with a picture book related to the project. This year the kindergarten classes stud-ied things underground, trees and stories. A culminating project for Joan O'Connor's kindergartners was creating paper mache arthro-pods. Each student got to choose which arthropod they wished to make. Since the students had learned so much about these crea-tures, it was a choice based on their knowledge and interest in that particular animal. We worked

to

create a newspaper armature in the correct shape of the creature. We covered them with paper ma-che and finally painted them with the specific markings unique to each arthropod. Legs, wings and markings were added. These were shown in their classroom during expedition night. Many, many par-ents helped to make these arthro-pods possible.

First grade classes also worked on

three dimensional pieces this year. Julie and Trilby's class learned techniques to build with card-board. As their study of play-grounds deepened, the children were able to use the building tech-niques to design playground struc-tures. We began the building in art class over several weeks. Julie and Trilby took over and expanded the building to create the final play-grounds displayed on Ex-pedition Night.

Mari's first grade created paper mache birds of Green Lake. Each student had a specific bird which they researched and stud-ied. After making the ar-mature and applying the mache, students added a

base coat of paint and then field markings. Students worked hard to get the shape, color and marking accurately depicted on their sculp-tures.

Second grade classes, studying sound this year, worked to visually depict sound in various ways. We learned how to draw a singer in profile, how to show a line de-picting sounds to be sung and how to make wind chimes. For each of these projects, we focused on the elements and principles such as texture, line, shape and emphasis and color.

VISUAL ARTS

VISUAL ARTS

Third grade classes studied cul-tures native to the Northwest. As part of our art studio work, we studied the cedar tree outside of the art room. We looked at its shape, the texture of the bark and foliage, and the qualities of the limbs. Students drew a small pencil drawing and finished with a large painting using oil pastels and tem-pera.

Fourth graders learned about the Lewis and Clark expedition. One of our projects was a small clay sculp-ture of an animal encountered on the trail. Students choose their an-imal, found images and worked to

fashion a solidly built animal in an interesting pose. The students were asked to show the tex-ture and color of the creature. To finish, we glazed these pieces and displayed them at Art Night.

Fifth graders in Todd's class made a similar animal sculp-ture of creatures found along the Klondike. Their work included habitat and some predators and prey. The students also created posters enticing people to join the

gold rush. These posters used au-thentic slogans and images from the time period.

Steve's class studied the human body this year. In the art studio, we looked at how to draw from the human figure. Students posed for each other in a quick sketch format to capture images of peo-ple in motion. We then chose a figure to create in a three dimen-sional format. The students began with a newspaper armature. This required them to think about scale, proportion and shape. The class worked to show each figure

moving in an interesting way. We had horse-back riders, fencers, gym-nasts and sky divers -- to name just a few. The students cov-ered the arma-

tures in several layers of plaster gauze. We painted them in simple blocks of color to enhance the mo-tion of each figure.

Expeditionary learning gives us such a great springboard for all the learning that happens in the art studio. It is exciting for students to explore, expand and explain what they know about these topics in-depth. It is exciting for me, as their teacher, to watch the enthusiasm and creativity flourish around such rich topics.

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ABOUT ELOB:

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound

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E xpeditionary Learning Out-ward Bound (ELOB) empha-sizes learning by doing. It

particularly focuses on character growth, teamwork, reflection and literacy. Each year at Thornton Creek, our teachers integrate high quality academic learning with ad-venture, service and character de-velopment through a series of stu-dent experiences each focused on an interdisciplinary, project-based learning expedition.

In their expeditions students often leave the physical class room and do research in the field conducting interviews, making observations, and carrying out a range of other fieldwork assignments. Our com-munity resources, some borrowed tools, members with special exper-tise, and others, come into the classrooms and support expedition work. Parents provide critical sup-port to students and teachers. They also become involved with daily work, culminating projects, displays of expedition work and travel for fieldwork.

Through the expedi-tions students develop teamwork skills and learn to think critically. They gather infor-mation by seeking a diversity of thoughts, listening and valuing ideas. They put forth their best effort and reflect upon their work. They think about

meeting others’ needs through service projects in the commu-nity. Cooperation and collabo-ration are strongly emphasized in this culture of support, risk-taking, and service with com-passion. Their service and compassion begins to grow in each classroom and spreads throughout the school. Visual and performing arts allow stu-dents to express themselves working on their projects.

Expeditionary learning thus emphasizes the importance of learning as a process. Teachers create an environment where students are challenged to think deeply about and evalu-ate their own work over time. Students truly take ownership of their own learning.

At the end of each year, each student amasses a portfolio of accomplishments they can cherish. Evidence for this process appears in our peer critique and collaborative assessment process-

es, students’ written reflections on their learning, as well as the multi-ple drafts that are made before a final written product. At the end, our students are proud of not only what they have learned but also of how they arrived there.

We hope you have a chance to share in their feelings accomplish-ments.

1. The primacy of self-discovery

2. The having of wonderful ideas

3. The responsibility for learning

4. Empathy and caring

5. Success and failure

6. Collaboration and competition

7. Diversity and inclusion

8. The natural world

9. Solitude and reflection

10. Service and compassion

See the appendix of the school hand-book for a more complete explanation of ELOB and these principles.

Learn more online: www.elschools.org

ELOB Design Principles

PRINCIPAL: John Miner

EXPEDITION NEWSLETTER TEAM:

Content: Thornton Creek Teachers

Editing/Production: Ken Hammer, Maia London, Lisa Skylynd

Layout and Formatting: Shahin Hakimian

SCHOOL WEB SITE: http://thorntoncreek.org/

Thornton Creek Elementary