January 17, 2008
I took some vacation time and joined Annie's class for a field trip, again. We did this trip when she was in first grade, and I wasn't that keen on it. However, Annie thinks I should go on every field trip, and was sad when I said I didn't know if I could drive on this one. I caved. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is just not that spectacular after Chicago's Field Museum and the Smithsonian. Still, I knew we wouldn't be in there that long, and we would eat lunch and play on the beach afterwards. That is something I never experienced as a kid, so I enjoy seeing Annie doing it. Come to think of it, we didn't do many field trips. Geez. I got ripped off.
Anyway, after the formal session with the docents, I positioned myself at the tide-pool touch tank to protect the poor creatures from abuse. The kids were actually really good, and only needed minimal reminders of how to treat the animals and plants in the tank. I, and most of the kids, got to see something really cool, though! Apparently, dead crabs (about three inches across) were put in the tank to feed the sea anemones. One of the kids had found the dead crab, and with the water being disturbed by their hands, and the flow of the water in the tank, this crab came close to a sea anemone. I didn't think anything about it when I saw the crab drift close enough to touch the tentacles. I watched in fascination as the anemone pulled it in and devoured it. I wouldn't have believed that that small anemone could consume that size of crab! It was amazing. After about one minute, there were just the ends of the legs sticking out. Yeah, I am easily impressed.
Afterwards, we went down to the beach to eat lunch. Having been on enough of these trips, I always bring a blanket, which can apparently hold a lot more beach loving kids than I would have expected. I also have a problem with complete chaos when it comes to play time. Before we left the classroom I grabbed a rubber ball. I taught a bunch of kids how to play a game I played when I was a kid: 500. After that, I took the ones that wanted to go on a hike down the beach to look and learn about what we saw. Unfortunately, the recent rains had swelled the river that dumped into the ocean on the other side of the cliff, so we couldn't walk through the cave to see the Boardwalk. We still had a good time, though.
On the way back to school we played the Alphabet Game. This is where we go around the car going through the alphabet and try to come up with a word that starts with that letter. Sometimes we narrow it down to categories, like it has to be an animal (x always kills us). We decided to leave it open, though, given that the other two in the truck had never played. Nevertheless, we ended up only doing animals anyway. The new girl in class was with us, and she is very sharp. We were the first ones back to the classroom, and she wanted to see how many presidents we could name while we were waiting. Unfortunately, this is not a skill I have, but I gave it a shot. Fortunately, the teacher arrived before my inadequacy could be completely discovered...
Annie and I came home, and I cleaned out my work e-mail, which was not a lot for once. So? I decided to write this! Now, back to work...
In anticipation of the Aquarium field trip...
Anyway, after the formal session with the docents, I positioned myself at the tide-pool touch tank to protect the poor creatures from abuse. The kids were actually really good, and only needed minimal reminders of how to treat the animals and plants in the tank. I, and most of the kids, got to see something really cool, though! Apparently, dead crabs (about three inches across) were put in the tank to feed the sea anemones. One of the kids had found the dead crab, and with the water being disturbed by their hands, and the flow of the water in the tank, this crab came close to a sea anemone. I didn't think anything about it when I saw the crab drift close enough to touch the tentacles. I watched in fascination as the anemone pulled it in and devoured it. I wouldn't have believed that that small anemone could consume that size of crab! It was amazing. After about one minute, there were just the ends of the legs sticking out. Yeah, I am easily impressed.
Afterwards, we went down to the beach to eat lunch. Having been on enough of these trips, I always bring a blanket, which can apparently hold a lot more beach loving kids than I would have expected. I also have a problem with complete chaos when it comes to play time. Before we left the classroom I grabbed a rubber ball. I taught a bunch of kids how to play a game I played when I was a kid: 500. After that, I took the ones that wanted to go on a hike down the beach to look and learn about what we saw. Unfortunately, the recent rains had swelled the river that dumped into the ocean on the other side of the cliff, so we couldn't walk through the cave to see the Boardwalk. We still had a good time, though.
On the way back to school we played the Alphabet Game. This is where we go around the car going through the alphabet and try to come up with a word that starts with that letter. Sometimes we narrow it down to categories, like it has to be an animal (x always kills us). We decided to leave it open, though, given that the other two in the truck had never played. Nevertheless, we ended up only doing animals anyway. The new girl in class was with us, and she is very sharp. We were the first ones back to the classroom, and she wanted to see how many presidents we could name while we were waiting. Unfortunately, this is not a skill I have, but I gave it a shot. Fortunately, the teacher arrived before my inadequacy could be completely discovered...
Annie and I came home, and I cleaned out my work e-mail, which was not a lot for once. So? I decided to write this! Now, back to work...
In anticipation of the Aquarium field trip...