For almost all the students, our topic this week is trees. The only exception is grade 5: 5th-grade students are being reminded of (or perhaps introduced to) ways to evaluate research sources. I talk about this every year with 5th grade to help them prepare for an assignment on explorers. This year I'm moving the discussion ahead of the actual assignment and dividing it into two weeks, in hopes that everyone will already have their skills tuned up when the project is actually assigned. This week we our focusing on books and databases. Of special interest is World Book Online, an online version of the encyclopedia to which Pennekamp subscribes (through the generosity of the Pennekamp PTA--login information available from me or your child's teacher); also highlighted will be some of the resources available through the County of Los Angeles Public Library, especially the Social Studies Fact Cards. Next week we will look at websites to use and one in particular to avoid.
But all grades except 5th will be hearing books about trees--specific trees, the life cycle of trees, personified trees, tree planting, the virtues and benefits of trees, it's just all about trees. One of the most interesting of this week's readalouds is The Tree that Would Not Die, by Ellen Levine. In this picture book, the Treaty Oak located in Austin, Texas, recounts its remarkable 500-year history. Although, sadly, in 1989 someone applied a strong herbicide to the base of the Treaty Oak in an apparent effort to kill it, the Treaty Oak survived. It had to be significantly pruned (as the photos below show), but as far as I know it is still thriving today, though the most recent internet information I could find is from 2015. Austin, Texas, is a marvelous town--I visited it a couple of times in the early 1990s. Maybe I will have to take another trip there and snap a few current photos of the Treaty Oak.
But all grades except 5th will be hearing books about trees--specific trees, the life cycle of trees, personified trees, tree planting, the virtues and benefits of trees, it's just all about trees. One of the most interesting of this week's readalouds is The Tree that Would Not Die, by Ellen Levine. In this picture book, the Treaty Oak located in Austin, Texas, recounts its remarkable 500-year history. Although, sadly, in 1989 someone applied a strong herbicide to the base of the Treaty Oak in an apparent effort to kill it, the Treaty Oak survived. It had to be significantly pruned (as the photos below show), but as far as I know it is still thriving today, though the most recent internet information I could find is from 2015. Austin, Texas, is a marvelous town--I visited it a couple of times in the early 1990s. Maybe I will have to take another trip there and snap a few current photos of the Treaty Oak.
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Above, at left, is a picture of the Treaty Oak in 1969, before it was poisoned (http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/websites/FamousTreesOfTexas/TreeLayout.aspx?pageid=16153). At right is the Treaty Oak after it was poisoned and trimmed (http://www.texasescapes.com/AustinTexas/TreatyOak/AustinTreatyOak.htm).
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