Enjoy this writing inspired by our latest hike to Centennial Park for The Place Project. We will feature a different group of student authors following each trip! On Thursday I learned a lot about Centennial Park and nature itself. When we got there, we first did our free writing. I wrote acrostic poems about deer, woods, birds, rocks, plants, and a pair of boots. Then Mrs.Walther blew 2 whistles, indicating it was time to get in our sections with our teams and begin working. I was the team leader, so I was in charge of everything. We discovered something I thought was very interesting and a little weird. When we stuck the thermometer in the water, it said it was 9 degrees Celsius! The reason I thought this was weird was because it was like 35 degrees Fahrenheit outside! We found that the bubbles next to a little waterfall had continued flowing. I found that the course of the stream had altered a little from when we last came! Now it is curving right and last time it was straight. We observed a lot of changes from when we last went, such as it was MUCH colder. There were no leaves in the trees this time. Also, there was no presence of animals this time, with the exception of a couple birds and fat squirrels. Then we did our bird’s eye sketch of the creek and took a picture of it. During the sketch is when I realized that the stream had altered its course. There was a lot that I learned on this past Thursday’s Place Project, and I will most definitely learn more at the next one! It was quiet. Very quiet. I was thinking about how I was going to write my acrostic poem, my favorite part of the day. All I heard was the trickling of the water. So calm and peaceful, there was almost nothing to hear. CHCHCHCH! I heard someone kicking a tree. I turned around to see the person, but nobody was there. Suddenly, I heard it again from a different spot up high in a tree! Then I noticed that it must be a woodpecker! So I started to make an acrostic poem about it. W O O D P E C K E R The first W word I thought of was wonderful. So that's what I started out with. Wonderful O O D P E C K E R Then I thought that I could not see it, but I heard it over me. That's it! I heard it over me! Wonderful sounds Over the O D P E C K E R Now what was around me that starts with O? I asked myself. Orange? Optimistic? Old?Orange to me was the best one. But what was orange? Leaves! But what could go with leaves that starts with D? Maybe another color, but what was a color that starts with D? Somehow dark red just came to me. Wonderful Sounds Over the Orange and Dark red leaves P E C K E R Then I thought I need to include a verb or at least what it is doing. How could it not be so simple? It was right in the word. It was pecking! What was it pecking? A tree! What would a synonym for many be that starts with E? Every! How would you describe the tree that starts with C? There was a word that I was looking for it meant round. Circulish? No. Circumference? No. Circular? N- YES! Finally I found the word! Wonderful sounds Over the Orange and Dark red leaves Pecking Every Circular tree K E R Then I remembered what I thought it was at first. I thought it was somebody kicking a tree. I thought that I heard it in different locations. Also the tree is round so I could put that as the last part of my poem! Wait I already used tree once so I think I might change that to branch. Wonderful sounds Over the Orange and Dark red leaves Pecking Every Circular tree like it's Kicking Every Round branch I was walking in the fast moving current of the shallow stream. Then, I noticed a bunch of brown and red leaves piled to the right of the steam. In the small pile of leaves, I happened to notice a stick about as tall as my legs. It was a perfect, straight, brown walking stick. I used it for climbing the steep pile of rocks that led to a small wooden bridge. I wondered how the stick got there. There wasn’t a tree above the leaf pile so the stick couldn’t have fallen from a tree. Maybe it was carried there by a small pack of wolves. Or maybe from a crane dropped it when it was flying. Today I saw something very interesting at Houk Stream. There were tiny footprints in the snow. I had some questions like, did the footprints in the snow come from a raccoon, squirrel ,cat, or any other creature? Where was the creature going? Where was the creature’s habitat? How far away was the creature from it’s habitat? Did the creature even have a habitat at all? Maybe the creature lived somewhere at Centennial Park. Or perhaps the creature was out hunting for animals, or maybe the creature had a predator and the creature was getting hunted. I’m curious to know more about what happened! I love the place project because it shows more than what we think we know about the outdoors. It’s the best during the summer when there are salamanders, frogs, crayfish, snakes, lizards, and fish. I want to go back to Centennial Park so I can find all those water animals. I also love skipping rocks. And looking for small things in the creek like coins. Or maybe someone lost a gem. Or just random things I might find there. But the main thing that I do there is research and collect data. We also learn about the outdoors. When I hear the whistle blow, I´m happy,sad,angry,relieved, annoyed, satisfied. The place project is a good thing and should never go down! On my trip to the place project I saw a water strider. When I was just sitting on my log, I was wondering what he was doing in the water when it was cold outside. I was wondering if he was getting food, or just on a stroll in the water. So I got up and followed him and when I was following him he went in a hole in the rock. I wanted him to jump out but then I think that rock was his home. I felt the most bizarre thing. It was the cold thin layer of snow on the ground. The freezing wind blew right in my face and the slight chill gave me a bright red nose.When the time came, I sat on a thin layer of snow and my bottom froze for a split second. How come it was so cold? What was the ground temperature? How could the clothes I had worn keep me warm? I wonder what information I need to get. I wonder about all the information the snow could tell me about itself. On Thursday, our class went to Centennial Park. We started out with some acrostic poems .Some of the words I used were: river, leaf, creek, cliff, mud, woodpecker, root, stone, pebble, and log. After Mrs. Walther blew the Whistle two times, I got up and walked down to my part of the stream which is Section 4. Once I reached my section, I noticed that three of our predictions actually came true -- and one of them was mine! The predictions that did came true are: a log coming down the stream, log rotting, and leaves clearing out. While my team and I were collecting our data I noticed that there was some algae on a rock in the water, so I told my team about it and we decided to take a sample of it to study. When I was writing in my field journal I had to write a poem so I looked for something to write about. I found a stream. The stream looked cool, so I decided to write a poem about the stream. My poem was AWESOME. I felt like the poem was so GREAT that it became my best friend. When I went to the Place Project, I saw the coolest thing hanging from a tall tree. I think it was a wasp’s nest, but it could be a bee hive. It kind of looked like it was floating in mid-air, but it was just hanging from a very thin branch. It was really cool so I wrote an acrostic poem about the wonderful hive. I wonder if there are still bees in the inspiring hive. I saw the weirdest thing. There were still bees living in their nest even though it’s winter! They were flying around collecting things such as honey, sap, pollen, and many more things. You don’t see a lot of bees flying around in the winter. How were they flying in cold weather? Were’nt they cold? Did they have a lot of fur? So many things could have made those bees warm. I wonder what though.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorTeam 4K and Team 4W Learners Archives
April 2016
Categories |