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.