Mrs. Johnson’s 5th and 6th
grade class and Mrs. Linde’s 1st and 2nd graders went to the
Comanche Fish Hatchery in November to learn about salmon so they
would be ready to hatch salmon eggs right in the classroom in
January! Now that the eggs have hatched and are growing fast, they
will be releasing the Salmon fry back into the Mokelumne River the
middle of March so the fry can continue on their journey to the
ocean. The project has been sponsored by supported by Stewardship
Through Education, LLC and the local Amador Fly Fishing Club.
In Mrs. Johnson’s class-room, the Fly Fishing
Club set up a specially designed fish tank so that the Salmon eggs
would be in a controlled environment and the students could watch
the changes as they happened. They have been able to see the
development that most people will never get to see in the wild.
Adults are having as much fun watching the Salmon develop as the
kids are!
The project is also being done in Kelsi Himmel’s
class at Argonaut High School and Carella Herberger’s class at Ione
Elementary School here in Amador County and Calaveras County has
several classrooms raising the Salmon as well.
By teaching the developmental stages and the
many enemies that fish have during each of those stages, including
pollution, it is hoped that the kids will learn how to take care of
our environment to protect wildlife such as the Salmon. Besides
getting to see the Salmon develop through many of their Life Cycle
stages, the children have done a lot of Math and Writing lessons to
go along with this project. They have no idea just how much
learning is happening because it’s so much fun. And they don’t even
mind doing the work that goes along with all of this learning!
As we push to have "No Child Left Inside" we
find a community and many local opportunities readily available to
help our children become stewards of the land. The children will
never look at Salmon eggs the same, and hopefully, they will be the
ones that protect our environment, now and in the future.
Toni Linde, Plymouth Elementary School, Plymouth, CA; Bruce
Peccianti, Principal, (209) 245-6912.
