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All photos: Dave Spitzer
When we got to the school forest campground our class of 18 kids divided into two groups. One group had a school forest naturalist for their guide and one group had our teacher, Mr. Spitzer for a guide. Each of us carried a scavenger hunt list of things to look and listen for while we hiked. Our list included fungi, birds, leaves, trees, animals, tracks, feathers and bones.
One thing that wasn't on our list was a friendly yellow Labrador retriever. She lives on the farm next to the campground, and she loves kids! She ran along the trail with us and stayed with us all morning.
After our hike we had lunch at the campground and free time to play. Then we walked into the forest and found a nice spot with mostly oak trees of all sizes, from baby trees just 12 inches high to trees more than one hundred years old. We came to this spot so that each of us could "adopt" one tree to be our own for the whole school year. We will be coming back to the forest many times during the year, and we will get to know our tree very well. This first time, after we chose our tree, we tied a bright pink ribbon around it and wrote our names on it so that we will be sure to find it next time. After a few visits we won't need the ribbons because we will remember our own trees. Here is what we did when we met our trees.
"Here I am, holding my clipboard. Look closely at my ribbon. (Don't steal it) My tree has three trunks. One for James, one for me and one for us to share."
left: "Here I am by my adopted tree. As you can see, my name and my room number are on the ribbon. All my classmates adopted a tree and put a ribbon on their tree." right: "Hi, my name is Padea. This is my adopted tree. This is at the school forest. My tree is tall. I like my tree."
left: "Me and my caterpillar in front of my adopted tree." right: "This is my adopted tree."
left: "This is me standing next to my adopted tree." right: "I'm intercepting a conversation."
left: "This is me with my adopted tree." right: "Here I am up in a tree. I can see all that there may be. Oh no a bee, I must get out of this tree."
left: "Here I am by my adopted tree. The ribbon shows that it's my adopted tree for the year." right: "I am sitting on my adopted tree."
left: "I am at the school forest. This is my adopted tree. We put the ribbon on only one tree each." right: "I am at the school forest."
left: "I was standing by my adopted tree. It had a red ribbon." right: "Hi, I'm Sandy. I am sitting by my adopted tree. My adopted tree has some green grass under it. My tree has lots of leaves."
left: "I am sitting by my adopted tree. I picked this tree because all around it was quiet and peaceful and I have a good place to think and write." right: "Here is my adopted tree. I liked it because it had split trunks and space for me to fit into it."
left: "Here I am writing to my tree that I adopted. I know this is my tree because the ribbon has my name on it." right: "Here I am observing my adopted tree and asking it questions."
Come back to visit our School Forest Journal site in late October, when we will have more pictures and stories about our adopted trees.
Last update: December 12, 2004
Editor/publisher: Eileen Potts Dawson epottsdawson@madison.k12.wi.us
Webmaster: webmaster@madison.k12.wi.us
