We had a great field trip on Friday...We went to the dunes...both Room 8 and Room 9. When we arrived, each class was divided in half for the day. As you will notice, there are many...I repeat...MANY photos of half of Room 8, the half I was with. That's my disclaimer...both the fact that most of the photos are of only half the class and that there are MANY...I repeat...MANY photos on this post!
Grab a cup of coffee, or tea, or soda, or good ole' water, and enjoy this beautiful day with us. We could not have asked for any better weather!
This was not my group...we had been separated and were heading on our different paths..but I snapped a photo of the other group as I passed by...Ms. C, Cara, and Keith's mom, Lisa, were the adults in this group.
Emily, Jaelin's mom, and I were the adults in the other group. We started off walking towards the bay...
Our guides, Molly and Stephanie, had some trays of pond water for us to examine...
Noah was prepared for the day...she came with her binoculars...
We were given magnifying glasses and a chart to see what we might see in the pond water...
After our investigations, we headed on down the path...
We went to an area in the midst of some trees and talked about camouflage... We did a little exercise with trying to hide from the guide...to camouflage ourselves in the surroundings...
Paxton was enjoying himself... he was a trooper...spending the entire day with us...
We met up with the other half of Room 8 once we got to the bay. Unfortunately for my photo-taking, we weren't together long at all...like about 3 minutes!
Ms. C was talking to her group about some of the animals they had seen...
At the dunes, we were each given a pair of binoculars and a chart of the different wildlife we might see...
Noah came not only prepared with her binoculars, but she also brought her camera. We took a picture of each other taking a picture!
Like I said, it was a gorgeous day...and we saw a lot of wildlife...lots of birds....
Standing on a bench gave some Room 8ers a better look...
Kaylin was taking a picture of Jaelin with her mom, Emily, and baby brother, Paxton.
We ventured down closer to the water...
We were given these small magnifying boxes to scoop up some of the water or mud and examine what was there...
If your child came home muddy...here's why!
"Jimi, are you hiding something behind your back?"
We had a few slips out in this mud, but no one went all the way down...I don't think!
After our investigations at the water, we headed up a little ways and played a game on the interconnected of life at the bay...
(You may notice that these are the same photo...I was practicing with my D-lighting - to see which I liked best....)
Paxton really wasn't very interested in the web of life at the pond...he was thinking about milk!
Oh, here's our other group hanging out in a field of wildflowers!
We headed back to our meeting place and all had lunch together...
Alicia and Jewele from Room 9 (Room 8 when they're in ExCEL) were enjoying their lunch...
After lunch, our group headed out to the dunes...
Hey, there's our other half again...they were also heading to the dunes, but we went to different sections at different times...
There goes Cara, AJ, and Lisa...
Our group was given instructions on tracking...on looking for animal prints to identify...
Noah and Kaylin found the prints of a gray fox...
One of the highlights was running and/or rolling down this dune...
First, you had to get to the top...
Ouch! Abby bonked heads with Jarrin as they came rolling down....
Kaylin is rolling along....
Noah had the idea of a group shot of our half...
We met back up with our other half at the DP Dune... a dune just for our class to work on restoring. An invasive plant, European beach grass, has taken over. Our job was to help pull it up...by the roots!
Paxton didn't care about pulling up any European Beach Grass....
David pulled up the longest root!
Keith was...in my opinion...the hardest worker! He was a machine!!! (that's a metaphor!)
It was definitely an incredible field trip. The weather was perfect, Room 8 was perfect, our guides were incredible.... = a great day!
