Kindergartners get water safety and writing lessons in one

It could have been a lesson in marine science or lifeguard challenges.

But beneath the exposure to such interesting topics, it was in fact was a lesson in writing.

Top of the World Elementary teacher Jenny Carlson is using several ways to help her kindergarten students transfer their thoughts onto paper, including bringing in guest speakers.

On Monday, Laguna Beach Marine Safety Lt. Kai Bond and Marine Protection Officer Jeremy Frimond, both Laguna Beach natives, spent about 30 minutes teaching students from three kindergarten classes not to take shells or sea life from tidepools and explaining the meaning of different colored flags posted at lifeguard towers.

The presentation aligns with a social studies unit on community, and is designed to complement other means of learning such as watching videos and reading news articles, Carlson said.

The goal is to boost students’ writing proficiency, a key element of the new Common Core curriculum standards, which emphasize critical thinking and interpretation. Students begin taking the tests in third grade.

“Bringing in real life examples is so much easier for the kids to write,” Carlson said. “Using as many resources as possible in one lesson, such as speakers and technology, and activating prior knowledge, is important to helping them write sentences.”

Inside the school’s multipurpose room, Frimond asked students to tell him about their favorite sea animal. Several answered starfish while one student mentioned the hermit crab.

“Hermit crabs live in a shell,” Frimond said. “When you go to the tidepools, you don’t want to take that shell because that is an animal’s home.”

Frimond also urged students to watch their steps when they visit tidepools and not pick up anything.

While teaching about dangerous water conditions, Bond enlisted the help of 5-year-old Theron Greengard to reenact a lifeguard rescue.

Theron, playing the lifeguard, placed straps of a rescue tube around his shoulders and “swam” to Bond who was pretending to need help.

Bond grabbed the tube and Theron pulled him across the stage.

Bond and Frimond’s presentation was timely considering Laguna lifeguards logged a total of 180 rescues Saturday and Sunday, Marine Safety Capt. Tom Trager said.

“Considering we had lifeguards on three beaches, [180] was a lot,” Trager said. Red-flag conditions Saturday included consistent 8- to 10-foot swells.

Back inside her classroom, Carlson showed the children a video of lifeguard hopefuls entering the ocean during tryouts. Students then split into groups and wrote on large pieces of paper spread across tables two facts they learned from the presentation.

Coco Ortega, 6, wrote, “Don’t pickup shells,” and then explained her typical beach day.

“I swim with my mom because I’m 6,” Coco said.

On Tuesday, students would read an article about lifeguards and add any information they learned to the paper. Then they would write two or three sentences with the prompt: “If were a lifeguard, I would help people by ...”

Laguna Beach firefighters and police officers will visit Carlson’s class later this month.