Branching Out Expedition-October, 2003

                             By Ashlee, Justin, and Andy

(Mrs. Bailey's & Mrs. Hanson's 6th grade classes (rooms 113 & 114)

        THE KERBAIL TEAM's "Branching Out" expedition expanded our minds and gave us a new understanding of how trees affect our lives.  Our expedition included first going out around our school and adopting a tree.  Each person, or pair, found a tree that caught their interest.  We gathered and recorded information.  We made observations and took notes on our adopted tree's.  We researched through books and the internet.  Our leaf and tree drawings were fun.  We also measured our tree's circumference and height (with clinometers).  Then we took leaves from our tree and did leaf and bark rubbings.  We created leaf prints with acrylic paints and water colors.  We learned about the different characteristics that help us identify our tree.  We learned about classification and how to use dichotomous keys.  The ten ELOB principles were drawn and related to our expedition.  We created field guide pages and compiled them into a book.  The Monona Community Center, The Monona Library, and Our IMC will each receive a book.  We will plot our tree on a Monona map.
         Fieldwork for this was done at Bethel horizons Nature Center.  Included in our day was a hike, filling our EcoColumns, observing trees, and having fun with our friends. 
         Then we made our leaf books.  We collected 15 leaves and mounted them on sheets of paper.  We wrote down information such as, bark descriptions, leaf description, and fruits.  We added our field guide adopted tree page to the book of 15 different leaves to make our own leaf books.
       Our service project was leaf raking for elderly people in Monona, a list of those in need of raking from the Dane County Coalition of Aging.
        It was quite a challenge discovering all about trees. We had fun and are proud of the work we did.  Everyone did a terrific job!!!
                 The web page designed by Justin K.