NOVEMBER 2012

Buddy Bison Adventures

On November 14^th families of Discovery Charter School students had a chance to observe a spectacle of nature that happens every year less than an hour’s drive from our school in northwest Indiana:  the fall migration stopover of sandhill cranes.  Each spring and fall, the large gray birds migrate between their summer breeding grounds in Wisconsin and their winter homes in Florida and Georgia.  Every year they stop at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area to rest and feed in the grain fields before they continue their journey.   An hour or so before sunset they gather by the thousands in a large pasture before flying off to the surrounding wetlands where they roost for the night.  About 25 families made the trip to Jasper-Pulaski, and Buddy Bison went along, too!  We stood on the observation platform and watched the waves of cranes flying into the pasture area making their distinctive call.  Binoculars and telescopes allowed close-up observations of the cranes, along with some white-tailed deer that were also enjoying the pasture.  

NOVEMBER 2011 

Discovery Charter School heads to the trails

October 12th was Buddy Bison's first opportunity to hike in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore with students from Discovery Charter School in Porter, IN. Mrs. Essany's third grade students were excited because they were taking a long hike on parts of the trail they had not yet explored. They were also excited to have Buddy Bison along, and worked out a plan so that each student would be able to carry Buddy for part of the journey. It was a beautiful fall day, and the students looked for signs of the season — colorful leaves, acorns and walnuts on the ground, and fungus growing on an old log!

 JANUARY 2011

Discovery Charter School Explores Outdoors

I have been receiving a lot of great stories from the students at Discovery Charter School in Porter, IN who are doing very interesting things from protecting their local environment to visiting parks across the world! Here are some of their park activities and what they wrote about them:

Miss Allison and Mr. Simon’s 5th grade classes went on a garbage hunting hike:

“We went on the trail to look for garbage and we found about 20 tires and 50 glass bottles and we also found lots of paper. We were on the trail for 2 hours. We filled up all the bags we had. Some of us thought there was too much garbage in the woods. Some of the boys found a seat to a car and a lawnmower. We found lots of things that can hurt the environment. We were all thankful to get it out of our woods and thrown away or recycled.”