Catalina Day 2

Today's weather was near perfect, which we we took advantage of throughout the day. Many of us took a short hike this morning after breakfast before beginning our lab rotations. Students enjoyed exploring the world of plankton through digital microscopes, touching and learning about invertebrates, and participating in oceanology studies. After lunch, we went out for our second round of snorkeling. Even though the water was cold, the sun was out and the students had a great time. In a few minutes, we leave for a night hike to learn about astronomy.

Click here for the last of the photo updates (FLIKR's free account only will show the last 200 photos, so some of the photos from day 1 will disappear). I am sure that your students will have plenty more to share when they get home. I will send a voice message through our automated system on Friday when we are getting on the bus in Long Beach.

Catalina Day 1

We had an exciting--and exhausting--first day at CIMI. After a long bus ride to get to Long Beach, we were fortunate enough to have an outstanding boat ride to camp. The water was smooth and the weather was great. We had no true casualties to sea sickness! After lunch at camp, the students went on their orienation snorkel activity, which got them into the water for the first time. We were lucky that the water was a little warmer this year--59 degrees! Amids the excitement, the students saw Garibaldi, several rays, a sea cucumber and other life in the ocean. Unfortunately, just as the snorkeling was ending, the rain started. We had a steady "mist" for the six hours, which forced us to change our night hike to tomorrow. The students participated in a very fun and informative mammals lab tonight, and we look forward to better weather tomorrow.


Click here to see photos from the day! When the photo page appears, you can click on "slide show" in the upper right corner to quickly navigate through all of the photos. (I apologize for the delay... the upload speed is great here.)

Return to Sender

Ms. Clark's 4th grade class received a nice surprise last week. After reading "Charlotte's Web," the students wrote eulogies for Charlotte and attached them to balloons. To symbolize how Charlotte's babies drifted away into the wind, the students released the balloons. Last week, one of the eulogies was returned by a local hunter who found it near Seven Springs and Bloody Basin (the eulogies had Sandpiper's name and address on it). The students were quite excited to see how far their work could travel!

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Congratulations to Aidyn A., who won the national NBA Dribble, Dish and Swish competition during All-Star weekend. Aidyn, 3rd grade, won a trip to the game in Dallas, where he not only won his competition, but was introduced at half-time of the All-Star game and had the opportunity to meet several current and former players.

Sandpiper Trekkers

On Friday, we kicked off our Sandpiper Trekkers program, which is intended to promote physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Each Friday for 10 weeks, we will have a 1/4 mile track set up for students to walk or run. As they complete each lap, parent volunteers will mark their cards to help keep track of their progress. In addition to personal incentives, we have a school goal of completing 8,000 laps in 10 weeks -- that's 2,000 miles!

On our first day, our students made a huge dent in reaching that goal:

• We completed 1,440 laps - that's 360 miles!
• 159 students completed at least 1 mile.
• 14 students completed at least 2 miles.

We look forward to seeing what the students will accomplish this week!