Sep 30

Written by: ngreditor
9/30/2008 5:25 PM 

Outdoor Education Day at Olson Nature Preserve

K-6 Elementary School Teachers

The day started out cool and breezy, but the conditions were ideal to take a walk around Olson Nature Preserve.

The fourth through sixth grades arrived at ONP around 9:00 A.M. Each group took a route to observe the various ecosystems. Grade 4 observed the landscape for animal life, but they saw nothing larger than a turtle.

In preparation for their excursion the class practiced writing poetry. When they returned they completed an acrostic poem using OLSON NATURE PRESERVE.

Bridgette Borgheiinck with a snake skeleton

They turned their memories into attractive backgrounds illustrating their adventure. They also observed the soil and found most of it to be sand. Bridgette Borgheiinck found a snake skeleton, which everyone enjoyed observing.

Fifth grade recorded different types of plant and animal life in each ecosystem. They drew pictures and described their observations in a booklet they constructed at school. They identified some of the common plants: milkweed, horsetail, duckweed, yucca, oak trees, prickly-pear cactus, bluestem, and golden rod. They also found lots of fungus growing on dead tree branches. Each student took a cutting of a plant and pressed it when they returned to the classroom.

Will Dyer and Ruben Garcia with fungus from a dead tree branch.

Because of the cool day they couldn’t find any lizards. However, they did find a toad, lots of spiders, frogs, and a monarch butterfly. They observed lots of deer tracks along the walking paths. The sixth graders took a sample of the water from Beaver Creek for its pH. They found it to be around 6.9.

The K-3 grades arrived around 12:00 noon and had a warm sunny day. The kindergarten class made predictions about what we would see. As predicted, we saw animals, weeds, trees, and desert sand. Although we didn’t see a roller coaster, we had a “roller coaster” walk going up steep hills and walking down (stepping sideways) the woods path.

We saw many plants: cactus, cactus with flowers, flowers, trees, lamb’s ear, puzzle weed, and tall grasses. There were many seeds along the paths. Signs of fall were all around. The best thing we saw was a turtle!

The first graders have been learning about the five senses in Science. While at the Olson Nature Preserve we used those senses to gather information from our surroundings. With our eyes we saw many things including a turtle, lots of trees, acorns, and hills covered with grass. We smelled the fresh air with our nose. We felt the tall grass and puzzle weeds with our fingers. We listened with our ears to hear the birds and the grass crunching when we walked.

The second graders looked for seeds and how they are spread. They found seeds with stickers that could be spread by sticking to animals’ fur. Milkweed seeds had silk that allowed them to fly away in the breeze.

We found caterpillars and talked of how they could soon turn into butterflies.

The third graders used their experience at Olson Nature Preserve to observe the life cycles of plants. We have been studying how flowering plants produce and scatter seeds, and how conifers develop cones. We were able to see many examples of pollination and germination as well as observe the stages of growth and development of plants and trees. Students were especially impressed with the amazing way nature produces the milkweed plant and enjoyed investigating the arrangement of the seeds within the milkweed pod.

We thank the administration and school board for allowing us to have this great day to learn about the things we are reading in school.