Team Kathmandu's Geography Update

3rd term: Josh S.

2nd term: Josh S., True

1st term authors: Zali, True, Alessa, and Faye.

All students applied for this job and are contributing to our newsletter for Term 1!

The following pictures and writings are from Ms. Kiran in Nepal!

Chariot Procession: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1R6jVpiS1V/

Balance: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1WpoJruWAH/

Ms. Kiran wrote and said they've had bad weather in Kathmandu and it's still clearing.

Election is accomplished in Nepal peacefully. There is lots of challenges for new government that include peace within country,saving sovereignity of Nepal and keep the country untouched by present situation of war and chaos.

Many Nepalese are returning home from unsafe nations.

I wonder how and when this whole scenario ends up?

Pictures of Temples

Our culture,rituals,faith and myth are so different than yours. So just to reply shortly is so weird for me.

I am sending pictures from my environment,my surroundings so Nepal is not this much.

Sending you 2 pictures now, it is small shop where you get all necessary items needed for accomplishing our all kinds of rituals like birth,birthdays, anniversary,puberty, worshipping and death.

As I have told you about butter lamps,you will see cotton threads needed for butter lamps.

My friend Michelle had sent some funds for empowering women. I have distributed that fund among few women to start their own business. Few of them make such cotton threads and I introduced this lady shopkeeper who buys those threads in reasonable price. This way ladies enjoy in groups spinning threads and make money.

I will send pictures how these threads are used.

https://www.tiktok.com/@lorenzotullio_/video/7615147365363715336

This is a pic of a symbol of colour and starting of spring festival. It's called Holi. According to myth the lord Krishna has overcame on devil lady known as Holika and spread colours,happiness and serenity to common people. We celebrate Holi by visiting our relatives,friends, neighbours and offer red colour powder as symbol of victory over devils. We exchanged sweets.

Happy Holi to you,yours and those all of your curios and excited students.

Pictures

We have 3 main Gods and 3 Goddess but there are many deities of them.

It's brass pot with Ganesh' s idol that is placed right side of person during birthday celebration.

Lord Ganesh on brass pot. It is called sukunda. This holy pot is always put on right side of person for celebration.

My birthday day is celebrated as our ritual. Some pictures here. Hope you and your students like them.

1. Lord Ganesh is worshipped during celebration.

2. We wear red dress to activate own root chakra.

3. Super food egg,fish,lentil snack, homemade alcohol and curd is must for worshipping.

Senior lady of family performs all steps of ritual

According to my birthday certificate we call it "china" ,my birthday lies on 19th February. I will send you the pictures of my birthday activities so many queries of your students will be answered. May be they will ask more questions. It will be interesting to keep on answering them. My birthday keeps on swinging from 14 the Feb to March 4. The children will find out when is my birthday next year.

KTM is city of temples

House of living goddess Kumari. I am so blessed to see living goddess - Kumari while clicking pictures of temples and Kumari house. The crowd was waiting silently outside of Kumari house so I also stood in line. After couple of minutes the main door opened and people entered the door to have glimpse of Kumari and get blessed. She a little girl appeared in middle window. All cherished and happily she blessed everyone.

I have tried my best to answer your students questions.

It's about our birthdays

1. All ethnic communities in Nepal follow Lunar calendar.

2. Our birthdays are determined by studying our astrology certificate by family astrologer.

3. Our birthdays keep on changing every year. e.g my birthday keep on swinging from February 16 to Mar 4

4.we are offered an egg and fried fish as symbol of health prosperity and happiness during our birthdays

5. Hinduism and Buddhism are two important religions in Nepal but people are becoming Christian in the hope of big advantages now a days.

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1.Momo are dumpling stuffed with keema meat and dipped in thick hot soup.

2.Head of country is president but prime minister is responsible for nationwide activities.

3. Nepal has three belt of geographical land, Himalayan ranges, mountain ranges with vàlleys like Kathmandu and southern flatland called Terai

4.Life of most of children except in towns and cities is hard. Children from small age has to do all housework like cooking,laundry,looking after siblings etc.

5. Classrooms lack information charts and equipments.

6.They even lack basic need of food,warm clothes and cleanliness as well as clean water.

In this week we refreshed our memory on SSEA countries, then took the test. Also we are almost done with this half of the school year so if you have any retakes or WSs I would recommend fixing that before the deadline. Also I would recommend homework checks with your kid to make sure they have no WSs. next week we will be doing the MAP testing so remember maybe to study. Happy MLK long weekend!

This week we are starting our new unit, SSEA, or South, Southeast Asia, we are getting ready for the Map quiz on Thursday next week. We also are starting with the 5 themes of geography for SSEA.

by Josh S.

In the first full week in a while, we are finishing are 5 themes for MENA, and studying for the text on Monday, but for those who will not be there on Monday they will take the quiz tomorrow Friday.

by Josh S.

In this four day week we finished up our summative then we presented them to the class and created an exhibit (which we named and curated) with are slides we made. Then, after one month, we finished unit 2. Next week we will start unit 3 with the Five Themes of Geography about MENA (Middle East North Africa), the base of the new unit.

by Josh S.

In this short 4 day week we did a lot. We learned about Step Afrika (a group that does stepping as a dance), and Gogo ( A music type big in D.C., Famous groups include, Backyard Boys, and Rare Essence). Then we did a formative about the African diaspora where we read a text and then wrote and answered questions about it. Then we started a summative where we identified a object and we started a power point about are object with our partner.

by Alessa

We've come so far in term 1. Three months ago, we were all new, some of us had come to orientation, or Deal Rise week, or both. We were all just figuring out this new school. In Science, we took a Pre-test and launched unit 1 on plate motion, and did 3 different labs throughout the unit. We also learned root words and took weekly quizzes on them, as well as celebrating birthdays and students of the week on Fridays. In ELA ( English Language Arts) we started a unit where we learned writing skills/techniques. We started our monthly reading (goals?) and soon we were working on Our term 1 book project (BTW it is due on Halloween). In Math we took our diagnostic and were sorted into our appropriate math class( accelerated 6th,or non accelerated 7th, eighth) . In Geography we launched unit one on map skills. We took a very fun field trip to Sandy Springs Adventure Park which was a great bonding experience, and made lots of new friends, plus strengthened our bond with old ones. We started unit 2 in some classes: Science, Rock transformation, ELA,???, Math, depends, Geography, SSA( sub-Saharan Africa). Now as term 1 comes to an end, I invite you to look back at term 1 and see how far you have come. Sports teams, new classes, blookets, Student led conferences, etc. So I invite you right now to say Goodbye... Term 1.

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by True

Happy Halloween everybody! This week in geography we started our case studies of Magda, Bunmi, the DRC, and Haiti as we learn about the African Diaspora. We also had our first DEAL time, and signed up for the pep rally during 5th period on Friday! We also completed our spirit week survey so look out for more information about that.

Have a spooky time on Friday, and happy term 1!

True, period 5

This week in geography we have a NEW UNIT! Sub-Saharan Africa! We have been learning about the 5 themes of geography....and sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Trenkle has finally introduced a brand-new earworm called the 5 themes of geography, and everyone loves it...... Anyway, next week we will have our first new-unit test. Hopefully in November we will have our first geography/science field trip to the National Museum of Natural History!

Have a good week!

by Alessa
It's a short week this week but with the CAL(community action letter) letters due on the eighth and student led parent teacher conferences coming up, students are scrambling to finish assignments and getting things in. Also a marshmallow and toothpick experiment in science is definitely (not naming names) getting kids hyped!

by True, period 6

If there was an issue that you could change in DC, what would it be? This week we are using the community maps that we created last week and DC maps that we have analyzed in the past to identify community and dc issues. Then we are writing a letter to the person who is in charge of the area of the problem.

I think that this is an important skill for students because everyone is so absorbed in their screens these days that they don’t know how to properly write and address a letter. This is also the week of student-led conferences! This is a new experience for some students so we might be a little shaky, but we are always trying our best!

Have a good week!

By Alessa

In geography class this week we planned, revised, and wrote the rough drafts of our CAL letters.
CAL stands for Community Action Letters. It was fun. It was hard, some even took it home as homework, but we got it done! This week was hard, but in the end we all pulled through.

by True

As you well know, team Kathmandu went to sandy springs adventure park on Thursday the 25th. I’m sure everyone had a great time! Thankyou Ms. Trenkle! Zipping through the trees was fun, and a great bonding experience! Some ziplines required you to go northwest or northeast while others needed you to climb a vertical ladder (think Prime Meridian) before you swing through the trees.

In addition to super fun ziplines there were also obstacles you had to complete, such as wobbly logs tilting east and west at random, or rope bridges that make it seem like you're crossing the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, rather than a 20 planks of wood ten feet of the ground. I really recommend this for a fun family event!

By Alessa

In Geography this week, we have been working on Giant map Tiles. In class one-by-one we would come up to Ms Trenkles desk and she would have a map divided into numbered sections and we would pick the section we wanted to do, if it was not already crossed off then Ms Trenkle would give us that section, each section was printed on a single peice of paper in black and white.
Our task was to color our section and add things like what you could do in that area, plants & animals that lived or grew there, political boundaries, lakes, mountains, fun facts ect. we could only use colored pencils for the ocean since there's a lot of it and Ms. Trenkle didn't want her markers to run out of ink. We could only use markers for the land to make the land stand out. There were some exceptions though. If you wanted to outline an animal that lived in the ocean in marker to make it pop, you could. Once you were done you would bring your map tile to Ms Trenkle and she would laminate it and once there were enough laminated she becan to staple them to the wall set aside for our giant map, in number order of course. That is one thing we have been doing in geography this week.

Update: since publication, the map has been completed! Way to go Team Kathmandu!

by True

This week in geography we have been learning about how to use a map key, scale, and compass rose. We have also been learning some new vocabulary! A fun way to practice your geography at home is to play a game of battleship. If you don’t know what battleship is, it’s basically a game where you try to sink your opponent's ship by guessing coordinates on a grid like we practiced in geography. Better yet, if you're feeling creative you can create your own battleship “map” with a grid and game pieces! You can create a real or imaginary map, it could be political, thematic, or physical.

You could also draw your own compass rose with fun doodles, disigns or anything, get creative! A compass rose kind of looks like a sun so you could draw a little sun in the center or a whole solar system! And obviously it’s a compass rose so you could draw some flowers, I’ve included a little step-by-step guide of how to draw a simple rose if you want to check it out (see below).

Have a good week!

by Faye

These past few weeks in Geography we worked on our map skills. We learned how to use a map scale and a legend/key. We learned to use grid coordinates to find where places are. Each day we worked on a different skill. One day we study the compass rose, the next day, legends. We practiced these skills for two formatives and a summative (that we all rocked!). We all practiced so hard and took in a lot of new information. Even with all this new information we still did amazing on the summative and formatives. Keep being the amazing you. Have a great week:)