What is it about a field trip that is so magical to children? Field trips seems to be the most memorable of school activities - even for teachers, who are nevertheless inevitably exhausted at the end of each one - no matter how fun it was or how smoothly everything went. Every morning of a field trip I pray for 3 things: that we will all be safe, that the kids will behave, and that I will have the energy I need to make it through the day.
Our first field trip for this school year was on Friday. To start the adventure, we took a bus ride. There were many first graders who had never ridden a bus before and a few who had never been on a field trip! One of my little spanish-speaking guys, when he saw the 2 buses out the window exclaimed, "We're going on a bus? I thought we were all going to ride motorcycles!" Who knew where he got that idea from. I promise - I didn't mention anything about motorcycles.
We took the bus to Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon. Conversation on the way was excited, as the kids pointed out other buses, places they've been with their parents, etc. and asked questions like "are we going to see any animals?" and "do they eat people?" The canyon was beautiful! As our bus came around the bend and the reservoir came into view, about 50 children's voices rose in awe, almost as if they'd just seen a huge burst of fireworks. It was cool!
The second part of the field trip was to hang out at a campground and visit stations manned by forest rangers who taught the students about compass directions, seeds, water, leaves and fire safety. Smokey the Bear was a hit with all my students except one girl who was scared to death of him and spent that whole station crying and hiding behind one of the parent helpers.
Speaking of which - parent volunteers are awesome and a MUST on a field trip!! I would have been 5 times as exhausted at the end of the day without them, and that means I would have probably been comatose!
The only downside to the day was that with the timing of everything, most of my kids were hungry enough to eat anything - including bark, roots, or bugs, by the time we were able to break out the sack lunches. Considering that they started asking when lunch was at 10:30 and we didn't eat until 12:30..... I thought I would go crazy as they all died of starvation. But we all survived and everyone made it back in one piece. We were all safe, the kids behaved for the most part, and I had just barely enough energy to make it to 3:30. One down.....
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