Weather: cloudy 55º showers predicted James Monroe Elementary Everett, WA 47.899158, -122.195266
Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary Everett, WA 47.934435, -122.261013
In Febrauary, at PolarTREC orientation, I met this remarkable lady who talked about bringing her fifth grade students to the Seattle area on a "trip outside" in May. It sounded like an opportunity for students that I just couldn't let go by.
After 2 months of emails, May 7th was finally here! The big white van carrying Tonia Kushin, fellow teacher Melissa Grego, and 10 students from the school on St Paul Island in the Pribilofs pulled up in front of James Monroe Elementary and disgorged its passengers. I met them and introduced myself in my usual shy manner, giving Tonia a hug and shaking hands with Melissa before tackling the names of the students. On the way to the classroom they only had one question: "Will everybody be looking at us?"
"About as much as you will be looking at them," I answered…and so ended the last shy moment of the day.
Inthevan
We gave the students (my 25 and Tonia's 10) about 20 minutes to get acquainted before we split them into teams, ran them through the restrooms, and boarded the bus. (Most of her students had never ridden on a school bus before!) The first ice breaker was my students giving salmon-printed T-shirts to our visitors and presenting Tonia with another 9 shirts to take back to her 4th graders who don't come on this annual 5th grade field trip. Once we were all dressed alike, they were learning names and telling stories and swapping fibs as fast as they could. When we got on the bus, the driver couldn't tell the locals from the visitors.
Lookingforturtles
Our trip was to Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary, a local conservation park that features several miles of trails through forest and wetland with views of ponds, beaver dams, turtles, rabbits, squirrels, bullfrogs, songbirds, wading birds, water birds, and raptors. The trees were in full leaf and the wildflowers were blooming. Skunk cabbage, salmonberries, and nettles provided points of interest, discussion and caution. Students dispersed throughout the park for 1 ½ hours in groups of 5 to 7 with at least one parent volunteer or teacher per group. I had provided single-use cameras for the students to share. They also had binoculars, sketch books, magnifying glasses, snacks and rain jackets. They were assigned a simple "eyes-only" scavenger hunt to get them started looking and sharing.
lookingforwildlife
By 11:45 when we met for lunch they had covered just about the entire trail loop system, discovered lots of new things, and used up many of the 27 pictures for each of the 5 cameras. There was no problem keeping kids busy at lunch….they ate, they talked, they laughed, they threw fir cones and they played hacky-sack. It was just about a perfect lunch!
TwoClasses
When we returned to school, the kids had bonded so well that the visitors decided to spend the rest of the afternoon with us. We worked on some sharing activities in the classroom, the principal came up to meet and welcome the St Paul crew and gave them a small plush eagle, a model of our school mascot, to take along on their travels.
Mascot
They gave each of our kids a present from their home, a seal tooth…and we had an extra long recess since the visitors had never played tether ball or done some of the other things we take for granted on our playground.
firsttimetetherball
Was the day worth it? Well, let's look at a balance sheet: 37 t-shirts and paint for salmon…………….donated shirts and paint on hand 5 cameras and developing……………………………………….less than $85 3 hours of bus time ……………………………………………...around $120 Snacks……………………………………………………………………..$15
Student understanding and friendship……………………………….Priceless
I really don't think the students will ever forget the day. 1½ months later, on the last day of school, my kids were still talking about their new friends. Our end of the year slide show included many shots of us all together exploring, singing on the bus, playing hacky, and talking, talking, talking. My kids learned some geography to share with the folks at home, and one of the kids summed it up pretty well when he said, " Hey Mrs. Peterson, they didn't turn out to be all that different from us at all did they!"
Footnote: since the visit I have corresponded regularly with Tonia Kushin. If the stars align right we will be able to see each other for a few moments in Anchorage this summer as she travels back to St Paul from vacation and I head to the Alaskan wilderness for my PolarTREC adventure. We are already collaborating on getting a salmon hatching project set up in her school so future classes from Everett and St Paul can share that adventure too.