Today was my turn to go on Kaleb's 3rd grad field trip with him! I wasn't originally planning on going because another parent beat me at signing up to volunteer but then another parent canceled and I was able to go and fill in. I was thankful for the opportunity to go with Kaleb because for the past two years only room moms were able to go. I am sure poor Kaleb has felt jipped the past few years. So when I found out I could go, I jumped at the chance.
Kaleb's field trip started when we left the school around 9:15 and we returned around 2:30 in the afternoon. We traveled by school bus to the Museum of Natural History where we were welcomed, briefed and then allowed to explore throughout the Facility. I was assigned to look after 3 of Kaleb's classmates and Kaleb was thrilled when he found out his good friend Lukas was in our group.
The kids and I took our time and made our way around to several exhibits. There are like 3 floors that you can explore. We saw native american pottery, baskets, totem poles, fossils, dinosaur bones and displays of dinosaurs.
After visiting the dinosaur exhibit and the native american exhibit we headed over to "The Chocolate" exhibit which was an entire display dedicated to educating the kids on where chocolate comes from, how it is made, and the different kinds of chocolate. My favorite display was the life size box of Chocolates the kids could stand in front of! I wished it wasn't made of plastic because the Chocolates looked so real you could just take a bite out of it. Our mouths were salivating too because throughout the room you could smell chocolate. I am sure this helped promote chocolate sales in their chocolate candy store at the end of the tour. It worked on me and my kids I was chaperoning, so as a surprise, I bought them each a truffle as we left the facility. I received some brownie points with Kaleb's classmates for that!
After touring the Museum we went to one of their cafeteria's to eat lunch and visit. After lunch we headed out to the Red Butte Gardens that are right on site for a hike with several other groups.
Our tour guide Lauren, was a cute girl from Massachusetts and did a great job of teaching the kids about the different vegetation in the Utah mountains. A favorite of mine was the desert sage and seeing and touching a plant called Lamb's ear. It is a plant that is incredibly soft to the touch. We also learned about a bitter bush that had little pods that you could eat but were bitter. I didn't try it after watching the kids eat it and spit it out. Apparently, it was Bitter! Hee hee. The Bitter bush was made into a tea and the Indians used to drink it for medicinal purposes. We also saw a magpie nest, and lots of wild flowers along the trails. We also saw an old pioneer house in the canyon that used to be a quarry keepers home. The canyon that we hiked through has provided a lot of the stone that was used to build the Salt Lake City Temple. I love history lessons!
Our tour guide led us down a trail called Rattle Snake pass and it was quite exciting for the kids. They all were scared we would see a rattlesnake along the way because of the history of the trail being filled with rattlesnakes. Seems like a dumb idea to take little 3rd graders through a place like that but um, okay. I was worried about the kids too but the hike turned out great and we didn't have one student get bit or see a rattlesnake. Thank goodness.
Since Its been in the high 80's all week and it was toasty. I am glad that I brought several frozen bottles of water with Kaleb and I because some of the kids in Kaleb's class were not prepared and were getting sick because it was so hot. The hike was also not a simple hike and was quite difficult for most of the 3rd graders. They were all troopers though and I am proud of all the kids for making it through. I had so much fun hiking with Kaleb. It was fun to reach the top and take a few pictures of us and the Salt Lake City Valley. Kaleb expressed wanting to do the hike again with Mark and Karmindy at a later date. We had a great time and I am thankful I got to spend the day with my sweet boy!
No comments:
Post a Comment