Whales, Stingrays and Sharks....Oh My!

We promised to tell you more about our awesome Field Trips so as we get ready to go on our very last Field Trip of the year where we will get to go to Boston and on a cool Whale Watch out to Stellwagen Bank, we remember our very first Field Trip back in October when we went to New Bedford.

Just like all of our off-island trips, our voyage begins on a boat, this time it was John Paul's Seahorse Water Taxi and a pretty rough trip because of the big waves.  We were all feeling kind of seasick but we made it.   John Paul is a great boat Captain, he went to school a long time ago at our schoolhouse when he was the only student there.  

He had a dog at school with him too! 

Our first stop was the Buzzards Bay Coalition Learning Center.  In this picture we are learning how to prevent oil spills. We used different materials like dish soap and sponges to try and clean up an oil spill. There was a giant 3D map in the middle of the center and it showed the whole map of Buzzards Bay and it was pretty cool!  When you pressed a button it would show all of these lights which were buoys and lighthouses in the Bay.    The last thing we did was use a computer to find live ships traveling through Buzzards Bay.  And when you clicked on a ship it would tell you lots of information like the size, country and destination. 

Next, we walked over to the New Bedford Whaling Museum and posed on a Sperm Whale.

We learned lots of cool facts like that whales had feet back in prehistoric times.  Below is a picture of us looking at a huge whale skeleton.    The Whaling Museum had lots of different whale skeletons to look at.

This is a whale skull that we found near the west end of Cuttyhunk.  We're not sure what kind of whale it is but it's pretty cool!  

Here's Gwen standing under a whale's jaw bone.

Here we are kneeling behind a replica of a whaling ship.

We were very surprised to find this famous painting of the west end of Cuttyhunk in the Whaling Museum.  

Then, we had a great lunch by the waterfront at Cobblestones with our Superintendent and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Latham, our Mom, and Ms. Dunn, before we walked over to the Ocean Explorium.    Here's Carter getting to feed the stingrays.

Here's Gwen getting to feed a Sand shark at the Explorium. 

This is one of the beautiful and huge aquariums at the Explorium.  Our favorite exhibit was an unusual white Octopus who was so intelligent he could take apart Legos to get the treat inside of them.  We saw a very large sphere with the world projected on it and it showed us how the Earth changed throughout time. 

Our last stop was to see a movie about how whaling was so important to New Bedford.
Like all good things, our first Field Trip had to come to an end.  Here's Gwen on the boat trip back to Cuttyhunk.   She was kind of tired from all of that learning in New Bedford!

Off to Boston to see the whales and learn about the American Revolution....

Until next time,

The Cuttyhunk Kids