WRITEOUT DAY 2
We walked Guthrie at our usual spot in North Dam Park –in the rugged areas where a small grove of old elm and locust trees grow surrounded by bushes and bushes of rabbitbrush. Here I am taking notes in my little WriteOut Field Notebook:
I had already chosen from the WriteOut for the Planet Choice Board— to paint a poem– with poetry.
PAINT A POEM: OBSERVE AND NOTE
I scanned the code and watched the video by Jean Kanzinger, a teacher consultant at the NWP site at Kent State University to see how she teaches students to notice, observe, look, listen, and note those observations with not what they THINK, but what is seen, heard, smelled, etc. around them. And so I did that in my field notes after reading her PDF too.
PAINT A POEM: RESEARCH
Her next step is research.
Rabbitbrush in the Shrub-Steppe Ecosystem
A flower just finishing its blooming is the grey rabbitbrush— as you can see in September [top photo] it bloomed as far as the eye can see. The yellow of two types of rabbitbrush make the park glow! It seems to be calling out “It’s Autumn! It’s Autumn! Change colors!” The bush is food for many critters, including mule deer andNuttall cottontail rabbits. One species of rabbitbrush is the source of a type of latex for those allergic to the other latex. Native Americans used it as yellow dye, tea, and chewing gum. The ecosystem here is the semi-arid shrub-steppe, known for its many flowering drought resistant plants such as this rabbitbrush.
my Rabbitbrush Blog Post from last year’s WriteOut
Info: USDA: rabbitbrush and Nuttall’s Cottontail
PAINT A POEM: DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATIONS IN POETIC LANGUAGE
Next I combined my research and observations into the poem:
A Stroll through Rabbitbrush
Golden yellow
feathered petals
spike on ends of long stems
with slivers of grey leaves
waving in a cool,
gentle breeze,
dusted by evening’s sun,
sung to by sizzling
power lines
warming homes
as our long shadows
float by
painted
by the warm rays
of the autumn sunset
enjoyed by the unseen
Nuttall’s cottontail
who nibbles here
all year#writeout
Sheri Edwards
Photography/Poetry
10.14.24
JOIN IN!
This post is part of the October WRITEOUT adventure, October 13 through the 27th, partnership of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service — a chance to enjoy the outdoors with poetry, prose, and parks for Write Out 2024. Organized as a public invitation to get out and create, supported by a series of free online activities, Write Out invites educators, students, and families to explore national parks and other public spaces. The goal is to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing. Check out this infographic for the flow of the this week and the Choice Board to get you started for WriteOut’s Poetry for the Planet.
Learn more and sign up: https://writeout.nwp.org
This is my seventh year with WriteOut with all my WriteOut posts here.
crosspost from What Else education blog
I wonder, if I draw a line... 