Our trip was a snowy, chilly, wet adventure! It was wonderful to get back outside and visit our special places at Centennial Park. Signs of both winter and spring were present, leaving learners with much to think and wonder about. Enjoy this small glimpse! I found the most particular thing at the Place Project today. It was like sand and cement together. I put the sandish stuff in a tube. It’s like the color of the Florida beach sand. It is cold and feels like the stream. I found it in the water by some caged rocks. The rocks are caged because they could fall down on people or animals. It was by the stream so it must of been hit by water because it was watery.I still have it. After a while the stuff in it sinks to the bottom of the tube. I found the item with Kelly and Noah. They also thought it was cool. I am sure the other classmates will feel the same way as I do. When I was going to my spot I noticed something out of place. My stump (my spot) was gone. I thought that someone had moved it because I thought it was way too heavy to be rolled by the wind. So, I asked my mom and she said that maybe since it was next to the stream, that the stream could have risen and the stump got taken with the stream. But I don’t think the stream could rise 4 inches and take my stump. I still wonder how it got there. Maybe the wind or water did do it, or maybe not. When I was walking to my spot at Centennial Park, I noticed the most heteromorphic thing ever! There was a hole in the tree that I Named “Lazy Bobby." Inside of that hole was a white little thing, but first let me say it was unanimously the most minute thing. At first I thought it was a bit of tree sap or a nature tree thing, but then I thought that it might be a larvae. After that I wondered “what kind of larvae is it? Is it a wasp,or a beetle? Man there where so many questions to ask, I didn’t bother to write all of them down. Then after staring at the hole for a little more time, I turned and left it. When our section finished writing our data, we were looking for fossils. We found a lot of small little shell fossils and washed them up and explored them. Then Mrs. Stack said, “Hey guys! Come here and look at this!” It was a horn coral on a big rock! Our team washed it off and washed all of the clay off and when we saw the fossil clearly. It was really cool.! We put it on a log when we were done exploring. I was looking for more fossils on the clay wall and what do you think I found? I found another horn coral on it’s own, not on a rock or anything. I washed it off in the cold water and it looked cooler than the other one. I wonder how it got there? It had to be there for a long time. When we went to the fossil bed they said finding a horn coral was hard to find, and our section found 2! I was really happy I found a really cool fossil! At Centennial Park there was a slug in a log! Why would it want to be in a log where it is exposed to the cold? Why not underground? Maybe it does not sense the cold that much as humans. Or it maybe was still working getting deeper into the log. I wanted to see more about it. Tangled vines that form a tepee just for me. Up so high, nice in the sky, which gives this spot a name. The comfort, the space, is perfect for me. The view of the water, rocks,and trees are so delightful to see. It's like a secret tepee, and I’m glad to be the tepee key. At Centennial Park I saw everything was dark gray and some of the trees were cut down to tiny stumps. The water was freezing cold and very full of life with itsy bitsy little animals. There was moss, tiny critters like bees,ants, and even beetles. It was so amazing and full of life! I love the color and life crawling around me like wind pushing on into the breeze. It’s a beautiful place and a wonderful site. I love science. It’s my favorite subject. It’s interesting how a small place can be so full of color! While I was writing my fraction poem in my field journal, I heard a sound. It kind of sounded like someone hitting a rock with either their hand, or one of their tools. When I looked around though, no one was there. Then I looked up. I saw a grey woodpecker! It was pecking a tree. So for one of my fractions, I decided to use woodpeckers. On my walk to Centennial Park, I discovered that the water flow was a lot faster than last time from all that rain we had this year or month. I wonder when we come back if it will be will be different and cool. I think when the water went up higher than last time the leaves that were stuck in the water made the water slower. I know from all that rain we had, the water got heavier and heavier and then the wind came, and then the water turned into little waves and then the leaves could not withstand with the water and then gave up. I was trying to divide my spot which is under a bridge by a stream into different fractions for a poem. I was thinking of what to divide the last part of my spot into. I was stumped. I didn't know what to write. I picked up a rock and I was about to throw it. Then I thought of how the last part of my spot was rocks. When we went to the place project I found it weird that the log that has been decomposing for the whole entire year was still there. I was 100% sure that it would be gone, but there it was, sitting on the rocky banks of the stream. I found this interesting because it has been there decomposing all year, but it wasn't gone. Next time we go to Centennial Park, if the log is the same and still there I will be like, ¨WOW!¨ But if it decomposes, I won't be surprised. When I was with my group getting ready for Mrs. Walther to blow the third whistle, I noticed something kind of odd. Right next to where I was standing was a big rock and the rock was covered in moss! I know that seems pretty normal, but it was snowing and most of the other plants were dead. This really struck me to be kind of weird. And I also was freezing, so I did not know how it was surviving. I asked Kate,Steve,and Neave if they knew how it was alive. And they did not know either. I am very interested in finding out how it’s going to stay alive. Or it might die soon. Who knows. Today we went to Centennial Park. When I went in the stream, I saw that there were water bubbles trapped in between rocks. It looked liked someone had purposely trapped them. Next, I thought maybe the rocks stopped the water bubbles and erosion took place and the rest of the rocks rolled up there to trap them. Then I thought, I wonder what those bubbles have to tell. At the Place Project we made poems and I like sharing my poetry with others, especially my classmates. Here is my poem: ½ Rocks, creepy cracks ⅛ Water wailing on the ground ⅛ Trees tired of noise 1/12 Birds quietly chirp 1/12 Logs loving the earth 1/12 Grass asking for more snow When we walked to Centennial Park, I saw many things like trees, plants, and a spiky bush! When I got to my spot I saw that many things were different, rocks had fallen down stream, and the water had more moss than last time. I wonder how more moss got there? I wonder how hard the current was to wash the rocks down the steam? I could see some little sprouts of leaves on the trees. I wonder how little sprouts can grow while it is still a little snowy and cold? At our groups we measured the water depth, then the stream flow, how cold the air temperature was, and the water temperature. The weather must have been rough to make all the changes that we saw. At my spot in Centennial Park, I have a bee colony that lives in a decomposed log. All of the bees have flown away and I wondered what made the bees and birds leave. Because it's cold, but what about the temperature makes them leave? Maybe it’s that their wings will freeze in the cold if they stay? Or because their body temperature isn’t designed to be in a cold climate? Sticky, slimy, white, and plump-shy in its habitat. Staying warm, hiding, thinking hard, and eating. It’s a slug staying dry with the sky! In my stream section we found a slug in a log. It was cool finding an alive creature! When we got our slug we used my pencil to get it off the log. When the slug was in my testing tube I felt bad because he was not in his habitat! So we let our slug go into its real home. It’s good that we let it go because when we were taking it off the log, it kept sticking. That tells us it wanted to stay at his home! At Centennial Park I noticed that everybody’s place seemed to be wider and more spread out. I think that the rain, snow and wind might have caused them to move and change because the wind might have made the places move a lot. The snow could have made frost on everyone's places and when the frost thawed it could have made pieces come off of the place, and the rain could have knocked some branches/leaves off some trees so they landed in your spot. I also think that it might be erosion that caused the change, because some of the class had a spot with part of the creek and I noticed that their ponds didn’t look like ponds anymore, So maybe the water transported to a different place in the creek, or maybe the ground (beside the creek) slowly lost a lot of little pieces and that made the ponds spread out. When I went to Centennial Park, I noticed that it was freezing out, but there was not any snow on the ground or in the air, but it was bitterly cold. So when we got there, we went to the home spot where we all meet up. We were talking over the rules again and making sure everybody was there. Then we went off to go to our spots. I am lucky because my spot is right next to the home spot so we don’t have to go that far to go to our spot. When we are at our spot, we listen for the first whistle then we write our fraction pieces about our spot. I like my spot because sometimes I see a chipmunk that lives in an old tree stump. I wonder what does he eat? How does he stay warm? Is he still alive? Then when we hear the two whistles we go to our section spots around the creek and write our observations down about the temperature of the air and the water. We also circle a number 1, 2 or 3 to rate how hard the water is flowing. There is also a paper for us to record a bird’s eye view from our spot and both of those papers have a line that lists “other observations.” Finally, when we hear three whistles we go back to the home spot and make sure that everybody is there and safe so we can head back to Harman.
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AuthorTeam 4K and Team 4W Learners Archives
April 2016
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