Rockford!
- Jenna Whipple
- Sep 27, 2016
- 2 min read
Fall is here and one of my favorite field trips! The journey to Rockford on a bus is long and tedious, however, the beauty of the park and the joy of fossil hunting makes it all worthwhile.
Today, we took our sixth graders on a field trip to Rockford, Iowa, to experience conservation at its finest and to search for fossils. Delayed a few days due to the rain, we went to the Fossil and Prairie Park Preserve and began our field trip with a tour of the trails. Along the trails, we were able to see nature in its most natural state with long wild grasses, flowers, trees, and insects.
We hiked/walked through mini hills, flatlands, and wet, muddy grass! After our hike, we headed down to see the kilns. Rockford Brick and Tile Company used this area to mine for blue shale which was used in drainage tiles and bricks. There were originally 16 kilns, but now only two remain. They are old, but definitely worth a look.
After checking out the kilns, we ate lunch and then we were off for the best part of the field trip (according to many students). It was fossil hunting time! According to the Prairie Conversation website, "365 million years ago, Iowa was an ocean and most of the fossils found are from the shallow sea environment."
The students climbed, dug, slid, searched, and got stuck in the mud searching for fossils. They came home with many, many fossils. Ask your child to see their fossils and to talk to you about what their experience was like, how hard it was to find the fossils, and what the best part of the trip was. Try to use accountable talk (names and sentence stems) to really deepen the discussion and practice communicating!
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