Our tide pooling adventure last Friday was amazing.

When we arrived, there were five docents set to take us down to the beach. Having five docents enabled us to put the children into small groups of three or four. Each group also had an adult from school.  These adults included Ms. Armstrong, our third grade assistant, who used to work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Sadie’s mom, Rachel, who received her Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Studies. With Ms. Svedlund, Ms. Horibe, and myself, there was so much knowledge in these little groups!

Our first find was a mermaids purse that had a live baby shark inside!

Students were encouraged to gently touch and even hold the shark egg!

Next, a student found a baby sun star.

 Look at how teeny tiny it is! This was the only sea star we found!

There were many sea anemones, which the students got to touch and observe eating bits of seaweed. Speaking of sea weed, there were several different kinds of sea plants, including kelp and Turkish towels.

My group was particularly interested in the different types of sea weed! Me. Svedlund shared a lot of interesting information about kelp….she loves kelp!

Perhaps the most interesting animal we saw was a female octopus guarding her eggs. She has been hiding in a rock cave in the intertidal for two months now protecting her eggs.

After we explored the tide pools, we joined back together as a class for a special sharing time. Groups had a chance to share the crabs, sea slugs, turban snail shells, and other treasures they found.

It was a magical morning!