SPREE trip

The fourth and fifth graders recently got to go on a great field trip, hosted by SPREE, the South Platte River Environmental Education group. This group organizes trips to the river for kids in all grade levels, and focuses not only on river issues (clean water, healthy environments, etc) but also on bringing history to life! For lots of great pictures of the fourth grade trip, check out our photo album, or go here for pictures taken by parent volunteers. For fifth grade trip photos, click here. Parent chaperones, we really appreciated your help with pictures, gold panning, and general organization!

Thanks to fourth grader Natalie C for the following article about our trip!

Today my class went on a SPREE field trip. There were different stations. One of the stations is the gold mine game. They have yellow balls. They either have c, g, or d on them. D stands for dynamite. They elected one person, way back when, to go check if the dynamite all went off. If it didn't, you have to light it and run to safety! C stands for cave-in. If one happens, you try to run for safety. [G stands for gases. Harmful gases were found in mines that could kill you.]

The next station is the spirit of the winds and sky station. There they tell you a story. It goes like this: One day the sky thinks she needs more stars. So the wind goes to the cottonwood tree, where all the stars are caught on the branches. The wind blows the tree until the stars all fall out. Then the sky is happy. We made necklaces with branches [from the cottonwood]. At the tip of the branch is a star!

The next station we went to the the Ghost Town. PS: it's not scary. When you walk in, you get to push the log to launch the bucket into the air [using an old winch]. That was pretty cool. Next, we saw the log house. We talked about how different it is from our houses now. The floor was dirt, and the house was short. The house was dusty! Last but not least, there was no electricity. Those were interesting things to compare. Next, we saw the wagon. It was very interesting to see that it didn't have electricity either.

Next, we saw three trees. The characteristic of a fir [needle] is flat and friendly. [Spruce trees have sharp and square needles, and pine needles come in packets.] After that we ate lunch. Later we went down to the river. First we learned about how to pick out the gold [from our gold pans]. We got in groups and the lady told us if we found any gold. After that we got to look for shells, crabs, and crawdads. Then we had to grab all our things. The time we did not want to come came -- it was time to leave. So we said goodbye and thank you and got on the bus. That was one very fun field trip!