P.J. Hoffmaster State Park

A few of my students on our trip.

      Hidden among several enormous natural sand dunes on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, P.J. Hoffmaster State Park is a popular field trip destination for schools in West Michigan. Operated by the DNR, the learning center at the park offers amazing programming relevant to the third grade science and social studies curriculum in Michigan. It is for this reason we decided to make the 45 minute bus trip to the park on a beautiful warm sunny day in May.

      I knew it was going to be an interesting trip when we had to leave without J.’s mom, one of my chaperones. “But she had to run a few errands. She is going to be here,” J. kept saying over and over, but as it was, the bus had 30 minutes to make the 45 minute trip to the park, so we had to leave.

      After we had arrived at the state park and watched the introduction video in the learning center theater, my class headed out on the guided tour through the hiking trails. Things seemed to be going well. The kids were enjoying looking for animals, excitedly pointing out birds, and bugs, and wild mushrooms, and what two apparently in-love teenagers had carved into the fallen tree. JS. came running up to me, barely able to contain his excitement. “Mr. Working!” he was shouting as several other boys came running from the wooden rail overlooking the backdune. “I just saw a woodchucker! Come look!” He quickly pointed to a nearby tree, and sure enough, there was a chipmunk.

      The hiking trail ended at the top of a dune on the edge of the lake. The DNR guide had the class sit on the dune. “Boys and girls, how many of you know what is special about the dune sand in Michigan?” C. had already moved down the dune out of hearing range. D. and I. had removed their shoes and were busy burying their feet in the sand. “Boys and girls, if I could have your attention, I want to show you what happens when you slide a magnet through the dune sand.” She pulled a bar magnet out of her bag, and began to gently drag it across the hot sand. “What do you notice about the magnet?” A handful of boys pushed their way in to see while I tried to round up my beach explorers.

      “There’s dust or something sticking to it!” JL. announced with excitement.

To be continued…

(Taking a cue from Sarah Parker’s blog… 15 minutes a day goes quickly)