A Mendocino Beach Day: Wind, Fog, and a Fermenting Pelican?

As winter swells greeted our Mendocino shores, The Forager School students began their exploration of the mighty Pacific in mid-December. Car seats packed like sardines, we were off on our first beach field trip to Manchester State Beach, just beyond the KOA campground. The thing I have come to accept about preschoolers is that they move through life with the dermal layers of arctic seals - despite the gloom, wind, and persistent drizzle, these rays of sunshine were frolicking about the beach, climbing driftwood, sliding down dunes, and noticing every single grain of life in existence! Scattered about the beach, students observed, collected, and narrowly refrained from touching all matter of marine specimens. One particular highlight was the discovery of a massive partially decomposed bird; bones picked, feathers sparse… but could it be a pterodactyl??? This is the beauty of early childhood; if you were to ask one of our ever-faithful parent chaperones, this was a fowl and unsightly find, but to our students this was an auspicious occasion! It was a joy to see them turn this local beach into the ultimate playground - sliding down a sand dune 50 times over never looked so good! 

In preparation for this field trip we read one of Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal’s brilliant children's biology books from the ‘Over and Under & Up and Down’ series - ‘Over and Under the Waves’. These books offer young students a glimpse into the biodiversity of our natural world that mimics their innate way of noticing; the series draws inspiration from the idea of children getting to the bottom of things. After the field trip students emptied out their forager baskets, poured over their sea treasures, then out came the pastels to draw our very own ‘Over and Under’ the waves mural - mermaids included of course!