Thursday, February 17, 2011

Night Hike poem by Lavender

Silent trees sway in the night
Owls hoot calling prey
Rhodopsin comes as rods start to help
Red Tail's head glistens away *
Heavy feet like stones thunder down
Small newts slowly move toward rocks and bushes
The moon shines on smooth rocks
Panda yawns behind and keeps up his strength
Snow in front and Butterfly behind me
I stuff my frosty hands into my pockets and take a nice, deep breath.
We stomp back to camp yawning and tired, still thinking about the colorful wintermints.

* [Editor's Note: Red Tail's head often disappears during this hike, and the moon reflecting off of his hair combined with the disappearance creates the effect of "glistening away."]

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

She Crosses the Water and Thunder Spirit

I told this story to my group today for the first time. This is where I learned it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Wny29iybw

I highly recommend the full length movie Dreamkeeper. It contains many great Native American myths, and the encompassing modern story in the movie is about living a life of integrity and compassion.

Enjoy!
Red Tail.

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Night Hike was the Coolest Thing Ever!

In the night hike, I heard a mourning dove and saw many star constellations. Red Tail showed us how to find north. One way is to find Cassiopeia, then look at its middle 3 stars, those stars point toward Polaris, the north star. Another way is to find the Big Dipper. It points toward Polaris too!

Red Tail also told us about rods and cones. Hawks have cones which makes them see color. Owls have rods that make their vision into night vision. Rods have rhodopsin, and cones see color. Another thing was that Red Tail gave us these crystals that glow when you break them with your molar teeth.

That was the best hike ever. Oh, and in the night hike we saw a meteorite. Red Tail told us that the meteors falling were pushing against the air making friction. That's why meteors never made it to land, they burn out in the atmosphere!

By Tempest