A Turtle-y Amazing Field Trip!


Wow!  Today we went on one of the BEST field trips I have ever had the privilege of attending!  The Kindergarten and first grade classes took a long bus ride to my hometown of Ojai.  We gathered at the Carolyn Glasoe Baily Foundation, where we met artis Yassi Mazandi.  She is the artist in residency there at the moment, and she has been painting watercolors of the turtles at the Ojai Turtle Conservancy.  She explained her work to the students:

She gave the students the chance to investigate some of her other clay work.  They got the chance to pass around one of her pieces (which made the teachers very nervous, but it got back to her in one piece.). She left our students with the inspiring advice to believe in our ideas:

Next, we met Matson and Jonas, two boys who created an app called Turtle Friend.  These students, who are now 12 and 13, created the app when they were 8 years old, and ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of Turtle Friend.  Turtle Friend promotes awareness of endangered sea turtles.  Through the app, you can track various sea turtles, watch videos, and learn more about these amazing animals.  They also explained how their organization, Paso Pacifico, uses artificial sea turtle eggs loaded with GPS trackers to track turtle egg poachers.

After a quick snack on the bus, we drove to the Turtle Conservancy.  This amazing place is not open to the public and typically does not host groups of young students, so we were very privileged to have the opportunity to visit.  When we arrived, we learned a little bit about their organization before splitting into two smaller groups:

We took a tour of the facilities.  The students were able to interact with lots of different species of turtles and tortoises.  At the end, we even had the chance to feed some giant Galapagos tortoises!

This field trip was so beautiful and special.  The Conservancy gave each child a turtle book, patch, sticker, and pin.

We owe a huge thank you to Yassi Masandi, The Carolyn Glasoe Baily Foundation, and The Ojai Turtle Conservancy.  Thank you, as well, to Mrs. Delwiche for coordinating the trip, our bus driver for getting us there safely, and Ms. Svedlund, Mrs. Riley, Mrs. Guay, and special guest teacher and Ojai resident — and my mom — Mrs. Atkinson for joining us.

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