On Friday, November 16 the entire elementary class visited the oldest Catholic cemetery in Josephine County! But first, we had to cross the East Fork Illinois River on the swinging bridge ... ...then we had to hike up a hill. "It was so hard!" exclaimed Alalana. ...until, ONE HOUR LATER (!!), our mountainous hike finally led us to the cemetery. We were hungry! We ate lunch and explored the cemetery's trails. We learned that most of the deceased came here from Ireland in the 1850s, seeking gold in the hills (although one gravestone belonged to a woman born in Mexico!). They founded Allentown, built a church, cemetery, homes, and businesses --- yet when the gold ran out, not many years later, Allentown was abandoned. With a camera, we took a bunch of pictures, too! Happy Election Day! We welcomed the morning with a video tour of Salem, Oregon's Capital City, hosted by the 2018 Oregon Kid Governor, Dom Peters, who was elected Kid Governor in the 5th grade. Fifth grade?! See, last year Oregon's Secretary of State Office became an affiliate of the award-winning civics program Kid Governor, created by the Connecticut Democracy Center. Elementary classes across the state of Oregon critically analyze short (2-3 minute) campaign videos created by Kid Governor candidates. Every candidate chose one community issue as their "political platform," and used their campaign video to try and persuade their fellow Elementary students to vote for them:
Ballots ask students to rank the candidates on a 1-5 point scale (1 = disagree, 5 = agree) according to seven statements: the candidate has the leadership skills to be Oregon's Kid Governor; the candidate is passionate about running for Oregon's Kid Governor; the candidate chose an important issue for her/his platform; the candidate's issue is something I want to focus on in my community; the candidate's plan is realistic; the candidate sounds like he/she would represent me well; and the candidate would make a good Oregon's Kid Governor. The candidates and their videos can be found HERE. After completing our paper Voter Registration cards and Candidate Ballots, Kaci submitted each student's top choice online. As this blog post goes to press, we are awaiting the results of Oregon's next Kid Governor! What follows is a few pics featuring Amethyst kids posing with their Voter Registration cards and Ballots: On Friday mornings, Kaci skips off to the Serpentine Room with the younger elementary students while Ruth steps into the Amethyst Room for science class with the older elementary students. This year is all about biology! Take a look at Airabella's booklet, "Life Cycle of a Flowering Plant" (You might need to stand on your head, because Kaci scanned the booklet upside down!) |