The Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge Field Trip

On Tuesday the 16th, my mom and I went on a field trip with the rest of our homeschool group. We went to the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge a few miles out of Des Moines. We watched a short movie about the prairie. After the movie, we learned about being a good steward by picking seeds of the Ironweed plant and putting them in a bin to help the prairie. When we finished that activity, the group went to the Buffalo Exhibit to learn about the Bison. They had bones that we were allowed to touch, and they even had a giant, flat piece of Buffalo poop that had hardened. On the floor, they had Buffalo skins down, so we could feel what a Buffalo felt like. When we finished the last learning game, we had lunch. After lunch, the group sort of split up. Some people explored the rest of the exhibits, others took a nature walk, and the rest went out on the auto trail or went home. I had a lot of fun playing with Dawson, a 3 year old that I really like. He was small, so I picked him up so that he could see all the cool things. I also carried him around a little bit when he got tired. After lunch though, Dawson and his family left. We stayed, and we went on a nature walk with Mikayla and her mom. Mikayla and I had a lot of fun walking through the wild prairie. We tried to sneak up on our parents, but we made too much noise. Soon after our failed seak attack, we found three Buffalo in the distance. My mom used her video camera to zoom in close enough so that we could see. She had to leave too though, and we were eventually left alone. My mom took us along the auto tour route to look for more Buffalo and Elk. We saw some Mule Deer, scrapes, and giant turds, but we didn't see any more Buffalo or Elk. All in all, it was a good field trip.



We collect seeds and I hold my sword aloft.



Dawson and I listen to a speech about Buffalo.



Me sneaking around.