5th Grade Field Trip

5th grade is a great year in our school district. The kids take part in a nature unit that allows them 5 field trips to a local wildlife refuge. The grand finale at the end of the year is an ALL DAY trip where the kids cook their own breakfast and participate in four different outdoor stations throughout the day. It is a much anticipated day by kids and parents alike.

How many 5th graders does it take to crack an egg???? The girls on Liv's team did a great job. They had to plan their own meal, assign everyone items to bring, gather it all up, organize it, cook, clean up and of course EAT!!! We had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and sausage. They did a great job and it was delicious!!!

Olivia was in charge of the sausage. Of course a white sweatshirt was the perfect choice for the day. (insert eye roll here) We were blessed with an absolute gorgeous day that's for sure!

Our first station was canoeing....what fun! I can paddle a canoe!!!! Olivia did a great job paddling and really loved it. Looks like I'll be sitting in the middle from now on with Tony. This was my first job as "steerer" (I'm sure there's a more technical word for it???) anyways, I must say, I did pretty well and we stayed on course. However, my shoulders are still sore.

After one whirl around the lake I was pooped and the girls with me wanted to switch. I convinced Liv's teacher to take them out one more time. According to her, he was much faster and skilled than I.

Next station was Pond Study. Gross. This was right up Liv's alley...she loves this stuff. They had nets and guidebooks and these cool magnifiers to use in order to see things up close. No one fell in thank goodness.

After lunch, we headed to Snake Encounter. A retired couple was on hand to teach us all about the slithering creatures. They are full time volunteers for the U.S. Gov't. Fish and Wildlife Dept. They travel all over the country to different Government parks/refuges educating people about snakes. How COOL is that??? (not the snake part, but the rest) When asked if anyone had NEVER held a snake, I guess I had quite a look on my face and somehow found myself up front holding one. Ick. No pictures of that, sorry.

Our last station of the day was fishing. They had rods for everyone and all sorts of bait: minnows, leaches, corn, and worms. They hadn't caught any fish all day until our group came along. 4 fish were caught by 4 girls.....YAY GIRLS!!!! Three of them were from our group...Liv got skunked.

What a great day we had. This is such an important piece of education for these kids. Some of them had never done anything like this. I am grateful that our school district supports outdoor education.

We've been crazy busy the last couple of weeks. I still have to post Spring Sing, Band Concert and Dance Recital pictures. Hopefully I'll get that all done this weekend. I've got several videos and those take a long time. I wanted to get this up for Livie as she had such a great day and wanted everyone to see it.

Last night Chris and I went to a James Taylor concert in Omaha....AMAZING!!!! I know he's "old school" but his songs are timeless and he is a true musician. This is the second time we have seen him and he STILL sounds better live than any cd you could listen to. He played for almost 3 hours and even took time between sets to sign autographs, pose for pictures, etc....class act.

More soon!