A powerful magician lives at Martinique Beach. She works magic on sand and surf, bringing life to the beach. Become the magician’s apprentice and find the signs of magic here. You’ll discover her cauldrons and make one of your own. Search out the ingredients for her special potion and mix them in your cauldron. Once it is made, the magician’s identity will be revealed. Put on your hat (real or imaginary) and begin!

The magician brings you the scent and sound of the ocean. Can you smell it? Do you hear it? The magician creates an invisible giant hand that sweeps over the dune grass. Watch the grass move under the hand’s spell. Move your bodies like the grass.

The magician keeps wild creatures on the beach–some only leave clues behind. Look for a small, two-legged beast running at the water’s edge. It’s a little bird called a sanderling and runs in a group. They search for food in the sand after a wave has washed away. They look funny as they run to and from the water. Run as fast as you can to the water’s edge and stick your toes in. Can you do the sanderling scuttle?

1. Fold your arms back like wings and stick out your head.
2. Lean forward and stick out your bottom.
3. Scuttle by running with tiny steps.
4. Chase waves out and race them back into shore.

What are the sandpipers eating when they peck at the sand? Here’s how to find out:

1. Scoop up some sand in your bucket where a wave has just washed away.
2. Be fast and scoop down deep.
3. Turn your cauldron upside down and use your shovel to place some on it.
4. Examine the sand carefully for sandpiper food. What is there?

Now look for clues of other beach creatures:

• footprints
• shells
• seaweed
• feathers

Place a handful of sand in your cauldron and say “Shazam!”

The magician can move entire mounds of earth. Make a sandcastle to show how it works:

1. Use your bucket to make a sandcastle with wet sand.
2. Make drip roofs by taking handfuls of really wet sand and squeezing it in drops over the top of the castle.
3. When you’re finished, slowly pour a bucket of water over your castle. What happens?

Now check out the power of the ocean:

1. Fill your bucket with sand and pack it down.
2. Run out and place it upside down in a spot where a wave has just washed away.
3. Take the bucket off the sand before another wave hits… Kabam!

Some say that the seventh wave is the strongest. After a large wave, count waves to see if this is true.

Now walk up to the dunes covered in grass (do not walk on the dunes). Look carefully to see why this sand is not carried away like the mound you made. What keeps it in place?

Search the cobbles for magical shapes and colours:

1. Collect four different kinds of shells.
2. Notice the colour of the shells while they dry.
3. Place some seawater in your cauldron and say “Mixle Lixle!”
4. Now dip them into the water and see what happens.

Try dipping three kinds of seaweed in the cauldron. They change their feel as well as their colour.

Subtle changes are at work here too. Pick up a rounded stone. How did it get so round? Place a small round stone in your cauldron and say “Presto Change-o!”

The Enchanted Guards were frozen as shapes in the lines of rock here long ago. They protect the magician’s cauldrons on the rocky point. If you recognize them and call them by name, they will let you pass. How many faces and body shapes can you find frozen here? Look for dinosaurs, animals and magical beasts. No one has greeted them for a long time. Pat them on their heads as you pass to the point.

The magician’s cauldrons are shallow pools of water found among the rocks. Some folks call them tide pools. Look into the cauldrons scattered across the rocks and discover the hidden life brewing inside. Get into the cauldron viewing position:

1. Carefully kneel or crouch down very close to the edge of the pool.
2. Don’t step in as you’ll hurt the creatures beneath your feet.
3. Explore with your eyes and your hands.
4. Gently push aside the seaweed to check beneath.
5. Peek into crevices between rocks.
6. Check under rocks (be sure to replace them).

Can you find these creatures:

• colourful rooted life forms dancing in the water (seaweed)
• many-legged creatures (crabs)
• wandering star beasts (starfish)
• blue, hinged, water rocks (mussels)
• spiral critters (periwinkles and whelks)
• swimming beasties (tiny fish)

Find the mystical creature lurking in a shallow pool with a sandy bottom. Look for tracks in the sand, as if something has been dragged along the bottom. What creature is making them?

The great magician has also created a tiny creature that survives the biggest storm waves. Look for something that has a trap door on top and is:

• attached to rocks
• about the size of a large pebble
• white or gray and shaped like a mini volcano

When it is covered by water, the trap door opens allowing the creature – a barnacle – to feed on tiny bits of food. Find one with its trap door open. Can you see the creature inside?

Find an empty shell and place it in your cauldron and say “Abracadabra!”

An important skill for a magician’s apprentice is being able to discover the rainbow of colours in the cauldrons! Can you find it?

1. Give a couple of rainbow chips to each person.
2. Search the cauldrons for your colours.
3. Collect a very small sample of your colours from the cauldrons.
4. Be very careful with any living thing you find.

When everyone has their colour samples, lay them out on a rock, arranged in an arch. This is the magician’s rainbow! After a good look, return everything to its home.

Place a piece of dead seaweed in your cauldron and say “Kalamazoo!”

Before you leave the magician’s cauldrons, take a picture of your favourite one or do a sketch of it in your Adventure Journal. When you get home, do a full colour picture of the cauldron in your journal.

Here’s a challenge only experienced apprentices can do. Lick your lips and try to identify a taste. It is the essence of the magician’s potions. She invisibly placed it on your lips.

Look at the trees surrounding the white rocks. Do you notice anything special about them? The magician has also worked her magic to shape them.

This mound of white rock holds magical powers. Could it be an ancient frozen beast? Place a tiny piece of the white rock in your cauldron and say “Shazaam!”

Your cauldron now includes all of the key ingredients for the special potion. Here’s how to use it to meet the magician:

1. Stand with your back to the water.
2. Hold your cauldron and close your eyes.
3. Wet your fingers with the potion and flick them at your forehead.
4. Say these magic words:

“Alacazam, Alacazoo!

Magician May I Meet You!”

Turn around and look from the sand on the beach to the horizon and you will see the magician.

Who is it?

Take a moment to marvel at it (and take a picture if you want). Return the potion to the magician: go to the edge of the water and dump out your cauldron.

There is a hidden plaque nearby with a special symbol of the magician on it. Hint: Look on something you sit on near the white rocks. Use your pencil or crayon to make a rubbing of it in your Adventure Journal.

The plaque symbol is:

Congratulations! You have successfully completed your apprenticeship and have discovered the identity of the Magician of Martinique. Before you go, you may want to build a sandcastle fit for a magician on the sandy beach.