School of the Wild!

The tradition at our school is that the 4th grade class goes to School of the Wild, a program put on by the University of Iowa. Basically, we spend 3 whole school days out in the wild.
There are 3 areas of study, one area per day. Wetlands, where we studied ponds, lakes etc. We were taught everything there is to know about wetlands. The second area of study is The Prairie. We learned about the decreasing prairie lands of Iowa, and the importance of it. The 3rd area of study is birds. We actually caught birds, about 6 different ones, and banded them so they could keep track of their migration etc. That is what was going on with the Hawk. They had caught a red-tailed hawk, had banded it and then let me let it go. After they taught us all kinds of things about it.

I can't even really express the awesomness of the 3 days. Our field guides: Chad-Wetlands, Jason-Prairies and Meredith-Birds are experts!! We just had a wonderful time! I took probably 200 pictures in 3 days!

Here is what going on in the picture collage.
1st- we go on a 2 mile hike through the woods and prairies to hit all the different wetlands to study. 2nd- the prairie we hiked through. 3rd-Chad explains to the kids that what they found in their nets was dragonfly larvae, 4th- one of my girls looks through a microscope at pond creatures. They were really weird looking! 5th- Chad explains to all the kids all about the spotted leopard frog they caught in the pond. 6th- Chad gives the kids a lesson at "Duckweed Pond." 7th- One of the 2 hawks I let go. 8th- Me cradling a hawk. 9th- a beautiful hawk.