Mrs. Gunnarson’s First Grade Class Helps Restore Stemple Creek          

The first grade class at Brookside Elementary School in San Anselmo participated in a restoration project at Stemple Creek in December 2008.  Stemple Creek is located in West Marin, and we worked on a section that flows through the Bishop Ranch.  Before the restoration the students had built their own terrariums and focused on the web of life in an ecosystem.  When the STRAW staff came to explain the situation at Stemple Creek, the students could quickly see the connection between the trampling of cows, disappearance of plant life, and demise of the fresh water shrimp.  They were eager to help restore the natural balance. 

At the restoration site we joined three other classrooms.  It was exciting to look down the creek and see the large group at work.  Right beyond our area we could see the part of the creek that had been worked on years ago by a STRAW group.  The bank of that area was filled with native trees and shrubs.  When the kids compared the stretch we were working on, they found only small weeds, and they were surprised that there was no water in the creek.  The students enjoyed learning how to use the tools and keeping track of the planting process.  They relished working hard and had to be patient to wait their turns.  After returning to our school, our trip was the focus of group experience charts and much writing and drawing. The students liked to announce how many trees of what kind they had planted.  They commented on the names of the tools, the spiders they found and the cow pies.  Students worked on creating captions for photographs.  Below is a small sampling of their work. 

"We helped the environment and we planted plants.  It was fun and we helped the ranch." -Callen

"I learned that you can plant plants in many ways.  You can put nets around the plants so you train animals." -Aliya

   "We went to save the environment.  When the leaves fall off the trees the shrimp eat the leaves." -Margot

  "What I did for my field trip was I was digging in the ground.  What was really fun was jumping on the shovel." -Zac

"My favorite part was jumping on the shovel.  we planted 4 plants." -Emma