Financial grant helps fund "Salmon In The Classroom" program
GRAND BLANC -- With a huge financial assist from the Flint River Valley Steelheaders, a group of students in Grand Blanc were able to experience the outdoors.
For the second straight year, third and fourth-grade students in the Grand Blanc school district had the chance to learn about nature first-hand, thanks to a program called "Salmon In The Classroom." It taught the youngsters about the life cycles of fish...an experience which was not only educational, but emotional, too.
"Last year when we released the fish into the river, some of them cried and they waved...and they had named some of them," said Grand Blanc teacher Jaime Cramer, who oversaw the program for the second straight year. "So, it was really great to see them take such an interest in raising the fish, and also it has fostered a stewardship for our environment."
This year, thanks to the Steelheaders, Ms. Cramer was able to take her kids to the Little Manistee River as part of the program, and her students took away plenty of knowledge.
"I didn't know that salmon ate other fish," said fourth-grader Carolyn Hagler. "I just thought that they ate plants, but now I know that they eat other fish. My dad took us out fishing a lot in the summer. So I knew how to fish, but I never knew anything about the fish."
"I didn't really know how they actually grew," added classmate Ian Byram. "I didn't know what they did when they were young, what they ate or how they looked. I didn't know all the stages that they went through...so it was just really cool to actually see them grow."
But not everything these kids witnessed on their field trip could be called "Kodak Moments."
"I learned that before they get the eggs out, they whack the fish on the head, so that they don't move a lot when they're getting the eggs out," said a squirming Grace Hamman, also a fourth-grader. "It was kind of gross, and I felt a little queasy after that."
Nonetheless, "Salmon In the Classroom" has been a big success in helping these students discover a whole new world...OUTSIDE the classroom.
