Day 6 Alcatraz and the Wharf / Day 7 Bus Tour and Bike Ride

(Notice the homeless guy in our group pic. He wouldn't move)

Day 7: This may be our last day posting. There is a rumor there is no cell or internet service at Big Sur. We will find out when we get there! We are loading up, doing a city bus tour and bike ride over the Golden Gate bridge. We should be on the road around 3:oo. Here are some pics from yesterday:



Day 6: Today we woke up early and made our way to the wharf by shuttling kids in one van. Yikes! The trip to Alcatraz was so fun. Much improved since I was a girl and took the tour. We watched a video about the origins of Alcatraz as a bird sanctuary, military base, prison, Indian land for 19 months and finally a national park. After that a ranger took us on a walking tour about the attempted escapes there by prisoners. Last we took an audio tour of the prison. It was narrated as if you were part of history, with the sounds of what it must have been like during that time. We got back on the ferry to drizzles so we decided to forego our bike ride til later and went back to the hotel. We left again for the wharf for dinner and a night tour bus(which ended up cancelling due to the weather) We ended up shopping for a few hours on the wharf, watching the sea lions on pier 39 and playing arcade games.

Day 5 Fairfield and San Francisco

Sorry no photos today. We are all tucked into our hotel rooms and my camera battery died. Will get em posted tomorrow. Today was all about relaxing. This morning we took off from Sacramento and hopefully left behind everyone's allergies. We had all been sneezing since we got there.

In Fairfield, we found the Jelly Belly factory. On day 1 of our trip, after driving for hours and hours I started imagining a place similar to McDonalds play place where you can play in the ballpit, except instead of the balls, it had Jelly Bellys. That would be my dream come true!
Anyway, we got to tour the factory and find out everything there is to know about Jelly Belly beans. They gave samples of everything including the gross ones like skunk scent and dog food. Lucas tricked me into eating what I thought was a peach one. Turned out it was barf flavor. Ick. We had a great time and left wired on sugar.

An hour or so later, we made it to our hotel in San Francisco. From the outside it doesn't look too great but the inside is pretty decent. The elevator looks as if it is the original. The hotel itself looks like it has been around for a hundred years. The only problem with this town is the parking. There is none. We did not add that into our budget and it looks like we will be spending about 25 per car per day and the same for the trailer. We are getting creative and having to shuttle kids in one car. Just adds to the adventure right?

We got our wharf passes for tomorrow and spent the evening near Union Station eating at Buca di Beppo (in the Pope room at a huge round table) and window shopping. Everyone is wiped out and refeuling for a fun day at the wharf tomorrow. First on the itinerary, Alcatraz Island.

Day 4 Capitol Building and Old Schoolhouse

Yes we went to school today too! An old schoolhouse

Today we spent the day in downtown Sacramento. The capitol building was fun to see. We had a tour guide who took us through the different floors of the building. We got to see a live session in the assembly chambers and see bills get passed. We went into the Senate chamber and saw where the governors office was. We learned a lot of history about the capitol building and California.

Later we went to an old schoolhouse from the 1800s. We all agreed it didn't sound fun. Kids were in the same room from first thru eighth grade. You had to sit at your desk with your hands folded in front of you. When you answered a question or were called on, you had to stand up, curtsy or bow and then speak. Teachers had switches and weren't afraid to use em! You would get 4 lashes if you played with someone of the opposite sex on the playground or climbed higher than three feet up a tree(1 lash per foot). A student would NEVER sass a teacher. Teachers had to get to school at seven to heat up the classroom with a wood stove so it was warm. Female teachers were not allowed to marry or frequent ice cream parlors!

We tried to go to Sutter's Fort today and remembered the reason we were going to go yesterday....It was closed today. Due to budget cuts of course!

Rai getting a lashing

Day3 Sacramento Civil War Reinactment

We woke up this morning at our camp site a little tired and took our time getting to the civil war reinactment.

We traveled back in time again and got to walk through the campsites of the Confederate and Union Soldiers. We saw what life was like on the battlefront. We got to play games and even practice skills learned during our Edudance MAPS class. Warren and Clarissa got to show off their talents doing the Virginia Reel. We met Abraham Lincoln and he told us his history before becoming president. He was quite the storyteller and poet. After he gave the Gettysburg Address, we witnessed a battle scene. It was loud! The cannons were deafening. We called it an early day after the battle and spent the rest of the day lounging around the campsite.

Day 2 Panning for gold

We woke up at the crack of dawn to the sounds of the neighbor's donkey. I was amazed at how wide awake and talkative the kids were, especially because it was three hours before the start of a regular school day and usually I don't see that type of animation until noon! Rob started us off with a history and science lesson about how gold is formed and where. Did you know we are in the third gold rush right now? The second one happened during the great depression when more gold was found then than by the 49rs.

We were on a private claim and were the only ones around. It was absolutely beautiful and warm. We found out last weekend was freezing and hailing. We lucked out. The kids learned how to pan and sluice. Almost everyone found something. (ask about "fly poop"!) Rob was so kind as to leave us with a parting gift each of a piece of gold worth $15-25.
We had a great time. As we were packing up to go to Sacramento, Ken, our other gold teacher, suggested we stay a little longer in town and visit Columbia State Park. Not doubting a local's suggestion, we followed his advice, postponed our trip to Sutters Fort til tomorrow, and found ourselves traveling back in time to a part of town left in the 1840's. Main street included shops with pioneer stuff, old fashioned candies, a blacksmith and livery shop and historic artifacts.

We finally got on the road around 1:00 and made our way down the beautiful mountain landscape into endless grape vineyards and fruit trees. On arriving in Sacramento, we found our campground, argued over whether boys or girl got the "better" campsite. (Girls won this time...) We spent a relaxing afternoon unpacking, paddle boats, swimming, playing cards and eventually winding down for a new day tomorrow.

Sacramento trip Day 1

After a few technical difficulties, we finally got on the road around 10:30. We spent the next 10 hours blasting music, snacking and many pitstops. One of the highlights of the road trip was the ranch that we passed that had llamas, cows, goats, ostrich and.... a camel! At around nine o'clock at night, we arrived at our destination 49rs Gold Mining Supplies. We drove up a dark dirt road with nothing but woods around us(and a few bats). Reminded us of a great place to tell ghost stories or a scene from a horror movie. At the top of the hill we met Rob, our gold mining guide. He graciously welcomed us into his home, warning us of wild animals and showing us a vault full of gold(and the artillery to protect it and his family..yikes!). We were wondering where the last car of our caravan was when we got a call that they couldn't make it. Rob had to come to the rescue to tow Sondra up the remainder of the hill. After a small scare when the key to the trailer with all of our luggage disappeared, Gil found it lodged in the drink holder. We set up our sleeping bags, cots air mattresses in the huge storage supply shop on his property (pictures coming tomorrow). The air is so fresh out here, the stars are amazing. The kids are conking out and aren't that excited to get started at 5:45 in the morning!!!! We will be going deep into the mountains to a place called Woods Creek to pan for gold. Can't wait!

Last Week: May 3-7

We spent most of the week in STAR testing but still managed to fit in some hard work too!

8th grade:

• Algebra class included learning about quadratic equations (parabolas) and the role of "a", "b" and "c" when determining the shape and size and location of parabolas. Julian D. was a great peer tutor working with the Pre-Algebra students this week. He taught them geometry basics of lines and angles.
• In Physical Science, we started our buoyancy unit, "Walking on Water" . We hope to design a device that will allow us to walk over water using concepts of Archimedes' principle, buoyant force, water pressure, and fluids.

7th grade:

• We have been brushing up on the pre-algebra concepts of percentages and probability. For the rest of the year, our math concepts will be presented using food! We have a field trip to the grocery store on Thursday to plan a meal for an end of the year beach party. Students will use their math skills to determine costs, price per serving, doubling or tripling recipes, conversion factors, etc.
• In Life Science, we learned more about food webs in the Mono Lake ecosystem. They organized individual organisms as producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and decomposers.

Both 7th and 8th graders are well into the construction phase of their Solar Oven Project. Students completed a webquest to learn about solar ovens, solar energy, transmission, absorbtion and reflection of the suns rays. In groups, they created designs for their solar oven. The next phase includes creating a marketing plan for their oven, preparing a meal and assembling a class cookbook with their recipes. It has been so fun watching the construction process. Students have gone above and beyond, even getting Skip (our resident woodworker!) involved in cutting plywood. I am interested in seeing how the reflective properties of music cds help to heat up one of the group's ovens!

Update

We are in charge of Taco Night on Thursday.

Food Assignments( for about 125-150 people):
Beans and Rice: Lisa
Taco Shells(small flour): Nick (100), Arturo (100), Rai (100)
Taco Meat: Hunter , Warren
Cheese: Canelle, Clarissa
Chopped Lettuce: Ben (5 heads)
Chopped Tomatoes: Amanda
Salsa: Lucas, Julian D
Chips: Julian V. , Adrian, Maston

Don't forget, bring your luggage on Thursday night. We will leave on Friday around 9:00 am instead of 6:00 am, otherwise we are stuck in LA morning traffic.

Sacramento Trip Itinerary and Packing List

Itinerary for 8th grade educational field trip to Sacramento

Thursday May 13
During family night (our class is providing taco night), drop off luggage.

Friday May 14 (Arrive by 6:00am)
· Drive from Innovations Academy to Columbia, California.
· Sleep in the 49er Mining Supplies shop (free)

Saturday May 15
· Early AM panning for gold excursion on private claim.
· Drive from Columbia, CA to Sacramento KOA
· Sutter’s Fort Reenactment: Visitors have the opportunity to meet pioneers who left their homes and braved the journey to Sutter’s Fort at the dawn of the California Gold Rush. Hands-on activities led by experienced docents change daily and include blacksmiths, bakers, doctors, vaqueros and more at this midtown Sacramento historic park

Saturday May 15 & Sunday May 16
· Civil War Reenactment all day · Participate in the 1860's: tour Civilian, Yankee and Confederate Camps, enjoy music, food, battle re-enactments (complete with canon fire), interact with living history·

Monday May 17
· Tour State Capitol
· Old Sacramento Living History Program lead tour
· Empire Mine Historic Park

Tuesday May 18
· Jelly Belly free factory tour (Lisa's favorite candy)
· Free Sticker Factory Tour
· $3 Each Cheese Factory Tour
· Double Decker City Tour
· Fisherman’s Wharf
· Night double decker tour

Wednesday May 19
· Alcatraz Island
· Book Bindery/printing press tour
· Fortune cookie Factory tour
· Pier 39 Aquarium
· Ride a Cable Car
· 2 hour bike ride :)
· Wax Museum
· Tour Sourdough bakery

Thursday May 20
· Drive to Big Sur campground

Friday May 21
· Hang out in Big Sur
· We will rent inner tubes and float down the river (bring swim suits, water shoes, and goggles) ·

Saturday May 22
· Drive home to San Diego late afternoon/evening ·


What to bring:
Basic clothing for a week(we will do laundry at campsites with washing machines)
Sleeping Bag
Pillow
Air Mattress(optional)
Swim Suit
Water shoes
Sun Screen
Shade Hat
Jacket (San Francisco can be very cold, even in summer)
At least 2 pairs of shoes
a towel (or two)
toiletries
spending money
a book
ipods, cell phones AND chargers
camera and extra batteries (maybe an extra sim cards)



Each student can bring a small to medium sized suitcase.

Upcoming events

• STAR testing is this week and next:Please make sure your students are there. Because of the 8th grade Sacramento trip, we won't have time to makeup tests later.

Tues May 4:

10:00-11:30 Language Arts Part 1(7th and 8th grade)

1:15-2:45 History Part 1 (8th grade)

Wed May 5:

10:00-11:30 Language Arts Part 2 (7th and 8th grade)

Thur May 6:

10:00-11:30 History Part 2 (8th grade)

Tues May 11:

10:00-11:30 Math - Part 1 (7th and 8th grade)

1:15-2:45 Science Part 1 (8th grade)

Wed May 12:

10:00-11:30 Math - Part 2 (7th and 8th grade)

Thur May 13:

10:00-11:30 Science Part 2 (8th grade)

• Sacramento Trip WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR OUR TRIP! During class council on Tuesday, we will go over the itinerary and packing list. We are scheduled to get on the road bright and early Friday morning May 14 and will return Saturday May 22. Parents will also be receiving a final itinerary, packing list and other important info in an email by the end of this week. We will be sending daily updates during the trip! Those students who are not going will be staying with Tony's class with eighth grade work provided for them.
• Fuddruckers hamburger coupon booklets are still for sale. For $10 dollars they get 8 buy one get one free and 8 buy one get one half off coupons. We get to keep $5 for each coupon book sold. This is a great deal. Will help fund Magic Mountain grad nite (Friday June 11) and Eighth grade promotion (Thursday June 17 at Adrian's home)
• Family nite Thursday May 13