Today I did a lesson on the beach for my students because the majority of them have never experienced going themselves.  I used a variety of techniques to teach the lesson, which I am still very excited about.  My lesson was launched by a vocabulary technique that Anna did in Betty’s class.  I had a beach bag filled with the following items: bathing suit, tanning oil, sunglasses, sun hat, flip flops and a little bucket.  As I pulled out the items the children guessed where I would need them all.  Once I had everything out, I told the class that I was going on a pretend trip to the beach.  I explained that it would be very lonely to go by myself so I wanted them to come along.  I pulled out little sunglasses for each student to wear.  I think they were most excited that they got to keep the silly glasses that they were to go on our pretend trip!
     We proceeded to talk about the beach and how the sand was different from our mountain dirt.  I read a book, “Barney’s Sandcastle” which takes a trip down the beach with a little raccoon.  The raccoon, Barney, talks about the things that he sees, shells, birds, crabs, and sunbathers.  After the book we had a brief discussion about what we read.  I concentrated on the crabs for a while.  Then I told them about our new friends, Tom and Jerry.  Tom and Jerry are out hermit crabs.  We learned how to feed them and take care of them.  The class loved them!!  Tom and Jerry were a big hit.  We discussed the huge responsibility it is to take care of pets.  The class has promised to take good care of them so they can stay.
     Finally I had an art project ready for the class.  I had previously pre-cut stenciled shapes and bits of paper for sand.  The kids cut out the shapes and pasted them wherever they wanted to go.  This was a take-off from Meredith’s author study on Eric Carle.  I think that the pictures turned out beautifully.  As the children worked, I played a c.d. of beach music.
     I am so pleased at how this ended up.  I think it was a great lesson for children who had never been to the beach.  I also had two shells for each student to take home.  The class loved this.  I made sure to take many pictures of them to remember it.  I am a little disappointed at my feedback from Ms. Johnson.  She didn’t really say much about what she thought about it, good or bad.  I was a little discouraged with that because her opinion does mean a lot to me.  I am constantly looking to her for recognition in which I rarely get.  I think she enjoyed it because she took a few pictures, but I'm not sure.  I do know that the students loved it because for the first time I was given their undivided attention for an extended period of time.
     If I were to do this again, or with my own class I would change things up a bit.  I would do a little bit of map work and show where different beaches are.  I would also maybe play a beach type game for p.e.   I would choose one aspect of the beach and teach more of a lesson on it.  For example I could have taught about the different types of soil.  We could have examples of different types and see how they all feel.  This could easily be turned into a unit.
     I really enjoyed this time with the students.  I am thankful to Ms. Johnson for allowing me to do it.