Treasured People: Our Grandparents and Special Friends

What a treasured treat it was this week to host 

our grandparents and special friends. 

To show them around our classroom, we had a cryptic scavenger hunt with the hints written in Viking runes. The final prize? A treasure box full of treasures! Perfect for our concept of the year,

TREASURE. 

We then had the opportunity to take them around the school and show them all the wonderful things we treasure at Seabury--our library, our French room, our playground, our MakerSpace, our multi-purpose room, our computer lab and more. 

Be sure to check our blog throughout the year as we study world explorers, the American Colonial Era,  Native Americans, zoology, geology, botany, environmentalism and ecology, all through the lens of the treasure concept. We'll be asking:

• what do people treasure?
• why people treasure some things and not others?
• what makes something a treasure?
• how do we treat treasures?

Thank you for joining us for the afternoon and making each of us feel most treasured!! 

The Navigators Set Sail!

We're all aboard and ready for the 2016-2017 school year. 

And we started with a big splash! 

On Wednesday, September 14, we had the fantastic opportunity to sail back in time to the 1790s aboard the tall ship Hawaiian Chieftain out of Westport, Washington. 

Authentic experiences and real-world learning are a huge part of education at Seabury. It was a perfect day and a perfect way to set up our study of exploration and colonization. 

...

The captain and crew welcome us aboard and instruct us on how to be sailors. 

All aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain.

"Muster the main deck!"

Safety first!

Keep all parts of our body in the boat, watch out for the cannon holes, don't step on the lines and be considerate of your fellow sailors. There's not a lot of elbow room on this ship!

"All hands?" "All hands, aye!"

It took all hands on deck to hoist the sails. 

Heave HO, heave, HO, heave HO...!

We don't want to get tangles in the lines or get line (rope) burns. 

We did it! 

We learned how to navigate using 

charts, the sun, the stars and instruments.

A floating compass that works even when the ship is rocking

A traverse board to show the vessel's speed and course

A chart and compass to keep the vessel's bearings

A spyglass to watch for land, other ships, whales and sea monsters!

We learned about trade

The Native Americans wanted metal tools and glass beads. 

They had pelts to trade with Bostonians.

The Chinese wanted animal pelts. 

They had  tea, spices and silk to trade with Bostonians.  

Bostonians wanted tea, spices and silk. 

They had animal pelts to trade with China 

and metal tools and glass beads to trade with Native Americans.

We learned how to live on a ship for a long time 

and reach one's full potential.

It's not easy living in tight quarters. 

 Hey, we all want to reach our full potential! 

Let's take this back to our classroom and talk about our own hierarchy of needs.

 We had three hours to learn from the crew and enjoy the scenery, our fellow schoolmates and our wonderful parents and grandparents who took the day off to join us. 

 

 

 

  

The questions are starting to spill out

 and we're eager to get going on our studies of exploration. 

"All hands?" "ALL HANDS, AYE!"