Activity Overview
Grade: K-3rd
Time: 10 minutes
Adult Support Needed? No
Curl up and get cozy, it’s story time! Join a reading of the Coastal Watershed Council’s San Lorenzo River Stories of Grandma Steel, a story about of a spawner steelhead trout named Grandma Steel telling young steelhead trout alevin about the history of the San Lorenzo River and the unique life cycle of the steelhead trout. The video concludes with an opportunity for youth to write down or share with someone else what they learned from the story.
Supports Next Generation Science Standards:
- K-ESS3-1: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
- 3-LS3-2 Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
- 3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
Additional Activities Related to Steelhead Trout:
- Activity: Save Water, Save Fish: We all live in a watershed and we all need water to live and grow. Explore how both steelhead trout and humans depend on water and how humans can help save water to protect steelhead trout. You will build a model, watch a Coastal Watershed Council guided virtual tour of the San Lorenzo River, and then create a poster to help teach people to save water.
- Activity: Become a Steelhead Trout Expert: You will get to know steelhead trout, their life cycle and their river habitat by watching videos, reading and making observations. Then you will apply your new knowledge and take action by creating a poster to share a steelhead life stage and a few interesting fish facts with your family or class.
- Interactive Virtual Tour-Steelhead Trout Habitat in the San Lorenzo River: Steelhead trout are unique fish that spend part of their life in the San Lorenzo River and part of their life in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Get to know steelhead trout and their habitat in the San Lorenzo River by joining Educators Mollie Behn and Sam Adelson on this interactive virtual tour.
- More coming soon!
To all of the Watershed Rangers students, teachers and program partners, although we will not be able to see you in classrooms, field trips and after school programs right now, we hope to provide you and your loved ones with online resources and activities during this time. We know that parents, teacher and lifelong learners are seeking ways to stay engaged and active, and we’re going to be working to bring activities to you through the Coastal Watershed Council blog. Please share these resources and activities with friends, neighbors and parents groups and stay tuned for more.
Additional resources:
- Santa Cruz County Office of Education News & Food Programs: Parents are encouraged to call or email their child’s school or district prior to visiting the site in person if they have questions or need services beyond the food program available to their student or to pick up distance learning materials. Please find a master list of all Santa Cruz County food service distribution locations at http://sccoe.link/food_service. Please find an interactive map of all the food distribution locations and service times at http://sccoe.link/food_service_map.
- Speaking with your child about COVID
- Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency
- Santa Cruz County 211