Oliver's Narrative about Seasons

The Bat, Bear, and Fish

Once upon a time, there was a bat, a bear, and a fish. Because of them it was always summer. They controlled air, land and sea. Once, a great Greek hunter named Orion tried to hunt the animals. They always ran from Orion. They were frustrated that he was always hunting them. One day the animals decided to go to another universe and escaped. As a result of the fleeing, the air on the earth turned cold, the ground froze, and the seas turned to ice. Fortunately, they still take vacations to earth and make summer happen!!

AVA's narrative

Once upon a time there was a BEAR it lived in ALASKA . once but only once it was summer.but now it was always WINTER and the bear had to go to its den the bear was tired of having to go out in the cold to get food he decided to have a meeting with the other animals and said we need to talk to mother nature about this winter i'm tired of this winter i'm tired of sitting in my den and going out in the cold.  If we don't talk to Mother Nature I might have to migrate south.  so they went to talk to Mother Nature. She put a hot season, a little warmer then winter and a season in which leaves fall off the trees.

sams narrative

Once upon a time there was a tribe.They never had to work, there strong animal the hawk always took care  of them.Soon after years of taking care of the people of the tribe                          the peoples strong animal the hawk powers started weakening.When he told the people this they said that he could not grow weak he  he was a powerful strong animal. He told them he can grow weak,and they need to learn to survive.They said there was no need to.The hawk got mad and made the temperature drop .So once a year he made the temperature drop once a year and made the people of the tribe work harder to so they would not get too lazy. He called this winter (and summer).

Aubrey's narrative about seasons

Once apon a time there was a sun the sun would go on a vecation once every year and but the people would think that the sun gave up on keeping them warm they also thout the sun would never come back ever again then it started snowing a few mounths later the sun came back the people thout of a name for that they called it winter next the sun was covered in clouds and the leaves began to fall of the trees the people called it fall there were only a few clouds over the sun they called that spring then only the sun was sun was shouing they called it summer. and then they called all of them seasons

jess narrative

The character are a moes a wolf a mouse and a ravin and a snow shouw har .the moes wod by then then snow shouw har wod by the mouse the ravin wus fiying by and swou donw  and eat the mouse and then the wolf came by and saw all the tracks and marked his terotory.

Sid's Narrative Seasons

Once upon a time there was a bat. And everyday he went outside and he said hello sun! but then when the sun went away the bat was sad.But in the morning the bat was waiting for the the sun to come out. But for some reason the sun did not come out so the bat went back to bed he keep checking to see if the sun came out it did not come out till 7 months later and that's how we got winter.

Ravens in the news!

The Ravens went to the airport on November 6 and gotin the paper about it!
The science word of the day was meterology and we watched the storm form that is now dumping snow in New York!

Ava's post about earthwork

This is the earthwork we did on the first week of school

and this is the one I made today

 

Aubrey's post about Interpretation

This is what we made in the first week of farm school and this bottom one was made today on Thursday the 13th of November. Look how different they look apart.
We are learning about Interpretation.
Interpretation means something you think about other things.I made mine with all types of leaves that were dead, a dead cabbage leaf and two giant sticks.          

There is no snow out right now and it is very weird.

Sidney's post about earth works

The first picture is a snow flake made out for leaves from the farm from week one.

The second picture is a cottonwood tree made out of objects from the farm.

The weather was good and the field was finally not green!

and the creek has no birch seeds and the moss is not green anymore.

Olivers post on earthwork

check out the differense from summer to november 13

now on november

then at summer

 also, we found a moose bone chewed probebly by somekind of feild mice {hopefully it got the carces not a mutaded feild mouse

Bats! The Good the Bad, the Scientific!

Today was super cool. Some guests from Fish and Game came to talk to us about BATS. Bats are often seen as SCARY, but we decided that they are the good guys!

With the Fish and Game guest speakers we dispelled the following myths about bats:

• Bats are NOT attracted to human hair 
• Bats do NOT suck human blood. Vampire bats only eat blood from domesticated animals. (They lap it up, not suck)
• Most Bats do NOT carry rabies, but we should never touch one just in case.

We were also really excited to learn about Bats in Alaska!

• 

  Only in the last year have we discovered the 7th type of bat found in Alaska, the Hoary Bat.

  
  
  

  

  Scientists are putting gates over mines and caves to protect Alaskan Bats from White Nose Syndrome

  
  

  

  On our Phenology hike today we found lots of ice! Sadly no Snow yet!

Bees as Agents of Change in Alaska [16 October 2014]

 Today a local beekeeper came to talk to us about the seasonal lives of bees.  In the Fall, the Queen bee kicks the male worker bees out to die- they won't feed a useless mouth!

There are 19 species of Bees in Alaska!

Bees will travel over 2 miles to collect pollen in their sacks!

Correct Prediction for 16 October!

Prediction: 21 Min 45 Max
Actual Temperature: Min= 20 Max 39 [Farenheit]

Weather in Palmer

Today we discussed weather patterns in Palmer. We recorded the minimum and Maximum temperature in Palmer, on October 9 for the past 5 years. We also looked at the coldest temperatures in October in general. Next we made predictions about what the actual temperature range would be today. Check in tomorrow to see if we were right!

Drawing Sound Maps. Some ice in the ground, but no snow yet!

Observations Week 5

There was lots of fog by the mountain, so we couldn't notice how much snow there was. Once the  lifted, we saw that there was a lot more snow than week 4.

How often do you have fog in Chimacum? _Sidney

Is it hot in Chimacum?- Olliver

Lots of berch seeds in water at creek. Ice in the water, lots of leves in water. Water is mudeer. Mose ear bark of tree.- Sam

Cottonwood tree has four leaves on the tree. In general all the trees near the cottonwood look like there tipping over.
Do you guys have any animals in Chimacum?- Ava

At the field the gras is stol green, about 5% at the ground.-Jess

We found an Oliver in the leaves!

The Science of a Sandwich

Today Miss Sarah had a weird case of amnesia, and completely forgot how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The Ravens class helped her out by writing step by step instructions. This turned out to be much harder than we anticipated!

There was peanut butter everywhere! 

Afterwards, we talked about how scientists have to be really careful when they write up their findings, so that someone else can replicate their work.
We decided that scientific procedures need to be:

• Exact
• Have lots of steps
• Be thoughtful
• You can't assume someone knows how to do your experiment
• Have someone else check your steps
• This leads us to our NIFTY SCIENCE WORD/PHRASE OF THE DAY:
• PEER REVIEW!

Do you have a favorite science word?

Sidney's Post about Animals at Spring Creek Farm

(Answering a question)
Yes! We do have animals here. We have two dogs on the farm, Otis and Taz. We also have a goat and a pig. The pig's name is Lefty and the goat's name is Louie.

Ava's post about Spring Creek

Hi our winter starts in October (or earlier). We get our snow tires  as early as September 15. The Spring Creek has more leaves than last week, and there was a little bit of ice on top of the water. There was less moss on top of the rocks, which we thought was cool.

Samantha's post about stink bugs and flowers

No, the stink bug's nest did not smell. We harvested some Calendula seeds today, enough to plant 200 ft of them next year!
What kinds of flowers do you have in Chimacum?

Jess's post about Cottonwood trees

Today the cottonwood has less than 30 leaves.   There is a big branch balancing high in the tree that we didn't notice before.  And there is some bark missing on the branches on the cottonwood.  The cottonwoods are called that because cotton fluff floats off their flowers in the springtime.

Oliver's post about Earthquakes

Our earthquake last week had a magnitude of 6.2. It was scary because the ground moved, for about 5 seconds and we didn't know what was going on. Since then we have felt multiple earthquakes. Maybe they were aftershocks.

Thankfully the walls for the fort stayed up despite the quakes!

Pictures from September

We made some artwork inspired by Andy Goldworthy

Fungus!

Hayfield (25 September)

Also at hayfield

WOAH SAP

TRACKS IN THE MUD!

Cody and his imaginary land :Ogygyia

Jess and her land

Sidland!

Sam and "Samya land"

Ava and "Dandelion Hotel"

Great Naturalists of the North!

We read some of the works of Sigurd Olson, John Muir, and Adolph Murie today. They used really big words and poetic language to describe the natural world around them.  We sharpened our observation skills by doing some in depth drawing of natural objects. We also created some lands of our own to explore. While we were doing our farm chores the ground shook! People felt it all the way in Anchorage!

Here are our observations at our 5 phenology stations:

#1Pioneer Peak

Oliver- "This morning all was covered in frost. There was a big earthquake on the farm. There was less snow on Pioneer Peak than last week.  
Do you have snow in Chimacum?

#2 Hayfield
Sidney "The field has green grass and white wrapped hay bales. There is 35% of leaves gone on trees. (Only 35% of trees have leaves still.) Some of the trees have bark stripped off by moose. 95% of the grass is still green.
How green is your grass? Are there leaves on your trees?

#3 Stream
Jessie- The first week, the creek had hardly any leaves. This week there were lots of leaves in the water. The leaves also covered most the ground. The creek was about 6inches deep.
Is there a creek near your school?

#4 Four Corners Trail
Ava- "Most of the leaves are on still the trees here. There are horse tracks on the ground. There is a frisbee golf net made of chains.  There are both green and yellow leaves on trees.
Do you have frost in the morning?

#5 Cottonwood Tree

Samantha- "The cottonwood trees have lost 95% of the leaves since two weeks ago.  We found a place where a fox might have slept near the cottonwood.  We also found a stink bug nest.
Do you have cottonwood trees and stink bugs in Chimacum?

Pioneer Peak Phenology

Louise's Farm School is located on the Spring Creek Farm, in Palmer, Alaska. We can see Pioneer Peak from our classroom, and track how it changes through out the year. (Pictures from 2014)

Pioneer Peak in January

Pioneer Peak in February

Pioneer Peak in March 

Pioneer Peak in April

Pioneer Peak in May

Pioneer Peak in June

Pioneer Peak in July

Pioneer Peak in August

Pioneer Peak in September (night)

Pioneer Peak in October

Pioneer Peak in November

Pioneer Peak in December (From Hatcher Pass)

Pioneer Peak from Butte