Field Trip Today

...and wouldn't you know I forgot my camera!
We went down to the beach with our homeschool group for a talk on sea turtles. The boys really enjoyed it, as did I. We learned about three different species of turtles that are found in our area. It was a beautiful day, sunny and cool. After the talk, with plenty of hands on, we played several games. My favorite was when the kids got to throw shrimp (golf balls) and turtles (larger balls) into a shrimp net with a turtle extruder to see how the nets are designed to trap dinner without killing the turtles. The boys seemed to like them all.
After the games, we walked the beach with treasure bags to collect shells, sea beans and such and trash bags for, what else, trash. The kids had to fill the trash bags in order to keep their treasure bags. They filled them and then some! I was really surprised to see so much trash on the beach. The dunes were even worse but we, unfortunately, couldn't get to that trash because it would compromise the plants. We even found some sea turtle egg shells- the turtles, long gone. Those had to stay where they were, as it is illegal to have anything of a sea turtle. We did get to touch them and then put them back on the sand. It would have been a perfect day for a picnic on the beach but we didn't bring lunch, so we'll have to plan to do that soon.
We left with many treasures from the sea and pleasant memories of the day.