Holiday Rendezvous at Pennock Elementary
As the 2019 year comes to an end, and 2020 is knocking on the door, Pennock Elementary 4th graders were given an opportunity to participate in a rendezvous, or a meeting...or in our case 4 meetings!!
On December 20th, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife SOLE team, joined by Liz Cook from History Colorado visited Pennock Elementary to allow the students to participate in four mini-sessions: Adaptations, cookie mining, fur-trapping, and Ute history.
In the animal adaptations session, the 4th graders learned about what physical and behavioral adaptations allow animals to survive!
More specifically they learned about snakes, and were lucky enough to meet two live snakes: a bull snake and western hognose. Adaptations such as camouflage, scaly skin, venom, ability to constrict and more were discussed!
During a fan favorite, cookie mining, the 4th graders explored natural resources, and realized how there is a balance/trade-off between mining for minerals and gaining resources vs. the effects on the ecosystem around the mine. Of course the best part was eating the cookie after mining for the chocolate chips!
Fur-trapping, like a fur-trapper allowed the kids to test their knowledge on not only Colorado state history, but also on how to find and identify beavers in the wild! They were able to see a beaver skull and touch beaver fur.
Finally, Liz Cook taught the 4th graders about life as a Ute tribe member. The 4th graders explored what resources the Ute would use as well as how they lived their lives.
The CPW SOLE Team and History Colorado Team had a blast at Pennock! We hope that the 4th graders and teachers enjoyed the rendezvous as much as we did! We are already looking forward to our rendezvous next year.
