Kindergartners Enjoy Salmon Field Trip at CTUIR Fisheries Site

Kindergartners at the Pendleton Early Learning Center recently attended one of the school’s favorite events of the school year – the Salmon Field Trip. All the students visited the CTUIR (Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) Fisheries site on Mytinger Lane in Pendleton in April.

To prepare for the trip, PELC classroom teachers and Shawndine Jones, Umatilla Language Teacher, conduct lessons about salmon and lamprey and their life cycle and teach Umatilla language words about them.

At the field site, students view the salmon ponds and see live lamprey. The students can feed the salmon and have a chance to hold a lamprey. Staff at the fisheries site talk to the children about raising salmon, releasing them into local rivers, and about lamprey.

Angela Lattin, PELC Principal, said the field trip is highly engaging, and students who often struggle in the regular school setting find huge success on the trip. “This event brings together two worlds – Tribal history and culture alongside our modern changing society. Science, language arts, social studies, and Indigenous history are blended together in a high-quality memorable experience,” Lattin said. After the trip, students return to the classroom to write about the experience.

The PELC thanks the CTUIR Fisheries staff for their time and generosity in making the event possible.