Rancho School, Novato

Ms. Spry's 5th Grade

Summit Restoration Day Poems Letter from Supervisor Arnold Trout in the Classroom PRBO Walker Creek

Sean and Heather with Ms. Spry at the summit. Photos by Mrs. Springer

County Supervisor Judy Arnold is a big fan of Rancho students' efforts to help their community!

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Restoration Day at Novato Creek

Describe what you think the field trip will be like.

Written the morning of the field trip

Quint—It will be fun and very messy.

Jon—I think it will be fun and hard to dig. You might get cut maybe a few times.

Sean—I think it will be fun and, hopefully, dirty.

Dacia—It will be fun to pull out non-native plants and plant native plants and have recess at Pioneer Park.

Rebecca—I think there will be a lot of ivy. It will be cold and the park will be sunny and slightly muddy; fun!

Andrew—I think this field trip will be really fun, but it will be hard work.

Gabe—Maybe fun. Also, I think it might be hard, but probably fun.

Christina—I think the field trip will be fun and educational.

Alyssa—I think this field trip will be fun, challenging, and full of hard work.

Chris—This field trip will be fun. We will be able to pull a lot of weeds and help our environment.

Ryan—I think this field trip will be cool, muddy, and tiring because we will be working.

Kayla—Kind of hard, but also very fun. It will be exciting too…I hope!

Kenny—Hard work, but fun. Also, I think it will be good to help out with our town.

Charlie—The field trip will be hard, with lots of manual labor.

Alex—Hard labor, pulling, and planting!

Kellie—Hard work (pulling out plants), but fun (planting and lunch).

Anthony—Nature will be a big part of the field trip. It will be fun.

What was the best part of the restoration field trip?

Rebecca—The best part was knowing how I helped Novato Creek.

Angela—Most favorite: helping the environment. Least favorite: pulling ivy (Ouch! That REALLY hurt!)

Hannah—Getting dirty!

Angela—The best part was helping plant native plants. Over all, the best of the best was having fun while getting a great school education outdoors. My least favorite part was leaving. I still wanted to work more on planting native plants.

Rebecca—I think the best part of the field trip was knowing I did something good for my community.

Gilbert—The best part was when the reporter from the Novato Advance came to my group and took pictures, which appeared on the front page. I also liked bird watching and seeing the fantastic birds with Missy.

Chris—The best part was probably all the time because I really enjoyed planting the plants in different places. Especially in the tough places like by the rocks.

Dacia—The best part of that project is that someday I’ll be able to see the plants when they grow up.

Kellie—The best part of the field trip was picking what spot to plant in. I don’t know why, I just liked doing it!

Kayla—I think the best part was when we planted all the different plants. I felt happy every time I finished planting a plant.

Heather—The best part was when I got to work with friends.

Gabe—The best part was planting the plants and digging the holes.

Andrew—The benefits of the project are that the animals have a better home and the creek is healthier and that we get to have a fun day. We should do projects like this more often because they help the environment and they are really fun for us.

Charlie—I loved to plant and dig holes, but I also liked talking to Andrew. And together, we had a couple of laughs.

Phillip—The best part of the day was getting to plant and help the environment with my friends.

Ryan—My favorite part was pulling out the non-native plants.

Avery—I loved bird watching because we got to see woodpeckers and bluebirds. I also liked pulling out non-native plants because we could get down and dirty.

Describe what you did while working at Novato Creek.

Alyssa—I planted native plants at Novato Creek with Alex, Gilbert, and Christina. We used a pick, a shovel, and a hoe to clear the area and dig holes to plant. We would do the planting in areas where there were matching flags the same color and letters as the flag in the pot. Then we’d put a net over the plant and secure it with staples. The first plant planted by your group would have to have a “plant inspection”.

Sahba—We planted about 6 plants. And we pulled out a lot of non-native plants which was a lot of fun. We also did some bird watching. We took turns using the tools.

Phillip—We pulled out weeds and planted native plants to help the environment by trying to get more native birds (to come to the creek).

Rebecca—Our class planted baby plants on the edge of the creek. We also pulled out 2 garbage bags full of ivy. When you pull out ivy, you have to pull out the whole plant so it doesn’t grow back again. With Missy and Jessica, we saw birds like robins, blue jays, woodpeckers, and quails. I enjoyed the field trip very much!

Angela—My whole class was broken up into work groups. My work group pulled loads of English ivy. We also planted coffeeberry and a native tree. But the biggest success was planting the native blackberry. We were intent on changing the whole English ivy patch into a blackberry patch. That was our main goal. We tried to plant as much blackberry as possible. In the end, we planted 3 blackberry plants. Even if we didn’t change the whole patch, we sure pulled out a lot of ivy, two large bags to be exact!

Gilbert—When I got to the creek, I was very excited. I saw a lot of STRAW people who told my class what to do. In my group were me, Alex, Alyssa, and Christina. The instructions were to find the same colored flag as the plant in the pot and to bring the pot to the flag. My group had to take out the flag and use a hoe to take out leaves and plants. Then we had to use a shovel to dig out the dirt in the ground so there was enough room for the plant. We had to carefully get the plant out by tipping the pot. Last, we had to put a net around the plant in the ground so animals wouldn’t eat it.

Quint—We all got in groups and got our supplies. Then we found our first flag in the ground. My first was the RoCA, California rose. We went up and got a RoCA and brought it to its flag. First we scraped off the coconut ground cover, then dug a hole, put the plant in the ground, and lastly put on protection from deer.

Chris—For the STRAW field trip, we went to Novato Creek and some specialists explained to us what to do. We got in groups and went down to the banks of the creek. There were a bunch of flags scattered around and that is where you planted the plant that you got from the specialists. We also got the opportunity to pull out a bunch of weeds and non-native plants.

Heather—We learned how to use certain tools, like shovels, hoes, and rakes. Then they gave us gloves, nets, plants, staples, and tools. Some of the plants we planted were oak, native blackberry, coffeeberry, California rose, and cream bush. We pulled out lots of periwinkle and ivy. We put native blackberry bushes in their place.

Rebecca—We planted native plants by digging and putting on deer nets so deer couldn’t eat the plants. Then we went bird watching. One kind of bird I saw was the acorn woodpecker. We pulled out many non-natives. It was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very fun!

Ian—I planted plants which were mostly trees. I got to use the tools and I learned not to hold a shovel, or a hoe, up.

Danny—What we did at the creek was fun but hard work.

Comments about being part of a restoration project

Alex—I liked it because it was interesting.

Rebecca—I didn’t know how important plants were in a habitat. Now I know.

Angela—The only comment I have is…can we do more projects outdoors like this creek restoration?

Gilbert—I would like to thank all the parents and STRAW people for making this fun field trip. I would also like to thank Missy for taking my group to watch birds.

Quint—I loved looking at birds!

Chris—I am very proud and I wish I could do it again.

Melanie—I LOVED doing this to help the community!!!

Kenny—I wish I could do this again soon. I’m proud that I did this.

Kellie—I think we should do more restoration projects, but do more to save the bay. I did it once with my Girl Scout troop, but I think the class should do it some time. It’s fun and you get to Save the Bay!

Alyssa—This was a really fun project. I would love it if everyone (all grades/classes) could do this. Some of my friends in other classes probably would have had a lot of fun.

Kayla—I enjoyed this project very much. It makes me want to help the environment.

Why do a project like this?

Rebecca—You would do a project like this so there is more shade in the creek. If the water is too warm, it could be very uncomfortable for trout who live in cold water. The benefits are a healthy creek for trout and birds.

Jon—It…is doing the right thing. It also helps the environment.

Angela—We do these projects because we want to help improve the environment. The benefits of the project are caring more for the environment and getting a good education while having fun outdoors. By getting out non-native plants, we can make more room for native plants to flourish.

Gilbert—We do a project like this because it helps the community by stopping erosion in the creek and replacing native plants. The whole community benefits, especially the creek.

Quint—We should do a project like this to help the creek and stop erosion. We benefit from spending school time to help nature and our environment.

Chris—A benefit from this project is that now the animals that live in that environment can have a healthy home.

Melanie—The whole ecosystem benefits from new native plants, habitats for animals, and new life without non-native plants.

Kellie—We do projects like this because non-native plants have taken up almost all the space and take over the native plants. The benefit of this project is a chance for native plants to survive without the non-native plants interfering.

Alyssa—People do projects like this so the world can be a better place for us, future children, and animals. We are destroying habitats when we ignore problems.

Hannah—Doing a project like this helps the entire Earth. Trees grow better, water flows freely, and best of all, animals have a much better habitat to live in.

Haley—I really enjoyed doing the restoration because I had fun doing good for the environment.

Sean—We did this project to protect wildlife. Animals, plants, and even humans benefit.

Christina—A benefit of the project is that maybe some endangered or threatened species of animal are helped.

Sara—The project helps the community and animals. It makes the community prettier and it helps restore native plants. Animals depend on these plants and the creek.

Sahba—The benefits of a project like this are that if you go again to the creek like, let’s say a couple of months later, you see that we helped it so much that you feel good about it.

Anthony—The reason to do a project like this is to restore a wetland, stream, or habitat, and to get that warm feeling inside and feel like you did something good.

Nick—We do a project like this to help the creek and the animals around it. We are trying to keep native plants in the area and keep non-native plants out. The creek benefits, the trees benefit, and the animals benefit.

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Poems

On Tuesday of this week We saved a creek. It sure is beautiful now, I mean, wow! -Haley	Creek Green, shallow Moving, growing, working Calm, happy, lazy, intrigued Brook -Ian

Grass covers fields Benches provide sitting spots Children are playing. -Christina	Birds sing cheerily. Hardworking fifth graders shot. People everywhere. -Alyssa

I heard a bird It saw me and flew. It was a robin and was as big as a shoe. It stared at me with big black eyes. Then it flew up to the skies. -Gabriel

Animals thriving All over the fresh spring grass Having fun today. -Angela	River Fresh Moist Birds Shady Water -Danny
Today my role Was to dig a hole It was a shock When I hit a rock I took my shovel in my hand And then I moved to new land I dug again and I had a surprise That the hole I dug was a perfect size I planted a California rose Someday I’ll come back and see how it has grown. -Jon	Strong hard roots Abrasive and tough I’m ivy. -Melanie