The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I have a love/hate relationship with field trips.

I usually love to plan and organize events, but when it comes to field trips...not so much.

They are so much work to plan. You often have to track down paperwork. There is a healthy amount of stress. It's challenging enough to keep tabs on 23 kids within the confines of the classroom. Trying to do so out of your element in the big wide world can make your head spin.

This week my class went on two field trips.

They were polar opposites on the field trip spectrum.

Tuesday we went to Plimoth Plantation.

The Good: It was an amazing educational opportunity. We've been studying the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags for the past month and this truly made the history come alive. They were able to see, hear, smell, and experience all that we had been learning about in books. That's priceless.

The Bad: We didn't have as much time there as I would have liked. There were over 1900 students visiting on the day we went. When you dress kids in outerwear they all start to look alike. There was a lot of head counting going on.

The Ugly: Two plus hour bus ride through Boston traffic...one way!

It was worth the ride and I would do it again, but man did it make me appreciate today's field trip.

Today we boarded a bus much like we had done on Tuesday.

However, there was no sitting in bumper to bumper traffic with a chorus of "are we there yets" while hoping and praying nobody wet their pants...including the chaperones who had boarded the bus with extra large Dunkin Donuts coffees.

Today we simply had to travel 5 minutes to our destination which was another elementary school in town. There we walked down one hall and into the gym. We enjoyed a presentation on woodwind instruments and then we hopped back onto our bus for the "don't blink or you'll miss it commute" back to our school. Easy Peasy!

My week of field trips got me thinking. Organizing for a field trip would be blog worthy.

And so I will do just that next week. In the meantime I have my usual Saturday morning field trips planned. Grocery store and post office here I come.

Happy weekend!