Day at the Beach

Every Year at the end of the school year Marlene's school has a "Day on the Beach". This year half of the students went to Edmonds and the other half went to Golden Gardens in Ballard. The classes are paired so that the Kindergartners go with their Rainbow pals (4th Grade). The 4th Graders are instructed to stick to their little buddies. Marlene has two rainbow pals, Erica and Alex. They did a very good job exploring the beach with Marlene. In addition to students and teachers, families are invited as well. Needless to say, Golden Gardens was very busy, because not only John Rogers was there for a field day, but several other schools as well. Luckily (or not) the weather was very bad, which kept everyone else away. It was raining and the temperature never got above 55 F. Welcome to the beautiful Northwest.

This week the lowest tides of the year happened and we got there just in time. We were able to walk out much further than usual. The kids explored tide pools and did not leave any stone unturned. We found many little crabs, the size of quarters. There was the head of a Wolf Eel, which was massive, and many dead crabs. We got splashed by clams and saw seaweeds in any color, shape, and size. The most impressive thou were the sea stars (formerly known as star fish). They were kind of surprised by the tide and got stranded. So they crawled back to the water. We saw Sunflower Sea Stars which are the fastest Sea Stars in the world. It was amazing to see them race towards the water (and away from the children). Here is a short video I shot. Watch the Sea Star: www.youtube.com/baristakarin