Tumalo Week 1: Opening Circle

Tumalo Week 1: Opening Circle

                                         REALMS Students stand ready to learn what the day holds.

Standing in a circle, looking at everyone's apprehensive faces. today is our first day out at Tumalo creek. Everyone is excited to go explore. To discover the place we have all heard so much about. We stand in circles so we can check in with everyone before the day starts. We all intently listen to a writing piece by Missy Van Doran (an old REALMS student) to get us inspired about today’s writing invitation and to motivate us to find ways to personally connect to the place. We all know what is expected of us today. We an all be held accountable. 

Tumalo Week 1: Mapping

Tumalo Week 1: Mapping

Olivia finding where we are

 The purpose of the activity was to find where Tumalo creek is, to find things on land that are also visible on the maps, find ourselves on the map and where we think we are. The results of the activity: we found where we were. first bend, Tumalo lake, Tumalo falls and then Tumalo creek. We were correct about our location. We took pictures of the maps and of the groups working together.

Tumalo Creek week 1 science

                                                                      By:  Dale Thompson

                                                                                                             

                                                                                   

Today we went to see how healthy the Bank line was. To determine whether the shore line was healthy or not we needed to see how many plants there where along the edge of the river. First we took measuring tape and walked along the bank. Then we took a stick that was about a yard long and walked along the measuring tape with the stick a yard above the ground. Any plant that was above the stick we recorded what type of plant it was and how big it was. We determined the bank line had just enough plants to support the water from eroding away the bank of the creek. 

         

Tumalo Week 1: Art

Week 1 - Art at Tumalo

A super up-close drawing of a leaf

   

    It is our first day out at Tumalo, and the nervous excitement rung through the air as we filed off the bus. Today was immersion day, a day to connect to this new place. Near the end of our day, we learned all new sorts of new drawing styles and techniques. Today, the purpose of our Art time was to learn to appreciate the small things in the wilderness. Today we focused on just a few drawing styles, such as shading and macro. Phoebe had us split up separately and we found a spot where we could see no one else, then we picked out something small to draw and drew it big and up-close (macro). She told us to start with shading the object so the shading made the shape instead of starting with an outline.

   In the end, everyone had a beautiful drawing that they had worked hard on and it was great to see a few people share their artwork.

Tumalo Week 1: Reflection

Tumalo Week 1: Solitude and Reflection

Today the purpose of solitude and reflection was to take note  experiences from mapping to bankful lines to just seeing this place for the first time. This helped me realize how I impact my surroundings. This weeks solitude and reflections gave me a time to slow down the day and focus on the place that surrounded me. It also gives us time to find peace with our surroundings that we have come to love for generations. We write silently as we become lost in work. Each week we are given a new prompt to help us guide our writing.This weeks prompt was to: Describe the area around us with enough detail that someone who has never been here could imagine what it is like to be you in this place. Here are some of my favorite examples of this prompt:

 Jessi Head:

I feel the wind lick me. Wishing that I could swim,if i was allowed to i’d dive right in. I live this new oath to love natures grace. A hill on each side a creek through the center. Once i got off the bus i knew this place was special.

Soleil Haskell:
The sky is blue with no sign of a cloud but still full with the thick smog of the fire. As I try to think about the fire the creek distracts me. With each rock it flows over it whispers "Am I not magnificent?" and it really is.



Photo: Looking for a photo to post.Thanks for waiting.

Tumalo Week 1: Closing Circle

Tumalo Week1: Closing Circle

Every time we go on fieldwork, we do a closing circle at the end of the day to end each day positively and to reflect on what we did to learn, grow, and have fun. On Tumalo day one, after our research and exploration, we had our closing circle. We circled up and confident students read their reflections from solitude and reflection about their surroundings and experience that day. Two quotes that i feel caught the essence of Tumalo Creek were by Bella Robles and Spencer Scott,

“Bugs crawling and flying in all directions, as though it is an urgent mission to distract us from our thoughts and goals.” -Bella Robles

“But i write from the rock banks on a river rock smoothed by years of water rushing by and around, cooled by the shade of a spruce, casting its lonely shadow across the creek.” -Spencer Scott

Then we read a few captions and sang happy birthday to Soleil. The results of the closing circle were that we all got on the bus thinking of our day and the fun we had, slightly sad due to the fact that we had to leave right when we were connecting to Tumalo, a beautiful and amazing place. In my opinion the closing circle is a way to connect to Tumalo creek  even more at the end of the day.