The intrepid fourth grade traveled to Lewes, Delaware for a two day community building, science and art exploration field trip at Cape Henlopen State Park. Amidst stormy skies and very windy weather, the students seined in the Delaware Bay. Seining is a type of fishing using wide nets. The nets collect various samples of aquatic life. Students discovered all sorts of life including crustaceans, zooplankton and fish. They had the opportunity to disentangle these creatures from their seining nets and put them quickly into buckets for later inspection with their naturalist guide. After examining what was caught, the creatures were released by students back into the sea.
In between raindrops, we were able to watercolor up at the hawk watch, play games, do observational drawings and journal. After dinner, we put on our raincoats and picked up our colorful handmade lanterns and headed down to the beach for our shore ceremony of singing, dancing and poetry recitations. The students ended the ceremony by writing their wishes in the sand.
We all headed back for a campfire and sing along until the rain finally forced us indoors, and we called it a day. The next morning we woke to clear skies and a beautiful sunrise. After breakfast and a Meeting for Worship, we headed back to the beach for some sand-castling and a chance to dip our feet in the water one last time. . . by the end, more than feet got wet. It was an extraordinary experience that made us all feel richer, and it most definitely sealed our bond as a class.
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