7th Grade Field Trip - Guide Dogs of the Desert - March 27, 2014

http://guidedogsofthedesert.org/

Guide Dogs of the Desert improves the lives of the blind by creating opportunities for life-changing independence.

Guide Dogs of the Desert was built 40 years ago on the premise that every legally blind person should have the opportunity to have a guide dog, including those that have multiple disabilities, including balance issues, missing limbs, some deafness and neurological (or cortical) blindness. Because of this commitment to our special clients, we keep our class sizes small and focus on the individual needs of our clients.

Many of our clients are those that have progressive diseases, such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma, and then there are those that have lost their sight at birth or through a life altering accident.

We do all of this at NO COST to the clients we train.

Mission is to provide guide dogs for blind people.

Train dogs for blind people.

Giving them free of charge to blind people. 

Non profit - puppy breeding program, kennel

Every 7 min someone becomes blind 

Mobility the dogs are able to provide

Volunteers who raise the puppies. Help and train in their own homes for a year and a half. Then they come back for formal training. 

28 day training for blind people with their dog match. City streets, hotels, bus rides, restaurants, and they both learned about each other. Also desert roads. Then after 28 days graduation - and get to meet person who raised the dog.

7th Grade Field Trip - Bullying, Self Defense Class - March 19, 2014

NO BULLYING class this Tuesday 3/18 at 1:30pm-3:00pm at Gracie Barra Corona Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
All children are welcome to attend. We will be covering the basics of our no bullying program, including promoting positive choices, reporting bullying incidents, motivating others to do the right thing, including everyone, standing up for others, expanding views and valuing differences. In the second half of our program we will cover basic BJJ techniques (as they apply to self-defense) such as break falls, safe stand up, defense against the headlock and defense against the bearhug.

7th Grade Field Trip - Spring Squeeze & Adobe - March 13, 2014

The La Verne Heritage Foundation
Dedicated to the preservation of La Verne's rich past, the Heritage Foundation was organized in 1985 with the challenge to rescue the Weber House from destruction. The Heritage Foundation rallied the support from all over the valley to move the Weber House to its present location and restore it to its original condition. Today the Foundation provides the resources and manpower needed to maintain the Weber House as well as the surrounding 1 1/2 acre ranch. It is the Foundation's goal to provide visitors with more than just a museum...instead, to preserve for a new generation a slice of La Verne's past. Membership in the foundation is open to all who desire to preserve the heritage of our community. Interested individuals are invited to participate by joining the Foundation and by participating in a variety of hands-on activities including the hands-on history tours, concerts in the park, pumpkin patch, orange sales or regularly scheduled work parties. Without the Support of the community the Foundation could not continue. We hope you will join us at one of our future events.
http://www.laverneheritage.org/#!events


What is the Palomares Adobe's historical significance?

Adobe de Palomares was the 13 room home of Don Ygnacio Palomares and his wife, Dona Concepcion Lopez de Palomares. The Palomares and Vejar families owned the Rancho San Jose, which covered eastern Los Angeles county, some 150 years ago. The land now covers many cities of the Pomona Valley of Southern California, including Pomona, LaVerne, San Dimas, Diamond Bar, Azusa, Covina, Walnut, Glendora, and Claremont

A Gold Rush Home:

The home was started as the new home of a successful Mexican rancher. Its construction phase was from 1850 to 1854. This was the period of the great California gold rush, that was accompanied by California statehood . The house represents the meeting of two cultures: Mexican-era adobe construction combined with American influenced technology, seen in the use of milled roofing and flooring.

http://www.pomonahistorical.org/palomares/

7th Grade Class - Nature Class - Feb. 19, 2014

Stick dice - 2 sides (black marks one side, plain other side) 

Making stick dice out of arundo cane. These pieces were used in popular games amongst West Coast tribes. Usually the "dice" were made from elderberry branches, but it's easier to make them from the invasive arundo.

All are facing up - 3 points

3 up 3 down - 1 point

All facing down - 2 points

If there are no more sticks you take a stick from someone else. 

Arundo sticks used to make stick dice

And can make containers out of it also.

People and animals feel - proven and tested - how well attuned are u to ur own intuition. Develop a fine sense to be able to read ur environment. 

Attach intensity 

Little mouse story - scurrying storing gathering so there in a stock pile of food. 

Roaring sound in his ears when he stops - other mice said ur crazy

Raccoon walked thru village - mouse asked raccoon if he heard sound? Raccoon said yes I hear - it's the great river. Raccoon said I can take u there, but mouse was scared. 

He took him to river. Up to edge of water and saw himself. Now u know the medicine of the river. 

They met frog - shared stories 

Frog asked mouse- I live half in water and out of water, that is my medicine. Asked mouse what his medicine in? Mouse said I don't have medicine. 

Mouse jumped high and saw mountain and then fell down into the water. He got angry at frog. 

Frog said Is a little discomfort worth it to see the sacred mountain. Your new name is jumping mouse. 

Jumping mouse went back to his village and was all wet. 

Other mice looked at him weird. 

He knew spots in the sky would capture mice. So he was scared to travel but he did carefully. 

Went to a house and met a new mouse who had also been to the great river and they had lots in common. But this mouse said there is no such thing as sacred mountain. 

He went on to the sacred mountain alone. 

Choak cherry trees - he heard rumbling sound again. 

And it was a buffalo. I am dying and I have seen my medicine. There is only one thing my medicine told me to seek wisdom from a mouse. 

Now I shall die happily because I have seen a mouse. He shared his sight with wolf

Run along in my shadow and I will protect u to the sacred mountains. Took him to the bottom of mountain. But left him there to continue. 

He met wolf and shared his sight with wolf. Jumping mouse was blind and went with wolf to mountain and sat guided by wolf. And wolf told him all he saw. 

Saw nothing but felt everything. Something hit him from back and saw colors and someone told him to jump and grab the wind, 

Your name is eagle 

Screech owl or kestrel -  box 

Broad leaf plantain - got strong cords that run thru it. If u pull it apart u can see the cords. Draw toxins out of body by chewing it up and putting it on wound - white mans footprints- soldiers bread- edible -dried plantain - physillium seeds for fiber

Cleavers or bed straw - to keep insects out- edible but don't like spinys on it. Cleans lymph 

Most poisonous plant in North America 

Castor bean - castor oil from - produces the beans 

Velcro was made from that

7th Grade Class - Nature Class - Feb. 5, 2014

Clover - good for protein - eating it with oil or fat so body can absorb protein and good for digestion 

Shepherds purse 

Toe and heel walking like ancestors did. Feeling ground. Each step is feeling before committing ur weight. A relationship between u and the earth. Silently walking. Like a fox - steps are very precise and do it without looking. Keep ur head up and let ur feet have eyes. 

Fox tracks are in a straight line. 

Yellow Dock - good green and for salads and medicinal. 

Bitter part is the root - to raise blood  iron levels

Make rope from milkweed 

Killing Trap - logs - die instantly don't want animals to suffer. Breaks their back. 

Living from the land. Need to eat animals. Look at the energy he is consuming. If he digs a root he knows it has energy on it. Kill animal and take energy from animal. Part of being human is that u will kill things in life. Everything has energy plants or animals. 

in Trap - 1 week to expect to catch a deer, coyote and fox 

Sound like a deer while walking when there are lots of dry leaves. Broken up walking.... Wind can blow against u and deer can smell u. 

Game - mountain lion and deer 

Deer are herd animals. Using each other's senses to be safe. If one spooks all will spook. 

7th Grade Class - Nature Class - January 22, 2014

Cottonwood tree  - makes good material for tinder bundle. It's also good for brushing your teeth - take a twig and fluff up end of it : it contain propolis which helps with tooth decay. The buds this time of year and u squeeze it, it's all sticky and gooy - the balm of Iliad - for medicinal purposes use as oil. Leave in glass jar in sun to warm up and will make oil. Mix stuff with it for medicinal like comfrey will heal wounds and beeswax. 

Smudging - has many uses throughout history

Shelter - smoke it out before u go in. Can use plants like sage, mustard, that have a smell to get bugs away. 

Australian aborigines never used boomerangs. Used bending sticks non returning to throw to kill the animal.  In North America in the south west.

Returning boomerangs were rarely used, mostly for throwing into flocks of birds and sometimes to stimulate the flight of a hawk to flush game. The Aborigines would bend their non-returning boomerangs at a fire to make them return for the benefit of tourists, then bend them back when the tourists left. 

The best place to put ur Food is in ur neighbors belly. 

If a person wasn't sharing, community would pray for that person, they said they were sick. 

Sharing of Food - feeling of happiness and gratitude of sharing food. Dr imoto -  different emotions on crystals on water, love and gratitude those crystals are beautifully formed. 

The good u eat and u have gratitude food will taste better. 

7th Grade Class - January 8, 2014 - Nature Class

Willow tree good for making wood better for carving spoons. 

Eucalyptus tree better fire wood tougher, not as good to make spoon. 

To test wood, blade goes all way to handle, insect holes make weakness. So carve it and it should be okay to see if it's strong enough. 

How do u know when the branch is dead. Everything has energy. 

Death is a transformation 

Ask the item if u can use it. Use gratitude. 

WilMustard plant - edible