Hello parents! Well, we just got back from our first full day in California! The weather was beautiful as we headed out into San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz Island. No, none of your kids are in that much trouble! We took a great tour of the island and the prison and were able to have a diverse lesson on both history and ecology of the island.

Our history lesson, led by Miss Ryan, centered mostly on the prison. A prison guard lead our group around the prison and gave a very interesting lecture about the history of the prison, from its military days to its years as a federal prison and included plenty of stories about the famous inmates that that passed through the prison. The kids really enjoyed hearing about Al Capone, who we learned about in our history class this past year! After the tour, the students were able to have a question and answer session with the guard. For homework, they got to pretend to be a prison guard or a prisoner and write about their experiences at Alcatraz. Overall, all the students seemed to enjoy learning about the fascinating history behind this famous prison.

After our history lesson, we jumped on over to a lesson on ecology, led by Miss Strohman. While the island may be most famous for its prison history, few people realize the amazing ecosystem found on the island. The students were able to explore the island like few other people are able to do. They collected samples of plant and animal life on the island. They found that Alcatraz is inhabited by a large number of seabird, who have been here since before any humans even stepped foot on the Rock. The students were able to chart how the changing conditions of the seasons would affect the ecosystems and they held another question and answer session about all the organisms they had found. This lesson really helped the students understand how diverse ecosystems can be and how surprising they can be, such as find a bustling and lively ecosystem on Alcatraz Island.

This very full day was a great introduction to San Francisco and to California. The students are all very excited about all of the upcoming lessons and are already doing a great job and actively learning in a new place! We hope to hear from you all soon through comments on the blog! All of your kids say hello! We'll be talking to you soon about our next lesson!

To learn more about what your kids experienced today, click on this link to explore the Alcatraz Island website! Enjoy!