Mountain Kid Messenger
S'more Outdoor Core
2023 April
The warming and greening of Spring is a magical thing that we are all more ready for after this long, legendary winter of 2022-2023. April is where Spring really settles in. We can all feel it. The snow is melting faster and faster and the creeks are full and flowing. Yes, we are about 2 weeks behind the arrival and emergence of many plant and animal "heralds of Spring" but the first flowers are rising and blooming and more will follow soon. This first week of April will begin with highs in the 40s but will end with highs reaching 70 degrees. Now that feels like Spring!
Spring birds have been returning, although cautiously. We all have our favorites. The Red-winged Blackbird's trill and Sandhill Crane's Pterodactyl-like croak are common early sounds and arrivals. One of my favorite late March returning birds is more silent, the Turkey Vulture. I saw my first on March 21st and since have seen them daily, slowly circling overhead, searching for a lovely Spring carcass...
I don't know anyone who wants a little more Winter but I would be remiss if I didn't pause us for a little reflection on a very big winter. March 20th was the official calendar end of Winter and start of Spring. April 1 is the final measurement of the Winter snowpack by the state of California. So, we can call this winter DONE! But let's be done with it like educators!
Pop Quiz! How many Snow Days did we have this Winter? The first person to email me the correct answer will earn a prize... Whether you guess correctly or not, we all certainly know it was a record breaking and setting year. Let's take a look
- This is the wettest Winter in Plumas County in the last 40 years
- Statewide we are 234% of average. North State we are 190% of normal.
- Almost 8 feet of pure water sits upon most of our ridges and peaks, and 16 feet of snow.
- On Lassen, that is closer to 20 feet of snow and 10 feet of water
- Lower Lassen at 8,338' is the actual champion snow station in the state with 117" of water in a standing snowpack depth of 242"
Certainly the Spanish words for our mountain range "Sierra Nevada" (Snowy Mountain) lived up to its name. Interestingly, the 10,000 year-old Mountain Maidu name for Lassen Peak is in fact Kohm Yamani (Snow Mountain).
So while we may get a little more snow in April, the inevitability of Spring is here so let's look ahead and around at the many changes that welcome life back and the many life cycles that begin again.
April is National Gardening Month. While that fits fully and completely with our Kindergarten Year of the Garden, our school gardens touch many grades and lives. This is a time for preparation of beds, starting seeds. Check in with with your school garden coordinator if you have not already done so.
A few notable Outdoor Core dates for the month of April
- April 2 - National Geologist Day (Mountain Kids love rocks!)
- April 4 - International Beaver Day
- April 5 - National Dandelion Day
- April 6 - National Walking Day
- April 7 - National Beer Day (Just for Teachers)
- April 8 - Draw a Picture of a Bird Day
- April 8-16 - Spring Break
- April 13 - International Plant Appreciation Day
- April 14 - Look up at the Sky Day
- April 17 - International Bat Appreciation Day
- April 22 - Earth Day!
- April 27 - National Tell a Story Day
- April 28 - National Arbor Day
This Mountain Kid Messenger April 2023 Edition is intended to be a fresh and timely breakdown of the observable phenomena occurring locally that tie to each of your grade levels, highlight and celebrate local learning and fun from the field, and share timely resources.
Time for S'more Outdoor Core!
PUSD Snow Days & Delayed Starts
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Earth Day - April 22
For Mountain Kids, every day is Earth day. Not the entire planet at once, but the home ground at our feet. That is important. It's hard to understand everything about every place. If we can get to know this one Plumas place that we live, really well, and learn to care about it and for it, then the whole earth has a better chance.
Earth Day was formally named and claimed on April 22, 1970. Fifty two years is a long time but not as long as 4.543 billion years that planetary geologists estimate to be the age of the planet. Just like us, the earth takes life day by day as our planet spins at 1,000 miles per hour to make a full rotation each day. The circumference of the earth at the equator is close to 24,000 (see the relationship to our 24 hour). In Plumas County the circumference using our latitude is about 19,000 miles and we are spinning at 760 miles per hour. So life technically moves slower up here than in the laid back tropical sites like Jamaica
While every day is a chance to be Outdoor Core, encourage your Mountain Kids to do one bit of Spring Break homework by doing something remarkable on that Friday to celebrate Earth Day.
Spring Springing Bringing Singing, Winging & Flinging
Phenology. This is the natural occurrence of life cycles happening during our annual cycle around the sun. It is the most natural thing happening outside right now. It is truly the teachable moment! Right here and right now!
Below I share a few observations of these natural timings and in bold I compare this year with last year. This is the heart of the science of Phenology and it is available every single minute of every single day in Plumas County to you and your Mountain Kids. Just your journal, where and where you are, and your observation... and you have created a valuable scientific record.
- Red-winged Blackbird, Location and elevation of sighting, Date and time of sighting, What was it doing? (A lot of things to observe but it starts with the migrating return) - My first RWBB was at the Leonhardt Ranch Learning Landscape in American Valley on March 16th. This is notable because in 2022 that sighting was on March 1st
- Mules Ear (member of sunflower family), Location and elevation of sighting, date and time. Tracking the different phases of emergence as the - Still not yet emerged
- Tulips and Daffodils. These non-native, domesticated flowers are so prevalent in our yards and towns that they are easy to follow. Same location/elevation, date and time. - My daffodils at work came up on 3/20 (Spring Equinox) in 2022. Still waiting for that bloom this year. My first daff at home in Meadow Valley came up on 3/26 in 2022. Still a good week away in 2023.
A final favorite phenology activity:
- Helen Lemnah started an activity called "Tag a Twig" a few years back. This was tying a string around a twig on campus, visiting the twig each week, and documenting the change. It was a success and might be for you too.
Remember, each of these phenomena have a nice story quality to them as they touch on Who, Where, When, and What.
When you do the same observations year after year and you compare dates of natural phenomena it can reveal great insights. These "A-Ha" moments of discovery are what natural learning is built upon.
Keep it simple, have fun, and some deep learning will happen for everyone.
April 5th Full Pink Moon
We begin the first week of April with the first Full Moon of Spring, the Pink Moon. This will happen on Wednesday, April 5th. The name is attributed to the pink phlox that bloom in April in many places of the northern hemisphere, including Plumas County. Which comes first, the phlox or the full? Be watching for the phlox bloom but because of this Winter the moon is surely the winner in 2023. Pink Moon is also name of a song by the great Nick Drake. Enjoy the song and our only natural satellite.
A few other names the April full moon has enjoyed is the Hare Moon, Fish Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, and Egg Moon. All sound and feel like Spring and new beginnings. Use the one that serves you and your Mountain Kids best!
The New Moon phase falls on April 20th, very near Earth day. Some call this the invisible phase because you can't see the moon. Of course you can, but it is not illuminated by the sun so it is more difficult to see.
The magic of the new moon is that the rest of the sky is fully dark and only lit by the stars. So it is a time for stars to have center stage...all 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them, and do what they do best, shine. Actually there are only about 5,000 we can see with our naked eye which is still pretty staggering.
Constellations at nightfall that we can only catch for a short while longer include that Winter lineup of Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). Go out and look west. Give them a gaze while you still can.
Because the moonless sky is extra dark to our view it is also a great time to see meteors (shooting stars) and meteor showers (The Lyrids peak on 4/22 - Earth Day). Great timing this year for a dark shy and a strong meteor shower. Assign it as homework and get out there yourself and enjoy!
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Mystery Science Refresh
In January, Mystery Science revealed their newly revamped their website with not just a new look but improved function. Start here on their home page but dive in from there. A lot of good Winter and coming Spring mysteries that fit our seasonal celebration well. All materials are now available in Spanish as well.
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Outdoor Core Field Resources: Nature Journaling, John Muir Laws, & Learning Landscapes
How to Teach Nature Journaling
Learning Landscapes Field Handbook
We all have our Outdoor Classrooms and adjacent Learning Landscapes but having a plan once you are out there is essential. The LL Field Handbook and the Journaling resources can help you to make the most of these Mountain Kid spaces.
Handbook LinkNature Journal Connection - Video Library
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Kindergarten
National Gardening Month
No other Outdoor Core year has a national month dedicated to it. And April is perfect. The winter we have had will still have us, especially Portola and Chester, for some time, melting that snowpack before the actual earth is everywhere under our feet. But gardens start with planning and preparation, and even a seed in a cup on your window seal.
Spring
The slow opening and unfolding of Spring continues and will begin to accelerate as we move through April. Depending on where you live, Spring is in a slightly different place of emergence. The snow on every playground is melted, our lows are rising and staying above freezing more and more. Your school garden coordinator is likely very much guiding you and your Littles into the planting of the garden soon.
April Showers bring May Flowers
This sums up a real quality of the Kindergarten Outdoor Core year. Weather watching. Garden growing. It is never more dynamic than in the Spring, and this old English proverb speaks more to the very soggy and even unpleasant weather in April (think Seattle) that finally finds reprieve in the fairer weather month of May. Lifted from a 16th century Tucker Tusser poem "Sweet April showers do spring May flowers," it has stuck around for a long time. We don't have exactly the same climate as England but the weather trend holds mostly true and weather is a big part of Kindergarten science!
Follow the Flowers
Quincy and Greenville daffodils have been up for a while and my own first tulip in Meadow Valley just bloomed to start April. Grape Hyacinth too. Take a flower loop to see where and when these perennials bloom. The day by day is especially exciting if you can make the time, as there are observable changes sometimes in even the course of a single day. And celebrate every bloom! It is fun to also look at how different flowers can be - colors, petals, size - to name a few.
Seeds
Not sure who did some indoor starts already or if you are using a greenhouse but this is still the time for getting seeds into the soil. Not too late to start your starts. Even just one for the whole class. The garden can be a gamble as we are flirting with freezing at this time of year. Consult your school garden coordinator. And for one last month I will offer this favorite song of mine about seeds by one of my favorite artists, Willie Tea Taylor - Itty Bitty Seed. I know there are other garden songs but I really have a crush on this one.
Angle of the Sun
The garden countdown includes keeping track of the temperature. Temperatures are effected by many things but one that I shared last month is the sun angle. Every day in the Spring the sun's path appears more and more, to get higher and higher in the sky. Only between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn will truly overhead occur (23.5 degrees). Since we live at 40 degrees north latitude that phenomenon will never occur here, but it will get close.
If you already started to measure the shortening shadows please keep it up as the phenomenon never stops. To remind the procedure I shared in March -
Tetherball and other poles have had very long shadows through the winter but every day they are shortening as the sun age changes. Just take some chalk and mark the end of the shadow on a given day. If you mark it every hour you will create a dot to dot that when connected will form a curved line. Come back a week later and measure the change. If we were at the tip of Baja California we would have the dead overhead moment when the path of the sun would make a straight line! ________________________________ on the Summer Solstice. We won't reach that but your curve will flatten noticeably.
Garden Action Project
One of the things we want Mountain Kids to believe, is that they can grow their minds to know anything, and they can take actions and use that knowledge to do great things in the world around them. Planting and growing a garden is an obvious activity but perhaps there is something more that can be their idea. Pose the question, "What can we do outdoors at our school to use our Mountain Kid brains and muscle to make the school a more beautiful and healthy place for kids! Simple is better, but what a final great lesson from their first year of school!
First Grade
The bugs are back!
And by bugs I means invertebrates. You don't realize how insect free we have been all Winter until they start to emerge out of Diapause and fly and crawl around us again. Most of these revelations are joyful although I have received my first mosquito bite and been battling with some ants who really want to invade my home. I have been trying the art of gentle persuasion. I may have to insist more firmly.
As I reminded last month, some of the best science education is to observe and record the return of our invertebrates. Our field journaling is perfect for that. Your kids simply record who they saw, where they were, and when they observed it. Keep is simple.
Bees in the News
A couple of recent articles celebrate the intelligence of insects. Think about the size of an insect's head and brain within. They would make very good Mountain Kids as they explore, discover, and even solve problems. Check these out
Insect Brains Clearly we are not neuroscientists but imagine the brain of a tiny fruitfully having 3,016 neurons and 548,000 synapses. Now humans have 86 BILLION neurons so insects will never beat us brain to brain but it is still impressive.
Puzzle Solving Bees Critical thinking and problem solving isn't just a Mountain Kid thing. Bumblebees have been shown to solve complex problem puzzles.This animal ability helps them to adapt and survive. Our native bumblebees are one of the most threatened insects in Plumas County due to changes in their environment. We can help them, too but they will be putting their bee-brains to work.
Astronomy is a part of the First Grade year. On the 5th will be the April full moon, called the Pink Moon. I wrote about that above but let's doubly celebrate it for 1st grade as the pink refers to the blooming of phlox. Phlox is pollinated by our native bumblebees, butterflies and moths. Every flower story includes insects and our 1st Grade Outdoor Core.
Insect Action Project
One final consideration as we glide toward the final weeks of the year is to do something to demonstrate their care for insects, through the energy and knowledge that your Mountain Kids have grown this year. This invites problem solving skills, and is in fact engineering - the opportunity to design, create and change something in nature for insects and any invertebrate.
Another activity is to do something to help change attitudes and behaviors or grow knowledge and care about invertebrates in the larger community. This could be a specific species or all pollinators or some other misunderstood group of invertebrates (worms and cockroaches come to mind).
Your action project does not need to be a huge undertaking. In fact simple is often better. Planting a single native plant on the campus to support pollinators is making the habitat better. Make an informational poster about our little pollinators. Invertebrates are small and need a voice and our Mountain Kids can be that voice.
Second Grade
What a difference one month can make when it comes to our Reptiles and Amphibians. Brumation lingers a little longer into April but I heard my first Sierran Tree Frogs at 3600' on March 22nd. This a little later than normal but it is starting to happen so April will be full of firsts!Still waiting for my first Western Fence Lizard ("Blue Belly). In 2022 it happened on March 30th at my house at 3600'. Stay tuned.
A great scientific welcome to this phenomenon is Colin Dillingham who shared this video about Sierran Tree Frogs in the Spring. It's a good clip as you can her their song clearly.
Keep a Record
Your Mountain Kids can be a part of this important phenomena as they see their first of the year. For each sighting they would record - Who they saw. When they saw it (date and time), and Where they saw it. Please share those with me and your 2nd grade colleagues around the region.
Be a Herp Hero!
An Action Project
One final consideration as we glide toward the final weeks of the year is to do something to demonstrate care for our herps, through the energy and knowledge that your Mountain Kids have grown this year. This invites problem solving skills. This is in fact engineering - the opportunity to design, create, or change something in nature for amphibians and reptiles. They can also help change attitudes and behaviors or grow knowledge toward a specific herp species, in the larger community. It could be their families or other kids at school.
This does not need to be a huge undertaking. In fact simple is often better. To create a herp habitat is as simple as an approved place on campus where you can construct a pile that can hold moisture and shelter. Make something that might be good for amphibians on the inside but reptiles on the outside. Kids are natural at such things, and found materials are best. Another direction would be to make informational posters about a sensitive herp with one thing people can do to be a herp hero. Plan this in April, Do it in May.
Remember that I have HerpHero stickers for the kids who look out for their important, undersized friends!
Third Grade
Mammal Tracking is awesome in the snow and Portola and Chester can take good advantage of this into April but soon everyone will be able to track in that mother awesome earth material... mud! Untouched, moist soil of any type will catch and preserve a track quite well. If it is very wet, then the mud as it dries will preserve it even longer than snow. So don't hang up your tracking plans yet. Get out and use the fresh Spring ground tell you a mammal passing story!
You may have seen this recent share in the news. Came from a National Park Service Ranger Tweet - " If you comeacrsoss a bear, never push a slower friend down...even if you feel the friendship has run its course." - More valuable is this Bear Aware information that is worth sharing with your Mountain Kids. We do not live in Grizzly Country but even our Black Bears, especially with cubs, are nothing to fuss with.
Weather is a daily and even minute by minute phenomenon. It is always happening in it's various ways and so you can study it anytime and anywhere. Just to remind some of the easiest and valuable weather phenomena
- Temperatures (High & Low)
- Wind (Direction & Speed)
- Precipitation (Amount& Type) - We still may get a little snow
- Humidity (The relationship between temperature and humidity)
There are more but these are the quick ones. And remember when you look up the weather forecast, those meteorologists are faraway forecasters. We get to check their accuracy here on the ground.
Mammal Action Project
One final consideration as we glide toward the final weeks of the year is to do something to demonstrate care for your furry friends. Through the energy and knowledge that your Mountain Kids have grown this year they can make our local place better for mammals.This invites problem solving skills. This is in fact engineering - the opportunity to design, create, or change something in nature for mammals. You could also to help change attitudes and behaviors or grow knowledge about mammals in the larger community.
This does not need to be a huge undertaking. In fact simple is often better. Plant a single native plant on the campus to improve mammal habitat. Make informational posters about a threatened mammal or just a species they want to look out for.
Fourth Grade
These next couple of months are exciting for the Year of the Trout! Obviously you have been raising your trout eggs for a couple of weeks already. Trout in the Classroom (TiC) is a wonderful program and having Mike Kossow, "The Legend", in support of the program is a real gift. Enjoy the incubation journey and the big release. Feather River Trout Unlimited is our partner to support you but please reach out if you need anything.
Fishing Days with Amber Mouser are all booked and your bus transportation is set.
- CES - May 23rd - Lake Almanor @ Canyon Dam
- GES - June 1st - Round Valley Reservoir
- QES - June 1st - Spanish Creek Campground
- CRC - June 2nd - Lake Davis @ Honker Cover
One of the great annual phenomena of the Upper Feather River Watershed is the snowpack "release". This is when our Winter, mountain snow becomes Spring, river flow. We all know that except for December, it was a water humble year. April is when the runoff action happens and when we can watch the snowmelt fill our local, tributary creeks. I shared Dreamflows the past two months. It is good to data track these changes, but not as good as just going out and observing it directly. Use a prominent and "permanent" object in the channel to compare the rising and falling of the level and flow of the creek this month. Some of your Learning Landscapes or local bridges even have a staff gauge in the creek to measure the change.
Trout Action Project
One final consideration as we glide toward the final weeks of the year is to do something to demonstrate their care for trout. Through the energy and knowledge that your Mountain Kids have grown this year they are ready to make a difference. This invites problem solving skills. This is in fact engineering - the opportunity to design, create, or change something in nature for trout. Another way is to help change attitudes and behaviors or grow knowledge about trout in the larger community.
This does not need to be a huge undertaking. In fact simple is often better. Because we know the 3 Cs (Clean, Clear, Cold) one of the most straight forward action is is to plant willows along our riparian corridors. These willows stabilize the creek banks, reducing erosion and the turbidity (cloudiness) while also providing shade that keeps the temperatures cooler. The two biggest pollutants in mountain creeks are turbidity and temperature. We don't always think of them that way, but scientists do. Planting or "staking" a few willows on a bare bank makes a difference.
Lastly, an informational posters about trout or a sensitive aquatic species allows kids to use their new knowledge to educate others and possibly change local conditions.
Fifth Grade
Cornell News I & Cornell News II
These links have fresh and timely news and links to help you improve your birding and more. Please take a look. These are the March and April editions through my email. You can subscribe directly and they will come to your inbox monthly.
Spring Migration & Return
Talking to local ornithologists, last year's delayed return and Spring Migration was further complicated by the big Winter. Yes March saw the return of Turkey Vultures, Sandhill Cranes, Evening Grosbeaks, and Red-winged Blackbirds, but we are still waiting for most of the migrators to show up. Our 4-season birds have been here all along but the fun thing to watch right now is their changing behavior and activity. That is as important and the first arrival of the new. Two of my own examples:
- In 2022 Steller's Jay pair had built a nest above my front door by March 31. No activity yet.
- In 2022 Northern Flickers were preparing a Black Cottonwood cavity on my north property line by April 1. The birds are around but the nest construction has not started in 2023.
Every day will be a new surprise of new species and new activities. Please track them both as they are all important scientific observations.
The core details are Species, Date & Time, Location, Activity. Please document and share with me and the other 5th grade classes. Keep track and use eBird to share with the world. Even a 5 minute point-count is good citizen science any day of the year. I am serious.
Most of you have been enjoying the benefit of the Plumas Audubon Education Coordinator Liz Ramsey. If you haven't yet worked with her, please reach out and take advantage of her energy and teaching prowess. Click on this link as another way to schedule a visit with her.
The Big Day
We need to get this field trip on the calendar. I have funds to cover this trip as well as any other Outdoor Core field trips you might want (Sierra Valley). Please connect with Liz, schedule your Big Day with her, and email me with the date. She will organize any volunteers and I will confirm with her the route and itinerary for a productive final field trip. And remember that your local Learning Landscapes is always awaiting a birding visit. I currently have this scheduled with
- QES5 Big Day - May 31
- CRC5 Big Day - June 6
- CES5 Big Day - June 7
Avian Action Project
One final consideration as we glide toward the final weeks of the year is to do something to demonstrate care for birds through the energy and knowledge that your Mountain Kids have grown this year. This invites problem solving skills. This is in fact engineering - the opportunity to design, create, or change something in nature for birds. Another approach is to do something to help change attitudes and behaviors or grow knowledge about birds in the larger community.
This does not need to be a huge undertaking. In fact simple is often better. Plant a single native plant on the campus to improve bird habitat. Install a bird nesting box or two on Campus or your Learning Landscape (I have boxes). Make informational posters about a threatened bird or just a species they want to look out for.
Astronomy
Astronomy is a part of the First Grade year. On the 5th will be the April full moon, called the Pink Moon. I wrote about that above but let's doubly celebrate it for 1st grade as the pink refers to the blooming of phlox. Phlox is pollinated by our native bumblebees, butterflies and moths. These insects are eaten by birds and so every flower story includes insects and birds.
The most interesting phenomenon for 5th grade is how migrating birds use stars to navigate to their Spring and Summer territory. Scientists do not exactly know how this works but that it does. For some birds the migration route is thousands of miles and many nights. It is worth noting that the Winter dominant constellations of Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades now begin the night to the extreme West and quickly "set" from view. Directly overhead we now have the constellation Leo. The only star that "behaves" from the point of view of our spinning planet is of course Polaris, the North Star. How the birds use the stars to navigate is a good topic of exploration and discussion among your Mountain Kids.
The Angle of the Sun changes every day as we orbit the sun. In the Spring that angle is growing larger as sun's path appears to get higher in the sky. Only between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn will the sun be truly overhead (23.5 degrees). Since we live at 40 degrees north latitude that phenomenon will never occur here, but it will get close.
If you already started to measure the shortening shadows please keep it up as the phenomenon never stops. Here is an easy way to study this.
Tetherball and other poles have had very long shadows through the winter but every day they are shortening as the sun angle changes. Just take some chalk and mark the end of the shadow on a given day. If you do this every hour on a given day it will allow you to connect the dots and draw a curved line. Come back a week later and measure the change. If we were at the tip of Baja California we would have the dead overhead moment when the path of the sun would actually make a straight line! ________________________________ You won't reach that but your curve will flatten noticeably.
Lyrid Meteor Shower
As mentioned, this meteor shower beautifully coincides with Earth Day 4/22 and the New Moon so viewing will be perfect. A perfect homework assignment for your Year of the Bird Mountain Kids.
One other noteworthy phenomenon on April 11th is a planetary parade. On this night you can see Mars, Venus, and Mercury in descending order toward the Western horizon.
Sixth Grade
From FREd in the fall when we started that bead stack, it has guided us throughout the year. Now 6 moon cycles later, we have covered 100 + school-day sunrises and sunsets and the coming and going of Winter. Now we fully enter Spring in this month of April. Before we embrace this light growing and temperature warming time we need to pay final homage to our coldest season.
April 1st is the official end of the Winter snowpack season, when the snow pros go out and collect their final measurements of the year. And this year, every day brought another storm and more snow. Last year's 28.3" of snow water was tripled and more with a final April 1 tally of 90.1" of SWE. Almost 8 feet of pure water sits upon our peaks. As you are aware, SnowSchool uses Pilot Peak, in the Middle Fork Feather River Watershed, for our regional snowpack study and this measurement. This is the reference point for my data share.
And in January and February we made many predictions about the snowpack.
Starting high to low we had many guesses.
- 28" - Kerry McClay (SnowSchool Director)
- 53.83" - CRC Elementary
- 58" - Chester Elementary
- 58.8" - Counselors
- 59" - Rob
- 62.45" Quincy Elementary
- 90.1" - Actual SWE
and so without further delay... the winner of the 2023 Plumas County - Upper Feather River Snowpack Prediction Contest is...
Quincy Elementary School 6th Grade.
And so our dynamic watershed year continues with the cause and effect dance of precipitation in inches, runoff in CFS, and accumulation in acre feet. The links below can you help you and your kids to track how "one thing leads to another". Reminds me of that 80s hit by the Fixx
6th Grade Rafting
Our northern snowpack is 190% of normal, so almost double. Statewide, California is 238% of normal as the generally drier southern Sierra had a big year. Still, the snow station with the highest Snow Water was...Lower Lassen! At 8,338' the station had a 118" of SW. That is just shy of 10 feet of pure water up there! Amazing!
And so for the first time since 2019, we will all go White Water Rafting! Below are the dates and you should have all other details in your Rafting folders in the Google Drive. Be sure to track the weather forecast with the kids as well as the Dream Flows CFS counts on the various forks.
In addition to the on-river activity, kids will learn a little rafting science related to the Bead Stack - Water Cycle meets Rock Cycle meets Seasonal & Daily Cycles, meet Mountain Kids and Feather River.
- CES & GES on the East Branch of the North Fork of the Feather River - April 18th
- QES on the East Branch of the North Fork of the Feather River - April 19th
- CRC on the Middle Fork Feather River - April 25th
Astronomy
I already shared about the Pink Moon on April 5th and the New Moon on 20th. The Lyrids are a more minor meteor shower in the year but still worth going out for. Look for that peaking during late Spring Break but still lingering into the later month.
- A significant conjunction happens during Spring Break. On April 11th the eastern horizon will host the conjunction of the Waning Moon and the planetary parade of Mars, Venus, and Mercury. The four planets closest to the sun will be cruising together.
The Angle of the Sun changes every day as we orbit the sun. In the Spring that angle is growing larger as sun's path appears to get higher in the sky. Only between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn will the sun be truly overhead (23.5 degrees). Since we live at 40 degrees north latitude that phenomenon will never occur here, but it will get close.
If you already started to measure the shortening shadows please keep it up as the phenomenon never stops. Here is an easy way to study this.
Tetherball and other poles have had very long shadows through the winter but every day they are shortening as the sun angle changes. Just take some chalk and mark the end of the shadow on a given day. If you do this every hour on a given day it will allow you to connect the dots and draw a curved line. Come back a week later and measure the change. If we were at the tip of Baja California we would have the dead overhead moment when the path of the sun would actually make a straight line! ________________________________ You won't reach that but your curve will flatten noticeably.
Weather
While this daily phenomena has been wrapped up in our Winter snow, keep tracking the cause and effect relationship of warming temps as we angle further toward the sun and the snowpack melts. This month will melt most of the snow that remains, as the first week of April is forecasting highs going from 40s on Monday and Tuesday, to the 70s by Friday. If that doesn't bring a little Spring lift, I don't know what will.
Plumas to Pacific
When you receive the next Mountain Kid Messenger we will be on the doorstep of the 6th Grade Plumas to Pacific. The year has built to the final adventure where we have earned the right to answer the question, "Where does our water go when it leaves our headwaters home?"
Please visit the 6th Grade Outdoor Core Watershed Shared Drive. The Folder marked P2P will have the packet documents. It should include:
- Schedule (In QES Folder)
- Parent Letter (In QES Folder)
- Packing List
- P2P Rules & Responsibilities
- PUSD Waiver/Permission
- PUSD Medication
- Forebay Aquatic Center Waiver
And this EPIC rite of passage year will draw to a fantastic finish. Great thanks for your hard work given and to come.
Outdoor Core Mountain Kid
Email: rwade@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Website: https://www.pcoe.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/OutdoorCore
Location: Upper Feather River Region
Phone: 530 283-6500 5257