Fun on a field trip to Fire Island

For what seemed like forever we were waiting to go on our field trip to Fire Island.

We labeled maps and maps and maps of Long Island. We learned about different parts of the Sunken Forest. We learned why a lot of the trees were very short and looked like bushes. (It was because of the salt spray from the ocean, hitting the trees.) After labeling maps, reading the story, "Robert’s Tall Friend," and watching Long Island TV clips about Fire Island, we went on our trip. Afterwards, of course we had lots of tests on Fire Island. We wrote a haiku about Fire Island as well.

Here’s how our trip went: As the ferry hits the dock, the kids shout in excitement, ‘We’re here!” We jump off the ferry and find our tour guides holding up a sign that says Ms. Michelle Perino’s class. Our trip begins. “Hi, my name is Jack. How are you doing? I’m Madison. I am Jennifer, but you can call me Jen. Oh, this is Lily, she is really shy,” explained our tour guides. They told us that they were in high school. 

Off to the Swale: We see all the cool kinds of plants, such as deer moss, beach plum, beach heather; beach grass, Japanese pine and many more. After we went to the Swale we went to the Sunken Forest. It was so much fun. We saw so many different kinds of plants there. We saw maple trees, holly trees, poison ivy, sassafras, and oak trees. We had to watch out for poison ivy the most. We all wish we saw a deer but, we were too loud to see one. After we went to the Sunken Forest, we went to eat lunch. After we finished eating we had to find a garbage pail because we did not want to litter. Later that day, we went to the beach to collect seashells. With our tour guides we played a game called Indian Chief. It was so much fun. We both got chosen to be the Indian Chief.

After we finished playing the game, we had a contest to see who could find the most wampum --  Native American type of money used thousands of years ago. This was the best trip we ever had in all the years of going to school.

Michelle Perino's fourth-grade class, Daniel Street Elementary School, Lindenhurst