Pemaquid Point Field Trip

I volunteered (note to self: stop smoking crack) to chaperone the second grade field trip to Pemaquid Point Beach. This trip was the grand conclusion to their science unit on the ocean.

The purpose? To comb the beach for evidence of marine life and other cool stuff.

The problem? The kids were not allowed in the water at all. Now I get that letting them swim would be a bad idea. Having a kid drown would be a major bummer and possible even ruin the whole field trip. But no wading? Really? Have you ever taken 100 eight-year-olds to the beach and told them to stay away from the water? Can't be done, my friends.

One crabby old bat of a teacher (not Bug's) spent the entire time patrolling the beach and barking, "Get outta the water! You are NOT allowed in the water!" to any unfortunate kid who stuck a toe in the surf. She even had the audacity to say this to me when I stuck (you might want to sit down for this) ONE FOOT in the ocean to reach a cool shell for one of the kids in my group.

On a side note, we left Winslow at a broiling 90 degrees with high humidity and arrived at Pemaquid to find this:

It was foggy, windy, and COLD. The posted water temperature was 54 degrees, which my left foot can verify. Incidentally, if you think that being cool enough to wear a jacket is enough to persuade your average eight-year-old that it's not swimming weather, then you are the crack smoker.

My group happened to rock at beachcombing. I taught them to lift up the seaweed (which STUNK) to look for critters underneath. We managed to find:

-snails

-driftwood & pretty pebbles rounded by the sea

-hermit crabs (my group collected four and put them together on a rock "so they can be a family").

-one seven inch long sea worm which I prodded with a stick while the three little girls in my group shrieked "EWWWWW!" and hopped around

-mussel shells, lots

-beach glass:

Among the things I learned on this field trip:

-Stay out of Crabby Old Bat's field of vision.

-Kool-Aid is healthy! I asked a little girl on the bus if she might not want to save the jumbo bag of Doritos for lunch and have a piece of fruit for her morning snack, and she told me that she didn't need any fruit because her Kool-Aid had fruit in it and helpfully showed me the cartoon drawing of a cherry and apple on the drink pouch.

-My daughter is incapable of understanding the words "Do not walk across the picnic blanket with sandy feet."