Fifth Grade: It's more than just the year you get B.O.

I recently took some time off work to go with my daughter’s class on the annual fifth grade Oregon Coast field trip. I had three big revelations over the three-day event: 1) Eleven year old boys are like perpetual-motion machines, 2) Fifth grade is the year you start to smell, and 3) Learning is hard!

I had forgotten how exhausting it was to actively learn. This was stuff I was really interested in and it was still difficult to pay attention and really be engaged with an instructor hour after hour. Now I have a bit more sympathy for my kids who come home wiped out from school. I used to be all, “Suck it up! You should try working! You have two recesses and snack time!” Now I get it. At the end of a day of cramming information into every wee crenulation of your brain, a little Sponge Bob can be a balm.

Some highlights:

Juliet driving the trawler up the estuary.

Awaiting the bottom-dwelling creatures!

Mmmmm, a frosty glass of English Flounder.

Trying not to get blown off the cliff for a photo op.

Rife with life!

Juliet falls in love with a sea slug.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

Putting together a deep-diving whale. How do we know it was a deep diver? It  has stinky, oily bones. 

In the shark tube at the aquarium that Keiko built. 

This is the inside of a Yurt. Is this an Oregon thing? It's like camping, without a tent.