Into the woods (Day 7)

Today we took a break from field trips. We started off class when one of the seniors, Kris gave us a lesson on Vignettes. A Vignette is a brief description or literary sketch describing something briefly. After the lesson we made a practice Vignette of a picture given to us. For my Vignette, I wrote:

"The mountains soaring up high, reaching the clouds. The trees reaching up not nearly as high. We sound of the water rushing and splashing into the rocks. While the bear stands in absorbing all the nature around it. Using its surrounding to survive. There is the sight nature everywhere without any signs of man made objects. Green grass all around, trees, water. The bear wanting to cross the river, looking for a way across. You can hear the wind blowing and the bugs buzzing and the birds chirping along the way doing their own thing. You can see the fish swimming along the stream. The mountains in the back behind the trees with the bear and the stream lined up next, and the grass in the very front, the forest seems layered."

When we were done with that, we wrote Vignettes of the creature that we took a picture o at Cox arboretum. For this, I wrote:

 Aware of its surroundings. Waiting peacefully, able to strike at any time. Dangerous but also full of color and captivating.  Sitting there hidden in the bushed which to the snake felt like a small forest. Leaves and pinecones littered along the bush all dropping around the snake. Able strike at any moment, but choosing only the right time, the snake waits.

 

Into the woods (Day 6)

 Kayaking:

 Hiking:

Today we went on a field tip to a park to participate in kayaking and hiking. We were split into two groups, one group would go kayaking first while the other would go hiking. The group I was in went kayaking first and hiking second. During our hike we learned about many things about nature and what kinds of things effect others. When we were done with all of these activities we took the bus back to school. When we came back we used nature writing to write about our observations during our trip. For my nature writing, I wrote:

While out on this trip, I was able to see many things. As we were kayaking I was able to see the ripples in the water from all the other people, I could hear the sound of the water splashing like small rocks being thrown into the water. I could smell the water which smelled of old fish. I could feel the cold water splashing on me from all the ores being thrown in and out of the water. In certain places I could feel my ore touched the bottom of the water and I could tell that it was shallow waters. I felt my ore sink into a rough but easily movable surface like wet gravel under the water. I felt the cold water splash on my face and fingers as well, slowly numbing them with the cold weather. When we went hiking, I could see the green surrounding me and I could hear the water moving like a waterfall. I could feel the rough, sandpaper like leaves brushing against me as I walked the trail. I could smell familiar smells of mint that filled my nose and made me remember past experiences.

Even though it was cold out we still had fun and enjoyed our time outside, observing and seeing  nature. Through the warm or cold we can still do things and enjoy them at the same time. 

Into the woods (Day 5)

Today, we did not go on a field trip. Instead, we watched a video about a woman who hiked 94 days along the PTC. She had a 70 pound backpack called the monster which held all her necessary supplies. By the end of the trip her bag weighed 50 pounds. She took things such as food, water, books, a journal, some medicine and some other things. Once we finished with that, we did an activity where we planned our own long hiking trip. We wrote down the things that we would need and wrote down the weights of them. Once we were done, we added all the weights together and actually tried it. We took a backpack and filled it with weights equal to our plan and we put the bag on and walked around to see how it felt.
we watched a movie. The movie was about a little girl who found geese eggs and raised them until they where fully grown geese. There was a problem though. The problem was that the geese did not know how to fly and these other people wanted to take the geese away. So in the end, the little girl and her dad taught the geese how to fly by using airplanes to guide them and they lead them to a new home to stay. Once we finished the movie we had recess and lunch and then we did some yoga. When we were done with yoga it was time to go home.

Into the woods (Day 4)

Today we took a trip to Aullwood Audubon. We were given a tour around the trails. We were also given binoculars to look at any birds or animals we saw. We also investigated a pond to look for creatures. Eventually the tour ended with us going to the farm where we et our bus and ate lunch. When we got back to school we were given a lesson on writing a meditation script. For my mediation script I chose to take the reader/listener to a certain place. Here is what I wrote for my meditation scrpit.


Imagine looking all around you to see the yellowish color of the sand everywhere. With all the hills around you and the warm sand under your feet. Feel the warm sun shine brightly on you. Feel the wind blow against you and blow the sand, hitting you lightly and gently. Now imagine hearing splashes and suddenly feeling everything around you get cooler, slowly going away from the heat. Imagine swimming deeper and deeper into the water that you just entered without having to worry about going up for a breath. As you go deeper and deeper, not worrying about anything just going towards a light. As you continue to go under you break through a barrier and emerge on top of new waters in a completely different place. Now look back an see that the water is gone and you're back with all the sand slowly warming up.


   

Cox Arboretum- Day 3

Today, we started off by finishing up yesterdays things. I first chose to finish the Hershey Kiss activity. For this activity, we observed a Hershey Kiss and wrote detailed descriptions about its taste, feel, smell, the way it looks, and the sound. We also were given time to finish yesterdays blog. After we finished  we took a bus to Cox Arboretum. When we got there, we got to walk around and observe the Arboretum. We were also given a scavenger hunt to complete while we observed, the scavenger hunt required us to find 5 different types of trees and one creature. Once we found these we took pictures of them. The creature that I saw was a snake and the 5 types of trees that I saw were, an oak tree, a red maple, paper birch, English beech, and a pine. Once we finished the scavenger hunt we were able to go explore for the rest of the time. We ended the field trip by doing yoga for an hour and then we got on the bus and headed back to school.

My time at delco park

Today, we went to Delco Park. We walked to there from school. When we were there, we did an activity called the small world. For this activity, we found a spot anywhere in nature (not man made) and marked a square foot around it. Once we did that, we first stood up and observed our spot and recorded what we saw. For this part I wrote,

"I can see lots of different green, and very little brown of the dead grass. There isn't any movement among the grass and other plants."

Here, since I was standing up and I couldn't see much to find a lot of detail in my spot. Once we finished writing while standing, we kneeled down to get a closer look. While I kneeled down I wrote,

"I can see the wind slightly blowing the grass. I can see more shades of green and different types of grass and weeds around. There are some flower tucked underneath the layers of grass and I can see more dead grass folding down to the earth getting covered up by new grass."

Here, I could pay attention to more detail and I could write more and write in more detail. The next step for this activity was to lay down on our bellies and observe the spot very closely, here I wrote,

"I can see more shades of green, each belonging to a different type of plant, grass, weed. I can see through all the layers of the grass that are woven together and I can see the brown dirt underneath where all the green grows from. I can see even more dead grass tucked away underneath all of the new and green grass. I can see the patterns in some of the plants that are most likely seeds waiting to reach the dirt."

Into the woods (Day 1)

Today was the first day of the into the woods STEMmersion. We started off the day by doing a reading. A few members in the class took turns reading. It was sort of an introduction to this course. Since this was the first day there were many people who we didn't know so we did an activity to help us get to know everyone. First, we traced our hands down on a piece of paper. We then wrote 1 thing about us on each finger and went around the class telling people about ourselves. When we were done we signed each others papers and we were completely finished when we had everyone's signature. After we were done with that activity, we did a new one. This one was to help us get used to crossing murky waters since we are going to go canoeing and kayaking soon. We were split up into two teams and each team was given 4 blocks of wood. We then used this wood to get our whole team to cross a certain length before the other team. This activity required lots of teamwork.