Our blog is back up and running! Today we ventured out with our teams for seven hours in the field! I am so proud of what troopers our Riverstone kids are! I spent the day with the Running Lime Moose (RLM) group. We learned all about Igneous, Metamorphic, and Sedimentary rocks. The MOSS staff have put so much time into their lessons. Every game, activity, song, and challenge is designed to teach! We had two stations in which we had to solve very complicated puzzles about the cycle of a rock. The children were amazing, solving them both with lively discussion and determined and enthusiastic problem solving skills. Our evening program told the story of the 76 skydiving beavers that were transported from the McCall area to the Chamberlain Basin region in 1948. The students were challenged to create a “beaver box” that could withstand a 10 foot drop without injuring the beaver (an egg!). We were all surprised when 100% of the beavers survived their fall! Tomorrow our group heads out in the canoes!
Daily Archives: September 25, 2019
Day 2 at M.O.S.S.
Our three 4th Grade teams took to Ponderosa State Park today. Some explored the geology of the area by learning about the three different kinds of rocks and how Lake Payette was formed by glaciers. Two other teams learned about the world of abiotic and biotic organisms and took measurements at three different sites within the park using temperature and soil moisture probes. Many rounds of camouflage were played and two of the groups took to the lake in the giant M.O.S.S. canoes. Above all else, the students learned about the natural world through a variety of different activities that asked them to think, see, and wonder. Major sightings for the day included: 2 bald eagles, a pileated woodpecker, mule deer, several osprey, a garter snake, a tree snail, a giant bald-faced hornets’s nest, and the ubiquitous chipmunk.
























Our First Day at M.O.S.S.

I write this as the 4th graders settle in for their first night at the McCall Outdoor Science School. After a very uneventful bus ride (compared to last year’s when not one but two buses challenged them), we arrived at M.O.S.S. to find a glistening Payette Lake, a warm afternoon, and a very eager group of University of Idaho graduate students awaiting them. The 4th graders met participants from two other private schools (St. Mark’s from Boise, and St. Mary’s from Moscow) through a variety of fun ice breakers, one entitled I’m Your Favorite Fan that put a wonderful spin on Rock, Paper, Scissors! The 4th graders met their graduate field instructors (Mark, Courtney, and Alex), and created a group contract and group name. M.O.S.S. will never be the same with original monikers like N.G.P.R. Jikabambes, The Running Lime Moose, and Polaris, but more on that later!
After an afternoon…
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