Flag Design!!

We found a great presentation online about the history of Burlingame as it relates to its trees. As the City of Trees, we are particularly interested in the relationship the city has with trees and how that has evolved over time.

Each of us has a task related to our Burlingame flag project. Ben found clips from the Roman Mars Ted talk to include in the proposal presentation he's making for the mayor of Burlingame.

Katherine was researching the history of Burlingame and symbols for our flag.

John and Sebastian worked on yet another design for the flag, this time including the train tracks and a eucalyptus leaf. 

After learning about the history of the tree-lined stretch of El Camino Real, we took off on foot to appreciate the thoroughfare in person. We noticed how much larger the trees are in person today than they were in pictures over a century ago.

Each tree has at least two metal markers with different numbers. We aren't sure what they are for, but we know that these trees are still protected to this day. At least 200 to 300 new trees are planted in Burlingame each year, which more than compensates for any trees that need to be removed.

We collected some fallen branches, leaves, and other parts of the eucalyptus tree to help us with our flag design.

For Sebastian's birthday, we celebrated with a little bit of frozen yogurt and a bunch of compliments and appreciations.

After lunch, we discussed the Constitution and the creators of it. Though the authors had the best of intentions, they were not the most diverse group to write a document for all people with the unalienable rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I have the kids different roles from a role-playing game about the writing of the Constitution and the Constitutional Convention. In our version, we represented a more diverse group: a farmer, and plantation owner, an enslaved African American, a shoemaker, and a banker. After reviewing our roles and understanding out situational "opinions," we learned the basic roles of parliamentary procedure and read through the burning issues we will discuss and vote on in our formal Constitutional Convention the next time we meet.