I am an owl, and my name is Hoot. I’m a barking owl, and I spend my nights just as any normal owl does, flying from tree to tree, fighting with many other owls in the great search for food. I live in Australia, along the coast. My home is located in a large tree, in a dense forest. When I emerge from the trees, I find myself right by the ocean. But I don’t like to leave the trees. It is there that I feel safe.

With my large eyes, I scan the base of the trees, searching for possums, rodents, and occasionally a small bird or two. Suddenly, I spot a small mouse running along from bush to bush. The mouse’s idea is not to be seen, but my vision is stellar compared to most animals, and I can spot things that would prefer to stay hidden. I know I need to work fast to get this mouse. But I also must be stealthy. I use my feathers to camouflage, so I don’t worry that the mouse will see me. I only worry that the mouse will hear me, and will quickly move into a space that I am unable to get myself into.

I keep my eyes on the mouse as I move silently through the trees. I wait until I am right above the mouse, and then I decide to dive. But I miss the mouse, and it scurries away into a small hole. This mouse was the first of my many failures that night. The sun begins to rise over the trees, and I go back to my nest empty bellied and feeling discouraged. It seems to me that I had lost my ability to hunt. I go to sleep, hoping that the rest would fuel me for the next night’s hunt.

I wake as soon as the the last of the suns rays disappear behind the forest floor. I am feeling as if I could take on the world. I hop from my tree and soar out into the night, scanning the trees for anything to eat. The forest floor seems bare, but I spot a bird on a low hanging tree branch that I had caught many times in the past. I know that I can catch this bird with ease. Quickly and silently, I swoop down on the bird, and miss again! The bird is disrupted, and flies away, leaving me to search for food again. By now, I am exhausted from the lack of food. I can’t imagine ever catching a meal. I go back to my nest, and sleep on an empty stomach once again.

The next evening, as the sun once again hides itself behind the trees, I wake, hungrier than ever. This time, I am determined to catch something to eat. I fly around for a few minutes before I spot a small possum working its way along the base of the trees. With what little energy I have left, I fly towards the possum, and scoop him up in my mouth. I have done it! It is a wonderful victory, and a tasty one too. 

Today we went canoeing in Bellbrook. It was a lot of fun. I had been canoeing before, but it had been a long time, and I had never got to experience using an oar. It was hard to get the hang of, and it definitely challenged my partner and I to work together to get the canoe to do what we wanted it to do. We ended up running into a few things, and having to maneuver our way out. We also got to try some different techniques of paddling, and some proved to be more effective than others. We also learned about Recipe Poems, and we practiced making a couple. Here is my favorite one that I made.

Take some fish, some bugs, and pebbles.

Take some birds, and a few trees too.

Take the rushing of water

Take the large bumpy rocks

Take the shadows of trees

And the swooping of hawks

Mix them together

And a river is formed.

Today, we had a workshop about vignettes. A vignette is a concise piece of writing that has many details in a small amount of space. This requires you to write with many descriptive words that make the piece very powerful and meaningful, and it should create a clear image in a reader’s mind. The easiest way to create this vignette is to find the goal of the writing, or what you want your reader to know, how you want them to feel, or what you want them to think when they finish reading your piece. The goal of my vignette is that I want the reader to be able to see that snakes are actually just a part of nature, and not as big of a threat as they may seem.

Vignette:

I watch as the snake curls around himself, trying to make a bed. He has had a long day. The hunt for food was tough, and he needs to rest before returning to his daily routine. His stripes are a sign that he is sleeping soundly, because they move rhythmically, up and down. The snake is alert though. He is a light sleeper. As I move slightly, he lifts its head and looks at me. He is threatened by my presence, and I am threatened by his. This mutual threat seems senseless, but we were each taught to fear one another. The snake slithers into a new position, and its smooth scales slide easily against each other. He keeps his head up, and facing front, making sure he is ready for anything that may be a threat. Although he is a predator, he is also prey.

Today we went to Eastwood Metro Park and we hiked and kayaked. We were split into two groups, and one group went to hike, while the other kayaked. Then we switched. My group started with kayaking. I had never been kayaking before, and it was a very neat experience. It took some time to get used to the motions of paddling, but once I got the hang of it, it was a lot of fun. We also, while in the kayaks, learned some hand gestures that would signal to the other people kayaking that we needed help, were going to turn, or were okay. Then, we went on a hike. We were split into even smaller groups while we were hiking so we could get more individual attention.

We walked on a trail, and we looked at and studied many different types of plants. We had to look closely at the bark of trees, and the stems and leaves of different plants. Sometimes, to identify these plants, we would smell them, and talk about how important this smell might be to the way these plants act in nature. We listened to many bird calls, and specified which bird call went with which bird. We watched the river running, and the atmosphere was truly peaceful. There was a cold breeze blowing and it was refreshing and chilling, all at once.

Wing-stem plant that we discussed on our hike.

Today, we learned about the movie Wild, and we watched clips talking about the woman who wrote the book that the movie was based on. The author read sections from her book, and described her journey. The amazing part of her journey was the fact that her backpack weighed 70 pounds, which is more than half of her body weight. So when we finished learning about her, we planned our own hike. I worked with a partner to make decisions. We decided to hike on the Appalachian Trail in the springtime, for 20 days. We planned to go 15 miles a day, and that would mean we would go a total of 300 miles. Here is a list of the things we brought –

                                    Items                                                         Weight (in pounds)

Container for water Shirts Pants Gun Net Knife Swiss knife Fishing rod Fishing kit Flashlight Batteries Flannel Sleeping bag Blanket Tent Waterproof matches Compass First-aid kit Dried fruit Flint 500 dollars Mad-Libs Toilet paper rolls Energy bar

0.6 8 8 10 1 2 0.1 2 0.1 0.45 0.5 1 2 3.45 2.75 0.5 0.2 1 3.75 0 0 0.3 2.4 4

Our total weight was 54.1 pounds, which we rounded down to 50 when trying the backpack on. We took a walk around the school with a 50 pound backpack on our back. It was difficult, but definitely a neat experience. It made me realize that this journey that she took was very difficult, and she was taking on more than she thought she could handle. In a couple of the films we watched, she stated that her journey revolved around “How to bare more than you can bare”. This is an interesting concept, and it is something that I will continue to think about when doing other tasks.

  

Today, we went to Aullwood Audubon. We went on a tour, led by our tour guide Ms. Pat, who volunteers at Aullwood in her free time. During the trip we learned a lot of interesting facts about the different wildlife that we saw. There were quite a few different animals to look at, and in some cases, touch. We saw many different types of birds, and we practiced using binoculars to look at these birds from afar. We also saw many different farm animals, like chickens, pigs, goats, and so on. My favorite animals to see were the goats, because we were able to interact with them. On our walks, we learned about the different types of trees and plants that we encountered, because there were quite a few unique plants that I had never heard of or seen before. We got to experience the woods in a new light, using our tour guides knowledge to guide us. We also got to participate in a water study, where we used strainers to find different things in the water. There were things like snails, eggs, fish, and more. We put some of the creatures into a small container, and we got to look at them up close. We also talked about communities, like what defines a community, and what the difference between the different communities are. We learned that everyone in a community plays a big part, and in a community, plants, animals, or people all rely on each other, and when one thing goes wrong, everything collapses. We played a game to truly illustrate this idea. 

At the Farm

Meditation Script:

I walk into the woods. I am alone. I walk slowly, the damp earth squishing beneath my feet. A cold breeze blows, making me shiver. The leaves from the trees shake loose from their branches, falling gracefully to the ground, covering the pathway in a blanket of reds and oranges. The sun’s rays show through the branches and remaining leaves on the trees. The sun in low in the sky. I hear an owl hooting, letting me know that nighttime is approaching. The owl hops off of its branch, and soars out into the night. I sit down on the cold soil.I walk into the woods. I am alone. I walk slowly, the damp earth squishing beneath my feet. A cold breeze blows, making me shiver. The leaves from the trees shake loose from their branches, falling gracefully to the ground, covering the pathway in a blanket of reds and oranges. The sun’s rays show through the branches and remaining leaves on the trees. The sun in low in the sky. I hear an owl hooting, letting me know that nighttime is approaching. The owl hops off of its branch, and soars out into the night.

Today, the first thing we did was finish up our Hershey Kiss Booklet. Then, we headed to Cox Arboretum. We got to explore the park until noon, which is when yoga took place. While we were exploring, we took pictures of five different trees, including the whole tree, the leaves, and the bark. We also had to take a picture of an animal of some sort. After we were finished with this task, we were allowed to go wherever we would like. We went in the maze, the butterfly house, and climbed to the top of a large tower to see the wonderful view. Yoga was in the grass, taught by the same instructor as before. We had an invigorating course. After that, we headed back to the school, where we worked on our blogs. Today was fun, because we were able observe more than we would have normally observed, like the types of trees, and exactly what they look like.

European Beech Tree

Austrian Pine Tree

Blue Spruce

My friends and I enjoying the outdoors

Today, we took a 2 mile walk to Delco Park, and were visited by the author Rob E. Boley, who taught us about a few different types of writing. We learned how to make a "seed poem", which is where you take a random sentence of writing and use each word in the sentence to start a new line of text, to create a poem or story. This was a very creative and different way to write, and challenging as well. Sometimes, you have to stretch your brain hard to find sentences that start with the word that is given. This exercise is a great prompt to help you begin to write. In our journals, we practiced this, and some people shared their stories and poems that they created. His coming helped me to practice being creative, which is an important skill for anyone to have. When we got back from Delco Park, we worked on observations with Hershey Kisses. We had to write down descriptions using each of our five senses that pertained to the Hershey Kiss. We then used these descriptions to make a small booklet shaped like a kiss. We ended the day off with yoga, which was challenging, yet a lot of fun.

Rob Boley working with some of the students

Doing Yoga for the first time during this STEMmersion

Today was the first day in the To the Woods STEMmersion. We learned about the STEMmersion, including the rules and regulations, the schedule for the rest of the course, and generally what to expect. We participated in a team building exercise, where we had to use 4 blocks to get people across the hall, without touching the floor. This was a good way to improve our communication skills and helps us to work as a team. We also discussed what the goal of the class was. We talked about the quote that inspired the class, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” and what the quote means to each person. Then, Scott Giesel came to our class to talk about nature writing, which we are going to be doing throughout the next few weeks. We also did an activity that helps us to get to know each other. We had planned to do yoga, but the instructor wasn’t able to make it, so we went over more rules for the STEMmersion. We ended the day off by completing our first blog, and viewing the pictures that were taken during the activities that day.

The team-building game we played