If you’ve ever watched salmon merge at the mouth of the river, it’s similar to the scene at Baranof Elementary School. The buses unloaded a school of students, dressed in bright coats with reflective patches, flashing silver. The kids had reason to be excited: Regular class would be suspended for a day of learning.
The school has been hosting a Salmon Celebration Day for the past 9 years.
Each class moves from room to room in 20 minute increments, taking part in different activities. Mark Lee, the principal at Baranof Elementary, said it can be pretty hectic.
“But it’s controlled chaos.” Lee said.
The kids listened to Tlingit stories, built a habitat out of construction paper and played a game about the salmon life cycle.
“It’s nice because the different types of learners that there are, there’s something that appeal to them in one way or another throughout the stations,” Lee said.
One way to do that is by appealing to the kids’ appetites. Teacher Jeffrey Hole wore a tie shaped like a salmon and showed the students how to make salmon dip in four easy steps. The classroom was stocked with boxes of Ritz crackers and several pounds of fish, all donated by Baranof parents.
Dylan Radziukinas, a student, wasn’t a fan of Step #1, which involved separating salmon from the bones.
“When we touched it it felt all gooey and mushy,” Radziukinas said.
But he was a fan of the final product.
Hole says that the goal of his workshop, like all the workshops, is to make this critical resource familiar and fun to first graders–even if that means making a bit of a mess.
