With the closure of the Valles Caldera due to the federal government shutdown, we changed our plan and decided to stay very local. We headed to Deer Creek, just down the road from our school. We began by looking for more aquatic macroinvertebrates, as the kids wanted to see if they would find different species in a different location. We found many of the same species. The kids were soon wrapped up in a game of camouflage and exploring this amazing wonderland of rocks, the river (some getting very wet!), animal tracks and spiders eggs. The children found a castle rock that they claimed immediately and wanted to keep the adults out of. We ate lunch and then had story time before drawing the animal track for our animal in our nature journals. We made a dash for the cars after it started raining and then hailing on us. Brrr! Lessons were learned by several students today about how quickly mountain weather can change, and to always keep warm gear on hand!
