Nature Adventure

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This cornerstone began in September with the student leadership team stocking the bird watching kits. We are next door to an 88 acre land conservancy and our school is able to access this wetland for hikes and stewardship. The four girls, Abby, Taylor, Melissa, and Gabi started this process to make sure all kits had the necessary items. Each of the 23 kits contain interview cards(sample questions to ask your partner on their first hike), colored bird pictures, bird charts to record sightings, pencils, field guides, binoculars (in kits 1-10), GPS devices(in 18 kits), and activity cards. These kits are vital to making the hiking experience in the meadows educational and lead to an exploration of this habitat.

We formed a schedule and paired up all the classes with a cross age partner. We had upper elementary class partner with the primary classes. Only 2 classes hiked on a day ,with their partnered class. This gave us time in between hikes to restock kits if necessary. We sent out permission slips to all students and put the dates expanding the entire school year. These hikes took the place of their Physical Education class and classes were put together depending on which days they had PE. 

These hikes were very successful and it was a wonderful extension of the classroom. The bird watching activity was definitely the favorite, and students loved using the binoculars and identifying birds they saw from the colored charts. This year we added the GPS devices to make the hikes a scavenger hunt as well. We had a fifth grade teacher who volunteered to set all the devices to points in the meadow, she made 10 such destinations. At each place she hid a small container with a slip of paper rolled in it. When students used the GPS to find the coordinates, they would find the container, sign their names, and put it back in the same spot for the next group. This was very fun and we realized that the older students were much better at reading the GPS devices and helped their little partner find the container. 

Next year we want to add animal print molds to the kits. When we hike we often find foot prints of animals in the meadow. There are many different kinds of animals that call this wetlands their home. Ground squirrels, gophers, weasels, coyotes, bobcats, and many different bird species are just a few. We often come across and print and we thought we would put a mold material with instructions in the kits. That way students could mix the material, pour it into the print, lift it out and then bring it back to the class to identify the animal. The meadow is a wealth of education and as the years pass we are learning how valuable it is to preserve, and take care of.

This year we  also partnered with the high school. They are on the other side of the meadow and the Environmental Field Studies class was the perfect fit. We had one classroom, a 3rd/4th grade combination class interested in becoming partners with the high school class. These students formed a wonderful bond and met every Thursday in the meadow. The lessons they learned were structured around ecosystems from the Science textbook. We found many common themes and built on these concepts. The students observed a section and made notes, they did a bird habitat study, they took notes on observations and discoveries. They worked with the Ojai Land Conservancy and planted native plants in the meadow. They also had many guided hikes with a representative from the conservancy and really understood the idea of stewardship. This was a wonderful experience and was so well received by all. The big and little buddies looked forward to seeing their partner each week and learning the scientific aspects of the meadow.

The four student leadership girls noticed by the end of the year that we needed more binoculars. They wrote a proposal to our PTA for binoculars for all the kits. This will hopefully get funded in the Fall and we can stock all kits as our next year begins.

In addition, next year we are going to introduce, "Lawn Chair Reading" in the meadows. We want to obtain lawn chairs for a class of 30 and have them available for classes to go to the meadows to do reading activities. This could be silent reading, partner reading, directed lessons, etc. The possibilities are endless!