ICP at the Beach

One of our favorite days in the spring are our trips to the beach. We visit a beach that has varied environments: sand, eel grass, seaweed and kelp beds, muscle beds, rocks, tide pools. We go when the tide is way out.

One thing we look for is all of the different kinds of seaweed. There are so many different shapes, sizes, and colors of seaweed to find.

We wave to the ferry when it passes by, and to other boats, and even to airplanes.

One of our favorite things is "Crab Festival," named years ago by a past Orca class. This is the place on the beach where thousands of small shore crabs live. We count to three, turn over the rocks, and squeal, "Crab Festival!" as hundreds of tiny crabs scurry around on the beach. We learn which ones are the males, and which are the females, and look for the mamas carrying their eggs.

Each class has a Hello Circle where we share a beach treasure we have found.

There's always time for play. Many children fell overboard from this boat. There were even mermaids!

We learned to be very still by the edge of the tide pool. Even our shadows or reflections would scare the small creatures in the pool. If we were still enough and watched carefully, we could see barnacles eating with their feet, sea anemones with their tentacles out, and many other things going on about their business in the pool.

The Penguins collected rocks,

and shells! Look how many we found!

And, of course, there's always time to practice throwing rocks in the water and making big splashes.