Trout and Sneaky Pete, Post 13

Subject: Oh! No!

Margaret...just looked in the tank. Yep, we missed one.

We need to make a trip to the Reservoir. Call me.

Nancy

We carefully carried Sneaky Pete to swim with his 'class.'

He quickly swam up under a floating leaf to hide.

Swim free! 

Feed on small water insects and plant material.

Find shady places to hide.

School with fellow fry.

Hover over trout colored gravel.

Grow, fish. Grow! 

See! There he is opening his mouth as he darts around in his new habitat.

I hope this gift of art from my grandson is the only fish I'll see when I get home.

Finally, I hope,

With Heart

Trout Release, Post 12

 Release Day,  March 7, 2013

Partly Cloudy

Chilly 38 degrees

Warming to 55 degrees

Slight Breeze

1, 2, 3,

The task of dipping out all the fry and carefully placing them into the bucket for transport to Lafayette Reservoir begins early in the morning before the students arrive. We sweep over the gravel to make sure no fry are hiding.

We take a last look at our 23 tiny rainbow trout before we release them at water's edge.

Click on the bucket above or the cup below for a closer look.

We feel tender emotions with our partner as we carry our trout to the shallow water.

We hope they are safe there among the grasses.  

We send them off with a fish wish.

This one is a good wish for people as well as for trout.

This is my favorite picture of the day.
Voluntary note taking of the discussion with the biologist.

Goodbye to Lafayette Reservoir and a special day at water's edge.

Oops! To be continued
With Heart

Trout and Dr. Seuss, Post 11

My grandson has been telling me about Dr. Susan activities at his preschool all week.  

"Today we celebrated his birthday."

At home his mama read Wish for a Fish to his brother and him. 

A few years ago her daddy read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to her sister and her.

In honor of Dr. Seuss we counted trout in our tank today.

In Post 10 I signed off, Seeking More Fry. Now we've doubled our count to 21.

The fry swim so fast it takes a few tries to get an accurate number.

The fry are brown when they first swim up out of their hiding places. 

They're about 1 inch long. 

If you'd seen the newest to appear today you'd think it was happy to be free!

It darted fast to check out the surface of the water, then back to the gravel bed.

"They are swimming. Their fins I can see. When we look at them they start to scatter."

We noticed the fry later become silver and develop vertical marks on their sides called parr marks.

At this stage they are another quarter inch longer.

This student drew the silvery fry and showed the parr marks.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

With Heart

Leaf Eaters

'Mama, you know what eats leaves?'

'Ikseks.'

Joyfully 

With Heart

Trout Count, Post 10

Subject: Our Babies

February 23, 2013, 12:10 PM

Hi Margaret,

I’m counting 10 fry today.  Could there be more???

That was the email from the classroom yesterday.

Excitement greets me at the door, 'Come see! They're swimming!'

Eggs bounce on the gravel.

Alevins with their attached egg sac also bounce and hide.

Fry absorb the egg sac, button up, and swim up.

'How many inches is this on my finger?' 

I'm pleased the students are attending to details like size in their journaling.

'I see some fish going up and down. Some are in the gravel, others in the clear water.'

Seeking More Fry,

With Heart

Trout-Write to Learn, Post 9

Nature 101

A lifelong friend of mine, Amy Ouchley, naturalist, environmentalist, and writer, has always encouraged me to write to learn as I enjoy nature. One of her techniques is Nature 101, 'a way to log your observations in nature, preserve them in a unique format, and reflect on them in the future.'

 She advises to:

Observe.

Record.

Reflect.

Follow my use of Amy's list of 'Stop, Look, and Listen' verbs in my alevin observation.

Admire the two day old trout.

Call them alevins, newly hatched.

Notice their transparency.

Wonder where their nourishment is?

Observe the golden egg sac.

Spot the black and white eyes.

Ponder what these little fish see.

You can contact Amy at biouchley@yahoo.com.

Thank you Amy,

With Heart

Trout, Observe by Sketching, Post 8

At a nature journaling workshop last summer I learned 2 important points from John Muir Laws, naturalist, illustrator, and author:

Be brave. Be bold. It doesn't have to be a pretty picture.

Art is the tool. Observation is the goal.

Here are 2 pages from my Nature Journal where I practice my sketching to increase my own observation skills and learning.

Laws also teaches students of all ages to label sketches and to write using 3 prompts:

I notice.

I wonder.

This reminds me.

I enjoy incorporating these practices as I learn and as I share with students, and even with my young grandsons. It's very good for the brains of preschoolers and their grandmothers, and for all ages in between. 

Try it.

Check out the website and blog of John Muir Laws at http://www.johnmuirlaws.com and you'll want to go outside and observe nature. You might even grab a pencil and some paper and try your hand at sketching to learn something new about your environment.

Observing

With Heart