Current mood:
relieved The long-awaited day finally arrived. Ida and I have been planning this field trip since before Thanksgiving. Originally, it was just going to be my class going to find a Christmas tree for our classroom, but I told Ida (2nd-3rd grade teacher)about it and she said she wanted to bring her class. Ever since I told my kids about it on Monday, it's all they've talked about. "When are we going to get our tree?" "We're going to get a tree?" "We get our tree today, right?" Both Ida and I stressed that they all needed to bring their warm clothes, because it's been so cold lately. Even yesterday, when it started snowing, it didn't warm up very much. The wind blew 30 mph all last night, and I was afraid it was going to blow all day today. (It didn't, praise God for that! It's blowing really hard again now!) As they came in this morning, I made sure they had snow pants, coats, boots, hats, gloves, everything. I didn't want anyone getting cold.
So, when it was about time to leave, we all got our cold weather gear on and set out. It was so cool watching the kids run. They were so excited! I have some of Ida's kids for different subjects during the day, and I knew they were just as excited as my little kids. They were rolling in the snowbanks and throwing snow at each other as they walked. Doris (my classroom aide) was leading the way, I was somewhere in the middle, and Ida and Tracy (Ida's classroom aide) were bringing up the rear. Somewhere along the way, we acquired 3 or 4 pre-school age little ones who were out playing and decided they wanted to join us. I'm not entirely sure where we went, but it was somewhere out past the airport. Most of the kids were fine tramping through the woods, but I could tell a couple of them were getting tired after about 20 minutes of slogging through snowy trails. That's why I was relieved when Doris and about half my class announced they'd found a great tree. The rest of us agreed, and Doris cut it down. Ida decided to take her class a little farther to find their tree, so we parted ways. About this time, my kids started to peel off layers of clothing. See, by some freak accident of nature, today was about 35 degrees. We were all sweating by the time we got back to the school.
Doris set the tree up and I started to make cups of hot chocolate (Ida and I had really been planning this). Ida's class got back right at the end of the school day, but after my class all had their drinks, and we'd only had 2 major spills. Well, then Nick's (4th and 5th grade) class came in. They had gone for a Christmas tree, too, but had gone someplace else separately from the "little kids." They heard about the hot chocolate and came in asking if they could have some. I told them they could only if they sat down and stopped yelling. At that point, I had about 30 kids under the age of 12 in my room. It was a little crazy there for awhile, because I could only make hot chocolate so fast. At one point, Ida had them singing "Silent Night" and "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." I had kids in and out of my room for a good hour after school got out. It was crazy, but in a good way. I love getting my kids out of the classroom and doing something active, even if it has no academic value. A majority of my class (and Ida's class, too) consists of boys and boys just need to run, throw themselves down snowy hills, and dive into snowbanks once in a while.
So, when it was about time to leave, we all got our cold weather gear on and set out. It was so cool watching the kids run. They were so excited! I have some of Ida's kids for different subjects during the day, and I knew they were just as excited as my little kids. They were rolling in the snowbanks and throwing snow at each other as they walked. Doris (my classroom aide) was leading the way, I was somewhere in the middle, and Ida and Tracy (Ida's classroom aide) were bringing up the rear. Somewhere along the way, we acquired 3 or 4 pre-school age little ones who were out playing and decided they wanted to join us. I'm not entirely sure where we went, but it was somewhere out past the airport. Most of the kids were fine tramping through the woods, but I could tell a couple of them were getting tired after about 20 minutes of slogging through snowy trails. That's why I was relieved when Doris and about half my class announced they'd found a great tree. The rest of us agreed, and Doris cut it down. Ida decided to take her class a little farther to find their tree, so we parted ways. About this time, my kids started to peel off layers of clothing. See, by some freak accident of nature, today was about 35 degrees. We were all sweating by the time we got back to the school.
Doris set the tree up and I started to make cups of hot chocolate (Ida and I had really been planning this). Ida's class got back right at the end of the school day, but after my class all had their drinks, and we'd only had 2 major spills. Well, then Nick's (4th and 5th grade) class came in. They had gone for a Christmas tree, too, but had gone someplace else separately from the "little kids." They heard about the hot chocolate and came in asking if they could have some. I told them they could only if they sat down and stopped yelling. At that point, I had about 30 kids under the age of 12 in my room. It was a little crazy there for awhile, because I could only make hot chocolate so fast. At one point, Ida had them singing "Silent Night" and "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." I had kids in and out of my room for a good hour after school got out. It was crazy, but in a good way. I love getting my kids out of the classroom and doing something active, even if it has no academic value. A majority of my class (and Ida's class, too) consists of boys and boys just need to run, throw themselves down snowy hills, and dive into snowbanks once in a while.
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