Field Trip with Ease

Hey, friends! Today we ventured to the Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard, and it was a BREEZE. So, I wanted to share some things that made our day go oh-so-smoothly.

First, I will admit, I had 17 parents/grandparents join us. I know. It may sound like a nightmare, but it was amazing! I only have 22 friends, so it allowed me to really enjoy my time learning/exploring with the class. I was able to go pumpkin picking, play tag, and even enjoy an apple-cider treat. 🙂

Outside of amazing parent support, I prepared a few other things to make sure everything went smoothly. In my teacher drawstring bag (not stylish, but so easy to carry), I put a clipboard with 3 class lists (you never know!), wipes, hand sanitizer, plastic Ziploc bags, plastic grocery bags, bandaids, Painter’s Tape, and Sharpies. I definitely should have included a whistle….live and learn!

Why the Painter’s Tape and Sharpies, you ask?? These were the BEST tools for our pumpkin picking adventures. As we were finding our perfect pumpkins, I asked a parent to label the pumpkins with each child’s name. It kept the pumpkins from being mixed up, and when we had to put them below the bus in storage while we traveled, we didn’t lose our pumpkins. It was the simplest way to keep everyone happy!

After we returned from our adventure, we spent the rest of the afternoon talking and writing about our days. This week we are learning to write our first REAL paragraphs! Paragraph writing is a year-long skill, and our first efforts today were awesome! We used a variation of the 4-Square Planner to organize our thoughts. Our first paragraphs included a main idea (My favorite part of our trip….), a reason (with a highlighted because), a detail, and a wrap-up sentence. For our first efforts at paragraph writing, I was VERY pleased! (If you would like this template, you may grab it here.)

This is one of my favorites – “I loved jumping from hay stack to hay stack because I got to play tag with Ms. W. I had to run fast to get away from Ms. W when she was it.” #nomercy #playtowin #bestdayever 

We’ll friends, that’s it for tonight. We had a wonderful, wonderful trip, but I am tired. The games of hay-stack tag and slide races did this teacher in. 😉 Until next time, adios!