Environmental education at a coastal ranch for our first trip of the school year!
We’re back! The ESCAPE Club has officially kicked off with a return to Slide Ranch. This farm has so many cool sustainability-focused things to see and do, and it was a fun way to learn about where food comes from with a great group of students and chaperones. We had a really nice time exploring the various spaces and trying new things, especially tasting so much fresh food throughout the day (sour sorrel? Unsurprisingly, very sour).
We started the day learning to milk goats (a brave few even tasting the fresh milk!) before breaking into smaller groups. In the garden, we saw, touched, smelled and tasted the many different vegetables and flowers growing in the hillside beds before cooking a small snack of bread and cheese from scratch. Some gathered herbs from the garden to add to theirs. So cool to share a meal that we created with our own hands! Then in the chicken coop, students got to pet and feed chickens before petting various goats and sheep in the barn.
After a picnic lunch, we made our way to the bone grove, filled with bones of all sizes from small rodents to whale ribs and vertebrae. It’s fun to try to figure out what type of animal the different skeleton pieces came from. Then as the sun was finally emerging we hiked down to the tidepools and spent some time near the water before wrapping up our day and heading home.
It’s great to be back outside with students, and we hope that wherever you are you find some pockets of nature to spend time in. Looking ahead into this year, there’s a lot of fun trips to be had and we’ll keep you updated on all our excursions. As always, thank you so much for your endless support through kind words and well-wishes.
And, of course, this program couldn’t run without the financial support. We are grateful for donations of any amount, and this money goes directly to funding student trips. You can donate in several ways:
- via the EdFund (tax-deductible and employer matchable!). Be sure to choose ESCAPE Club in the dropdown menu.
- via PayPal: link HERE
- write a check to DeJean Middle School
- send a check directly to John
Thank you for following along! We appreciate your support!
Check out the video if you have a few extra minutes!