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Hello, everyone from Somerset County, Maryland.  The following is the prewriting that we did as we ate our lunch seated on the ground in the middle of a saltwater marsh on Sept. 23rd.
 
 

What do we see right now and what have we already seen this morning? 

Birds of prey  Red-tailed hawk ("Chicken hawk")  Black vulture  Great horned owl  Barn owls  Screech owl feather  Scavengers  Mr. Nick (Nick Carter)  Environment/ Ecology  Cycle of Nature  Spartina  Black needle rush  Three square plant  Wigid grass  Shark teeth  Giant turtle shell  Snake eggs inside snake  Marsh grasses and water all around  Mantis shrimp  Diamond back turtle  Little "islands"  Hummingbird  Stingray  Leg bands for ducks  Sunny skies/ Sun sparkling on water  It looks like the "Lion King"/ like Africa because dry and grassy  Oysters  Spats  Filter feeders  Mud crabs  Skillet fish  Gobi fish Muskrat  Otter  Beaver/ dams/ lodges

Animal skulls  Praying mantis  Animal fur/ hide  Bee hive  Plants/ cattails  Wild flowers  Telephone poles  Clouds  Crickets  Frogs  Water moving  Male duck/ wood duck  Blue crab  Goose  Crab pot  Crabs shedding  How to hold and catch a crab  How to tag wildfowl  How to tell a male duck from a female  How to tell a male crab from a female  Snowy egrets  American eel  Alien plants  Stalks for pens  Ink  Red fox  Algae  Cattails on edge  Big teeth on mammals  Tapered bodies  Valves in ear and nose of otter  Coarse hairs  Clumps of trees  horizon

 

What do we hear?
The wind blowing the plants around
Crickets singing
Frog sounds
Birds singing
Wind blowing
Water moving
Voices
Cars - echo in open space
Ducks quacking
Crabs moving
Calm
Peaceful
 

What do we smell?
Salt water
Freshness/ Fresh air
Damp smell
Sweet smell from yellow flowers
Marshy smell
Algae at the oyster station
 

What do we feel?
Breezy, windy
Peaceful
Comfortable
Cool
Warm sunshine
 
 

Other vocabulary we heard: 

indigenous  nocturnal  balance of nature  scavenger  migrate  spawn  nutria  erosion  taxidermist  negative factor  positive factor  valves  guard hairs  near-sighted

alien  squirrels  rabbits  patches  heron  feathers  stimulate  destructive  habitat  transferred  cattail  phragmites  stalk

 

Note:  These students are not yet familiar with the term adjectives.  As  we go back and look at our prewriting to prepare for writing essays, I will be doing mini-lessons on the parts of speech.  We felt it was more
important on the day of the trip to get the students' thoughts down while they were in the actual environment.
 

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