Barrier Island Field Trip

Today we went on a field trip with the Beachside Kids Explorers Club, to the Barrier Island Sanctuary.  We had a guide who led the kids on a 1 mile walk, to the beach and the hammock, and she told them all about the plants and animals in the area.    

The beach looked beautiful, but it was super windy!  

 She had the kids find stuff on the beach, and compare what belonged on the beach, vs. didn't belong there (trash!)

Heads bent against the wind! 

There was an interesting moment where the kids had to cross a road, and the guide asked them to line up.  These are homeschoolers, they had no clue how to form a single file line!  The guide was trying to tell them "get in a spot where you can see a person's head in front of you, one behind the other".  This was the best they managed:   (note the gaps, and clumps of kids holding hands!)

Then off we went into the hammock.

This is a "Gumbo Limbo" tree.  It has redish, peeling bark.  Its also called "the tourist tree".   Tourists often don't wear enough sunscreen on our Florida beaches, leaving them with sunburned, red and peeling skin, just like this tree! 

They checked out the water as well

We avoided this giant mound of fire ants: 

This tree was scratched up by a bobcat at some point, probably when the tree was smaller. 

After we had a windy picnic lunch.

And went inside, they have all kinds of things for the kids to look at, touch and explore.     This tree is decorated with sea glass.

Levi and Taylor did a little craft project. 

Taylor listened to facts about how sea turtles hatch, she likes to 'talk on the phone' 

It was a fun field trip!  Levi's favorite fact of the day is that "sand is made from shells".  


Then we finished the day with making some homemade pizza, with red sauce, pineapple and vegan rice cheeze.  

Low Tide Exploration (Beachside Kids Explorers Club)

The Beachside Kids Explorers Club went to the beach to check out the low tide.   It was a little rough, so not super great viewing, but the kids were able to check out the coquina rock, and the tube worm reef.  
We learned all about why you aren't supposed to walk out on the rocks (where the tube worms are), but we learned this after we were at the beach.  Next time we will know better! 

Treasures: 

 A ghost crab:

Oyster Mat Making

Today, the Beachside Kid Explorer Club went to Riverwalk Park to make some oyster mats.

The mats are a piece of ocean-safe mesh, with a bunch of oyster shells zip-tied to them.  Once they are finished, they are placed in the river (its not actually a river, its the strip of water between the Barrier islands and the mainland, but it looks like a river!).    They are arranged in grids, like a big quilt, and weighted down in the corners by those round cement things that they put around sprinkler heads.   Baby oysters attach to these and it helps restore the oyster beds. 

Each oyster filters up to 50 gallons a day, so this really helps keep the river clean.   

Here is how the mats are made.

The kids learned a bit about what we were trying to accomplish, got some instructions, and saw a slide show of what the finished mats are used for.

First, they drill holes in a whole bunch of shells using a big drill press:

Then, you take a mesh square and a pack of 36 zip-ties, and attach them all on.  The "tails" of the zip ties are cut off. 

Hard at work!

And then they look like this when you flip them over:

 Teamwork!!!

When the kids were done, they did some exploring.

Beauty Berries (these are edible, but icky tasting, pretty though!)

And a big black snake:

And this is the river at the end of the boardwalk!  Sometimes there is no beach here at all, depends on the tides.