Set Sail for Learning! - A Field Trip to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Funded Mar 18, 2016

Dear Donors,

Thank you all for your generous donations to our "Set Sail for Learning" field trip to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The trip was a complete success! Students arrived early Thursday morning at 7:00am, an hour before school usually starts. My class got to spend three hours on the beach and have lunch before getting to go on the O'Neill Catamaran. They had fun learning about ocean ecosystems, nautical navigation, and microbiology. We returned to the O'Neill classroom to continue learning before returning to school.

There were so many highlights to our day! First, there were many students in my class that had never been to the beach before. They were very excited and it was hard to keep them out of the ocean. Second, everyone had a great time digging for sand crabs and creating wave resistant buildings. Third, the trip on the catamaran was amazing! Students had a blast sitting on the net and riding the boat through the waves. Even a school of dolphins joined us! These are only a few of the highlights from our trip.

My students were so inspired by what they learned, that they wanted to create environmental posters when we returned to class. Each student picked a sea animal that they wanted to draw and made multiple drafts to get it as realistic as possible. They added a saying such as "Save the Whales," "Don't Pollute," or "Save Our Seas." Each poster included one way to help the environment. These posters were then hung around the school. At the end of the year, they were taken down and are being submitted to the O'Neill Sea Odyssey poster contest.

Once again, thank you for your donation. I hope you all have a great summer.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Rout