Our First Field Trip

We took our first field trip recently.  The whole first grade went - all 129 students!  We had the BEST TIME EVER!  The kids were absolutely fantastic.  The weather was beautiful (a little warm but what do you expect in Georgia right??).  The trip was a success.

We started out down at the Dairy Farm.  The kids got a chance to "milk" a cow (it was fake btw).  The kids were surprised when only water came out (hehe).  We had an awesome tour guide that did a great job explaining all about the milking process on a level the kids could easily understand.  Her name was Addison.  We have a picture of her (in the pink) explaining how the cows are brought in to be milked.

Miss Addison was impressed by how inquisitive our kids were.  They were very curious about how they cows could have babies if there were no bulls on the farm.  Gotta love questions from six and seven year olds!

The kids also had a chance to go down to the calf barn to interact with new born calves.  They were precious (the kids and calves).  This is my favorite part of the trip because the kids get to be up close and personal with the animals.

After the Dairy Barn we headed up to the back campus to a place called Possum Trot.  This is an old one room building that Martha Berry used for school, church and other community events.  There is even a small cemetary on the site.  And no, Martha Berry is not buried there.  The children got to stand on tippie toes and peek into the windows of the one room building(s).  They seemed to enjoy seeing this first-hand as we had talked about what life was like years ago when children of all ages in a community went to school together.  At this point we found a spot in the grass and enjoyed our lunch!  (Note: with the humidity it seemed like 143 degrees as this point!)

We loaded the bus and headed back to 27.  We arrived at Oak Hill and the kids were very impressed.  We were able to cool off in the small movie theater and watch the life of Martha Berry "Miracle in the Mountains".  We then took a brief tour of the museum on the Oak Hill campus.  The kids learned some interesting facts about Martha Berry and Berry College.  Each time I take this trip I also learn something new.

The house on the hill was the most impressive as many of the children had not had the experience of touring an old antebellum house before.  The rooms were ornate and massive, the gardens were prestine, and car collection in the carriage house was fascinating!

We had a great time learning new things and being with our friends.

Life is good in first grade :)

Going on a Wabbit Hunt

The students and I went on a rabbit hunt on Friday.  We saw pictures that baby bunnies had been spotted on the playground on Thursday so we went to investigate this further.  The kids were sooooo cute as they tiptoed up towards the area where I spotted the precious bunnies.  They (the bunnies) were nestled in the new mulch alongside a post.

At first the bunnies were sound asleep.  The sweet whispers of the kids woke one of the bunnies but they remained snuggled in their spot. The kids were able to see one of the bunnies little bitty black eye open up.  I caught a quick video of three girls as they hovered around the bunnies spot.

The best part (for me) was when we went back inside and talked about it.  Because we have spent the past few weeks reading some great books by Mo Willems (previous post for more info), I told the kids to create a picture of the bunnies with speech bubbles.  Some of the kids wrote the BEST dialogues between the bunnies.  They wrote things like "Where did mom go?"  "I don't know but I hope she comes back soon."  "Who are these big kids looking at us?"  "I'm hungry"   A few kids drew pictures above the bunnies head to illlustrate what they may be dreaming of.  Of course it was carrots - love those kiddos and their creative thoughts.