Wet Phase Walk

  • Wet Phase Walk
  • Wet Phase Walk
  • Wet Phase Walk
  • Wet Phase Walk

Students that visit during February and the first few weeks of March are usually treated to the wet phase walk. They are led by their guide through the grasslands and, ultimately, to a vernal pool. Along the way, the students hone their observation skills by looking for certain things on a scavenger hunt card. They may find signs of coyotes, voles, gopher mounds, different species of birds, and lots more.

Once they arrive at the vernal pool, they kneel on a wooden platform at the water’s edge and the moment they’ve been waiting for arrives: they each get a plastic container and get to scoop aquatic critters out of the vernal pool! They get so excited when they actually scoop out their critter!

Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
One of the best field trips ever!

Overall, I think that you have one of the best field trips ever!! My students love the Vernal Pools unit and have learned a lot about their watershed and the importance of keeping our waters clean. The unit incorporates numerous core standards and students now have a sense of 
responsibility to their environment.

-- Trudy Cambra, 5th grade teacher, Anna Kirchgater Elementary

Find out more about this exciting program!
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Sacramento Splash - Helping children understand and value their natural world picture
Healthy vernal pools don't support mosquitoes

A female Mosquito rarely lays her eggs in the clean water of a healthy vernal pool.  But when a vernal pool becomes polluted, more Mosquito larvae occur in it.

Find out why...