Outside of great class discussion and book readings we have explored freshwater biomes in our area! The students, Miranda and I went to a local stream (part of Butternut Creek) and began our exploration! The students were very excited and jumped right in and began catching tadpoles, crayfish, minnows, and stream snails. The students did a wonderful job sharing nets, helping friends catch animals, and taking care of the animals. The students really enjoyed seeing the animals they caught- we even caught two tadpoles in different points of the life cycle! A little (or a lot) of water didn’t stop our explorations! The students were dedicated and enthusiastic about exploring the streams!

If the students weren’t in the water they were on land walking around the stream. They found birds, insects, and made their own rivers from the top of a dirt hill (we learned this from a Bill Nye video). To end the trip we all circled up and listened to the sounds near the stream and discussed what we saw. It was a wonderful trip full of learning, memories, and laughter.

    We have also begun our stream display as a group. We are collaboratively working to create a stream on a huge piece of cardboard and will also include drawings of plant and animal life painted with watercolor to add to our display. We plan to include some physical objects to make our project come to life (bark for the trees, grass for the land, and rocks for the bottom of the stream). The project has just begun and I am so excited to see how it turns out!

The energetic explorers and awesome adventurers will not stop here! Our next adventures comes along during Highland Forest! I cannot wait to see what new things we will learn and see!

-Amanda