Yesterday I shared the following adventure with my class, which took place the previous night during my bike ride to Idlewild (a local park with a lake, which used to be Cranbrook's reservoir until the mid 1970s).

I also used it as an opportunity to show how a topic sentence introduces a main idea and is developed further with supporting details in the sentences which follow.

My first sentence was written on the white board in the form of a mystery sentence with only the first letter of each word as a clue. I use this technique often to begin the day and to get students thinking and involved in discussion. If a student guesses the word incorrectly I provide the next letter but never supply the last letter.

When it was solved it read:

“Last night I played a game of hide and go seek with an osprey.”

This resulted in a number of questions, which in turn produced the following:

“Last night I played a game of hide and go seek with an osprey. As I rode my bike around the lake, I heard a bird call. Then an osprey flew across the lake to the other side. When I tried to find where it was, it flew back to where it had been.”

I explained that I was trying to get a shot of the osprey with my camera but whenever I got anywhere near it, off it would fly to the other side of the lake. After ten minutes of our game of hide and go seek, it began to rain and grow darker, and it was time for me to ride home.

Bald eagle sightings were down this weekend. Only Idris and Justin spotted some, Idris on the road to Creston, and Justin by cliffs near St. Eugene Mission.

Hello class... Hey, I like the idea of the story about the osprey beginning with only hints. I bet it really got everyone thinking, what a great idea! I'm getting a visual of the osprey playing hide and go seek with you, I'll bet you got even more exercise .

Good eyes Idris and Justin . One reason you may not be seeing too many eagles at the moment is that they probably have young in their nest so are staying close to home.

Last week we thought about how Elizabeth Lake is like a ???????????

Good question. What does this wetland remind you of?

I had brought one or two props to get the ball rolling.

So how is Elizabeth Lake like a pillow? coffee filter? strainer?

This led to a good discussion and different ideas from students such as:

Elizabeth Lake is like a:

daycare

hotel

fast food restaurant

drive through

and a number of other creative ideas.

Interesting question and some unique answers

I asked myself the question and after reading the answers the first thought that came to mind is "kindergarten" .

We were meant to spend the day at Elizabeth Lake with a local program called Classroom with Outdoors sponsored by a group called Wildsight. The weather was WET and after braving the better part of the morning exploring and dipnetting, we retreated to the classroom to dry out and regroup. However, we continued to learn, have fun and even managed to bring the outdoors indoors.


Dipnetting in the rain.


Role playing a ponderosa pine.

Hi Mr. Wilson and Students.

I have to tell you that I think you are all very dedicated to go out in that rain storm yesterday. Yikes -- it really did rain hard
Now I know why all the make-shift ponchos were hanging on your chairs last evening. Glad you were able to get back to the school to dry off and have a good time.

Cheers,
Mrs. Ryall

I must say, I have never seen a more cheerful and welcoming Ponderosa Pine! Well done to everyone for braving the rain!