Friday, March 19, 2010

Field Trip Friday

Update: I was remiss in not mentioning the brave teachers who put their lives on the line for those of us who didn't ride the bus. They watched over our students who undoubtedly needed much attention during the trip. Especially those who rode in the back of the bus. (You know how those "back of the bus" kids are.) The bus riding teachers are heroes to us and to all who know them. Their sacrifice will not be forgotten. (Is that better, Marci?)

No show and tell today. We went on a field trip. We went to the IMAX theater in Riverfront Park. The kids rode the bus. I drove myself. I had to. Julianna was going and I wanted her to be in a car seat. So as sad as I was to not ride the bus, I did it for her. And in support of me, Kathy sacrificed her bus ride, too, and rode with us in our van. What a friend.*

Taking 10 kindergartners to Spokane and letting them loose in several acres of park is a little nerve wracking. Luckily I always have a few parents go with us and they are willing to be in charge of their own kids plus a couple more. It seems like I am continually counting kids. And every time I counted today I came up with 10. Always good. Pretty much getting back to school with the same number of kids you leave with is a successful kindergarten field trip.

The IMAX movie that we saw was Hubble. It was fascinating. They showed the whole process of getting the Hubble telescope 320 miles above us and what they've done to it in the years since. And they showed some of the pictures that they have gotten from Hubble. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I found myself thinking how awesome our God is to have created such a thing as our galaxy and all the ones outside ours. It also made me wonder what view we'll have from Heaven. Will all our questions about the universe be answered? Will we be able to see things all of those light years away? Will we even care while in the presence of the Bright and Morning Star? Probably not.

After the movie we rode the carousel and then went to the giant wagon park to eat lunch and play for a while. The kids were all really well behaved and seemed to have a great time. Julianna had fun, too. She made friends with a squirrel in the park and chased it around trying to feed it a pretzel. It came really close to her and she had absolutely no fear. A few steps closer and she would have grabbed it like she tries to grab the cat at home. When the squirrel finally climbed a tree, she kept asking, "Where squirrel go?" So cute.

So another annual field trip come and gone. And it was a good one.

*Umm, that was all sarcastic. Riding the bus is NOT fun for adults. Kids love it. Teacher's don't.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That sounds like a ton of fun. I'm so sorry you had to miss out on riding the bus, though. I hope you didn't lose any sleep. :)

marci said...

What? No mention of thanks to the brave teachers who risked their lives and sanity to ride on the bus and spent the majority of the ride telling your children to keep their bottoms in the seat and quit harassing the people sitting in front of them! There should have been at least a paragraph in this blog honoring them.

marci said...

Much better! Glad to be a catalyst for such inspirational prose!