1 "What a beautiful day for our nature hike!" exclaimed Mrs. Kim.
2 The children had ridden a bus to the nature preserve just outside of their town. Each child was wearing a backpack ready for the day. They each carried a bottle of water, a sandwich, and fruit for a snack, and plastic bags to bring home examples of nature they found.
3 "Before we begin our walk," started Mrs. Kim, "let's go over the rules that we are going to follow. Who wants to begin?"
4 "Don't pick flowers or leaves that are still growing," answered Jordan.
5 "Don't walk off the path," added C.J.
6 "Look closely at everything around you," said Maddie.
7 "Talk quietly, don't yell," said Matthew.
8 "Don't throw trash on the ground," said David.
9 "Don't scare any animals you might see," said Mary.
10 "Those are good things to remember," said Mrs. Kim. "There will be more things we need to be aware of as our hike goes on. Stay together and let's begin our adventure."
11 The children started down the path. The farther they went, the more plants and trees they saw. It was cool in the woods. The sun was shining through the tall boughs of the trees. The children walked slowly and looked at everything in their sight.
12 "We will take a few things home with us," Mrs. Kim said, "but we will take only things that are already dead. Look at that large tree over there. See how unusual the bark on the tree is? How can we find out what kind of tree it is?"
13 "We could take some bark and leaves back to class and look them up in our tree books," offered Mike.
14 "That is a good idea," said Mrs. Kim. "And that is what I mean about taking only things that are already dead. We will not take leaves that are still growing on the tree. We must find leaves that have already fallen from the tree. We mustn't take living bark from the tree. Let's see if we can find some bark that an animal has perhaps pulled from the tree."
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