We are explorers of ... the beach!

 

This term, our Inquiry has focussed on creatures that live in the ocean. Living close to the sea, our students already have ideas about the creatures that live there. Watching Octonauts on TV has definitely had an impact, too! We have been trying to build on their knowledge and experiences by exploring some animals in detail.

Our Autahi students have been particularly interested in finding out more about some of the larger, charismatic creatures like octopuses and sea stars. A trip down to Worser Bay Beach is a chance to focus on some of the smaller creatures that inhabit the ocean. 

It's also a great opportunity to reconnect with this part of our local environment. As so often happens in Autahi, playing and exploring go hand in hand, and lead to some great learning. 

On the sand, we quickly began to find sea glass and a few pieces of pumice and mussel shells. We've been learning about the gruesome and fascinating way that octopuses eat mussels: had an octopus eaten the mussels out of these shells?

We started to make a collection of our finds along the wall.

Turning over a large log revealed sand hoppers, leaping about and shy beetles burying themselves back in the sand.

In the rock pools, we found no fewer than thirteen small crabs in quite a short time. There were also cat's eyes, a whelk and several different seaweeds. 

We hope to pay a return visit to the beach before the end of the term.  As the water warms up and Spring progresses, it will be interesting to see whether we find different creatures this time.

In the meantime, we will keep building our knowledge of the creatures that live in the ocean.

Thanks to all our parent helpers who helped to make this trip possible - and also so much fun.