First Grade
Programs
And Activities

Weather Stories
and Artwork

Curriculum Brochures

Big Sur State Park

We are the kids of Captain Cooper School. Captain Cooper is an elementary school on the side of Apple Pie Ridge in Big Sur. The school is made up of grades K-5, with a total of 75 kids. The school was built in the year 1962. Some of our parents went to this school.

As part of our science program, our whole school is working with the State Park on a plant restoration project. We are restoring this particular area because it is so empty and it needs help. The kids of Captain Cooper are planting Douglas Iris, Redwood Sorrel (they look like little clovers,) Bracken Fern, Western Sycamore and Coast Redwood (sempirvirens).

We are doing the project to preserve the riparian habitat. People can walk on established trails, so the bushes and small trees don't get trampled and the habitat doesn't get ruined. We are also trying to protect the vegetation we planted, so we ask that people not enter the fenced area. Then the earth will be fine the way it is.

The part of the earth known as Big Sur has been known for its remote beauty throughout history. The first humans on the Big Sur Coast were the Esselen Indians. Not much is known about these residents. The first European immigrants to settle in Big Sur were the Pfeiffer family. In 1869, Michael and Barbara Pfeiffer built a house at the entrance of Sycamore Canyon. In 1884, their son John homesteaded on the Big Sur River and moved to the site of the Homestead Cabin. Later, John and his wife Florence opened a ranch resort, now known as the Big Sur Lodge. In 1933 the State of California purchased a 680-acre piece of land along the Big Sur River and named Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in honor of this pioneer family.

We would appreciate it if you would help us with our restoration project. One thing you can do is read the signs and do not go beyond the fence. Please do not litter in this area or anywhere else. Do not step on the Douglas Iris, Redwood Sorrel, Bracken Fern, Western Sycamore, and Coast Redwood. Please do not take any short cuts in the restoration area. If you are with a smoker, please snuff it out and throw it in the garbage. Thank you for your help. When you visit here again in couple of years, you will see how much our restoration project has grown and changed.

Upper-graders collect rock from a wash next to the Big Sur River. Later, the rock was moved downstream and used at the edge of the restoration site to correct the erosion caused by water and people.

We dug up Sycamore seedlings that had sprouted in the Big Sur River after the El Nino rains and put them in pots. Later, we took them to our greenhouse on campus to nurture them until spring planting time. We all can help!

The First Grade at Captain Cooper School is taught by Helen Logan Hays, the newest credentialed member of the staff. Previous to moving to the Monterey Peninsula in December, 1996, she co-taught the 4th-8th grade classroom at Coffee Creek Elementary School, a two-room K-8 school in remote Trinity County, California.

The beauty of Big Sur invites young learners to explore their area to build understandings about their natural world. Since Helen began teaching at Captain Cooper, fourth graders have continued to emphasize learning language arts and math skills, but many writing opportunities and data analyses have been incorporated into the study of science.

Helen has brought her interest and her experience in elementary science learning to her classroom and to the rest of the school. She has been active in statewide science education since 1987. She was a member of the 1990 California Science Framework Committee and a consultant/writer for several publishers and science curriculum projects, including Adopt-a-Watershed and Project Storyline. In support of the changing vision for science education described in the State Science Framework, Helen has also served as a consultant to the California Department of Education for statewide student and school assessments (CAP and CLAS performance-based assessments, the PQR process, and the Challenge School Science Standards Committee). Helen has also been a staff developer for the California Science Implementation Network (CSIN) and the California Science Project of Inland Northern California (CSP-INC.

Teaching in isolated small schools leads Helen to advocate appropriate use of technology in the classroom. Technology is a natural partner with science education, and it brings rich differences from around the world to children who often haven't "been out of their own backyard". This year at Captain Cooper School, each class has at least three new computers, connected with the other computers at the school through a LAN. All classrooms have access to the Web as well. In addition to studying environmental science on monthly field trips to local state parks, students use technology to deepen their understandings. They continue with research on The Net, write about their environmental studies using word processing, and are learning how to format their writings into a student published newsletter.

In addition to providing rich opportunities for increasing scientific understandings, Big Sur offers learners historically significant sites to study, as well. The Point Sur Lighthouse is located less than two miles north, just off Highway 1. Andrew Molera State Park, where interpretive displays about ranching in the late nineteenth century are being developed, is even closer.

The rainbow is stopping the wind. There’s a lamp in the corner because it’s dark. It’s very cold. I’m under the blanket. Jesus

It was raining and I was out with my mommy and Cessair. We were playing in the rain and the sun came out. Crystal

I was playing outside on a sunny day. Then it rained, and I came in my house and looked out the window. It stopped raining. Alondra

The rain came and I went outside. There was lightning. Then the rainbow came out, then the sun. Bryan

It was raining. I covered my head with my umbrella, and a rainbow came out Hernan

The rain's dropping onto the flower. It's making the roots grow. The sun and the rain are making the rainbow. Alex

Return to Top of Page