Last spring we had a wonderful opportunity to help populate our streams with salmon. Our class, with the help of Judy Pickens, released salmon down in Fauntleroy Creek. Here is last years post. It was such a wonderful experience and we thought how great would it be if the children could be part of the whole process. When I inquired about growing the salmon in our classroom I was a bit disheartened to learn that it would be about a $600-$700 investment. For our small program, this would make it difficult. After speaking with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and letting them know we were interested, he let me know that every once in awhile there are tanks and systems that they can provide but given budget cuts chances were slim.
Well, fast forward 5 months…I receive 2 packages in the mail last month that indicated that maybe we got lucky. This box shows up with all kinds of Salmon in the Classroom paraphernalia. Turns out that we scored a tank and refrigeration system which lowers our cost significantly. Now are children can have a wonderful experience raising eggs in the classroom. Ms. Claudia will be incorporating our salmon into the curriculum.
Egg arrival is January 5th and release date is usually April/May. We are so excited to be part of this program especially since they are not accepting any new participants this year.