GRADE ONE: Shrub-Steppe Hill Hike — Mid-April

(FOSS Science: New Plants, Weather)

(Social Studies: Me and My Neighborhood)

Community Partner: Regional EPA grant/Chelan Douglas Land Trust.

Classroom teachers lead their students on a 30-minute wildflower hike on the Jacobson Preserve trail system. At the top of the trail, classes rotate between 4 hands-on learning stations, exploring animal tracks, measuring weather (wind speed and air temperature), painting a wildflower, and capturing and examining insects. Everyone enjoys a picnic lunch with a sweeping view of Wenatchee and hikes back down to the trailhead.

1st Grade Resources:

• Plants of the Sagebrush Steppe:  Botany Background Information for Teachers
  A Powerpoint presentation by Julie Sanderson, botanist, Bureau of Land Management.
  Developed:  January, 2005
  Target audience:  WSD 1st grade teachers
  Curriculum:  New Plants Science Field Experience (spring)
                     FOSS New Plants unit (spring)
  Summary:  Teachers are introduced to the scientific study of plants (Botany) using examples of common species that grow in the sagebrush grasslands of central Washington.  Viewers learn about native and introduced plants, annual and perennial life cycles, and adaptations that allow plants to thrive in our harsh climate characterized by extremes in temperature and limited water.  Life cycle descriptions and adaptation examples are given for big sagebrush, bitterbrush, bunchgrass, cheatgrass, balsamroot, and lupine. The show concludes with examples of adaptations by annual plants and the plants that form the  living crust (cryptogams).
  
  
• Tales of the Shrub-steppe:  Plant Stories. 
  
  This Powerpoint show (with both English and Spanish text) features 18 common native wildflowers that grow on Wenatchee-area hillsides. The text introduces the challenges found in this harsh climate and the variety of adaptations that allow plants to thrive and bloom from early spring until fall.  In hard-copy form, it is a non-fiction book designed as a read-aloud large format book.  It supplements the FOSS “New Plants” Unit and focuses on plants growing at the field site used for the 1st grade science field experience.
  
  
• Shrub-steppe Insect Viewing Gallery
  
  View magnified images of representative insects collected at Saddlerock by WSD fifth grade students during their science field experience. Eight insect orders are presented and the photos are of actual insects mounted in the WSD permanent collection.
  
  
• My School Garden (English and Spanish)
  
  Use with "Life Cycles of Plans". This non fiction book describes the first season of the John Newbery school garden from early spring to fall.
  
  
• A Photo Identification Guide to Common Plants and Animals of Saddlerock
  
  Includes photos of 6 mammals, 18 birds, 3 reptiles, 4 shrubs, and 24 flowering plants. All are common shrub-steppe species found in the foothills of Wenatchee.