Today the children's school had it's annual Beach Day! It was great. The weather was gorgeous, t-shirt and shorts weather with beautiful clear blue skies. The event was well organized, totally easy and I was again highly impressed by the school.

The kids wore their own handmade shirts to break them down by class. Gabriel wore his teal shirt that he had made a Gyotaku print on using rubber fish molds and black ink. His class decorated the prints with stuck on googly eyes and glow in the dark paint. Isabel wore a grayish blue shirt that her class had silk screened with a whale print and embellished with fabric paint. They had tye dyed shirts for the 4th graders, the 7th graders did block prints (my fave), etc.

Each class had a big flag on a huge wooden rod that was stuck deep into the sand and you could tell where your group was with just a quick glance. Each flag had been decorated in the same style as the shirts and then signed by all the students in each class. After today it will hang on the classroom wall.

We had a really fun day filled with discovery and sunshine.

Isabel ran around, full of energy, with her girlfriends.

Everyone sat with their class during lunch while each teacher read a book relating to the ocean. We listened to the story of Humphrey the whale who was stuck in the SF bay awhile back.


I was impressed with the activities they had. At one point, Gabriel and Isabel were sitting in the sand painting with watercolors. I love that they brought paint to the beach!

Isabel painted a beach landscape during sunset.


Gabriel painted exploding volcanoes that were put out by the falling rain, which caused smoke clouds and a big rainbow.


Lots of digging discoveries were made.


It's not a beach day without being buried!


Isabel and her best friend found a mermaid.


So creative!

Gabe held a little shrimp (I think).

I wondered how the rule of no one allowed in the water was going to pan out. Turns out it was a non issue. There was so much fun on the beach that no one cared. There were a ton of games to play, long handled shovels to dig humongous holes, fun stuff like a tug o' war, saltine challenge (how many crackers can you stuff in your mouth), jump rope games, hula hoops races, and playing sea weed tubes in a beach band.

The kids loved unearthing these little guys.


Hooray for Beach Day!