Practicum Kids and Dixie Fun

On Tuesday I went with my Practicum first grade class to Snow Canyon. I was really excited about it since it was my last day with them and we got to have fun on a field trip. It was fun, sort of. Imagine me, I am only given 5 little boys to be in charge of, and I've still got my hands full. The lady ranger's first words are "I am a Naturalist." So we go on a hike. These little kids are not allowed to make noise (they might frighten the wildlife) and they can't step off the trail. I totally get that, but they are seven year old boys. This was my biggest problem. They wanted to kick plants and pull leaves off, they wanted to stomp on snake holes and frighten the lizards before anyone else in the group could see. I ended up with a big headache. This is the only "legal" picture I can show you since no faces can be seen (the blue shirts are my little charges).When we were getting back to the school and off the bus one of the teachers fell and had to go home. This meant that me and my "dyad" Moenika took over Mrs. W's class while she took the injured teacher's class. It was fun, and it would have been better if we weren't worn out already. There were only 11 kids there that day so it wasn't bad at all. We read them some stories and then did a writer's workshop about the field trip in which the students wrote about their favorite part.

I forgot the best story of all about the hike. The children were very, very thirsty. The school had provided a water bottle for each child, but they couldn't have it till they got back to the ranger station. We are hiking with seven year olds in 94 degree weather. Not cool. The students were complaining and the teachers told them that if they kept complaining they wouldn't get any water even when we got back. So what did I do? Picture my water bottle being passed up and down the line of kids. I decided I would be the one to die of thirst because :

a) I am older and can handle it, and

b) There was no way in heck I was going to drink after them.

Fun stuff.

This is the fun part. These are my table buddies at school. Sorry the pic is a little blurry. These are the coolest girls I have ever met! We spend 6 hours a day, two days a week sitting together and you get to know a person pretty well that way. The one in the green stripes is my dyad Moe. The others are Kim, Jessica, Whitney, and Nicole. We have the best time and everyone is jealous that we're the cool table...jk...but we have so much fun together all the time!