Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley...here we come!

I think we definitely have some great game makers in Room 8. You should drop by and take a look.

The directions were:
1. Design a board game around a theme we have studied. 2. Rules have to be written so the game is easily understood.
3. Cards must be incorporated into the game in some way.
4. The game needs to be able to be played between 20 - 40 minutes.
5. At least 3 people need to be able to play.

Well, Room 8 is definitely into this assignment. Friday morning started out a bit rainy...so Room 8ers were in the room before school instead of outside. By the time 8:45 a.m. rolled around, every student - except 2 - were involved in working on their game. So... since we're flexible in Room 8, they just continued working until the 10:30 recess! Emma and ShawnaAustin and TrevorCarlo and Devin... (I think Devin wants his dentist to go ahead and check him now...from this blog)I absolutely love this picture of Casey J and Edin...EmilyJacob and Dillon's theme is Native Americans. In the corner are 4 of their homes. In the lower left corner is a river with a traditional native american canoe. Kamren and ElijahAn example of some question cards...Macey and DanielleMadisonMrs. W helping Dillon to make dice.

This next week, which I can hardly believe is our last week, we'll take an afternoon and play each others games.

Don't forget our barbeque on Thursday!

We're in this gold rush together

It's tough out here in these gold fields. We're tryin' to keep our claims. You never know when some group is just gonna come up and steal your claim away from ya.

Mrs. W is givin' us a pep talk...tryin' to give us some pointers on how to keep our claims.Carlo is tryin' to get his group rallied up... 'come on men...and women!'
Danielle is thinkin', This ain't too difficult. Ole' Carlo can hold us together.'
Carlo wasn't happy when he heard that. He knows how tough the gold fields are...and he needs his group to pitch in. There's some rotten old folks out here in the gold fields...
Now Edin and his group were trying to decide what to do next. Edin was thinkin' pretty hard...
Elijah was reading the instructions...

Ahh, looks like camp justice is taking over with Edin's group. Looks like a vote to me...
Ah, rats! This looks like a dejected group. I wonder if some ole' group came up and stole their claim away from them?
Whew...lots of hard work going on here.

There's lots of nuggets to be found...

We learned more about the Yuroks

Each of the fourth grades went on our field trip to learn more about the Yurok culture. First Room 8 listened to our ranger tell us a little about what we were going to see.
Notice the doors are round? In their culture, the men went in head first...
and the women went in 'backwards.'
This picture below is Emily going in... even though it looks like she's coming out.
After visiting the 'family homes', we toured the sweatlodge. Normally, women would not be allowed in one. This, however, was a model of a village, so our sweetheart girls were able to go inside. Here is Amber coming out the exit.
Then Emma came out...
After touring the village, we went on a hike - well, sort of. We definitely walked, but our guide didn't have quite as much knowledge as she would have liked. (I was the guide hike...even the park service has budget cuts!)

Since I was preoccupied with the trees, shrubs, wildlife, etc., there were no photos taken!

We then all broke for lunch...and then our third activity which for us was making necklaces.
Macey models her necklace...as does Amber and Austin.

It was a great day...even if the weather was a bit cool!

Great Parents = Great kids

For our field trip, look at all the support Room 8 had from their parents/grandparents!
Actually, by the time I took this photo, Jacob's dad and Macey's mom had already left! Nine parents...that's greater than 1/3 of Room 8's students!

Thank you so much for all the support you give to us! .... and what a fun field trip this was.

"Mrs. Johnston, you need to put your picture on the blog cause you're never on there."

With that statement from Casey O (Remember she's the one who is 20 years old - at least in the gold fields!), she took my picture with the 19 year old named Mary.
This young whipper-snapper swam in to camp. Doesn't he look like a swimmer to you? He didn't tell us how old he was, but we snapped another picture with Mrs. Johnston. Someone said his name was Edin. He said he swam down from Alaska. Yeah, right.

The missions have been secularized and the Gold Rush is on...

Time has certainly flown by in room 8! It seems like it was just over 2 weeks ago that we were in the mission time...and now here we are - smack-dab in the middle of a gold rush! (Smack dab is Texas-talk)

This fellow over there on the right is one of our prospectors. He's hoping to find some nuggets in that gold pan.

Actually, Room 8 just finished two weeks with only Mrs. W teaching. It was her 'solo' time. Room 8 flew through the time between the missions being secularized and the gold rush starting... and here we are, traveling to the gold fields in groups. Some groups are families, some are just people who met up together to head out west to look for gold!

Here are some of our groups:
Within each group, the students were able to come up with who they were. For example, maybe they were a family traveling together...or just a dad with his kids. Maybe they were just a group of friends who had banded together back east and decided to head west together. When their 'scenario' was developed, they wrote 'in character' in their journal. In this photo below, Dillon is reading one of his entries to Jacob.
I'm sure you've all heard of "DEAD-EYE DEVIN"! Oh my gosh, you better watch out for him!
This daring young woman heading west is Mary - age 19.
Traveling with her - but NOT her sister - is Casey, age 20.The gold rush...what an exciting time in Room 8 - and in California history!

Dos Amigos take us down El Camino Real

Dos amigos from Room 8...

We usually just call them simply, Devin and Carlo...

They decided to take us on a walk down El Camino Real to check out some of the missions. Are you ready?Our first stop was San Diego de Alcala. Padre Austin was there to show us around.
Padre Emily was also there. She was caretaker of another version of San Diego de Alcala. Well, goodness gracious, here's ANOTHER San Diego de Alcala. This time, we were met by Padre Jacob. He took us on a long tour.Some started to complain, so we marched on down El Camino Real. (I'm sure you know that if you happen to see 'The King's Highway' or 'The Royal Road', never fear, you're still on the correct road.

We came to Padre Devin's mission which is Santa Barbara. Notice the Native Americans waiting to greet us? Some of us got a little nervous when the ground started shaking and everything seemed to be topsy-turvy. Some thought it was an earthquake, others just figured it was the photographer moving her camera around.

Now, what have we here? Some of the Room 8ers along El Camino Real thought, 'Hey, this mission stuff is a piece of cake.' Actually, they were right. This mission, being managed by the Padre's friend, Madam Macey, WAS A CAKE.
"Was" is the key word, because ...Well, we ate it...and it was delicious!


After stopping along the trail for our snack, we made our last stop at Mission San Francisco de Asis. Padre Trevor was hard at work...Since he didn't have on the appropriate attire, we photographed a close up of him instead of him standing by his mission. It was quite an adventure down El Camino Real. We all enjoyed it immensely!