Field trip to the farm

Today I took my students to the farm with my partner teacher. It started out very smoothly .Every single parent volunteer showed up. I placed the students into groups of 3 to 4 and was waiting to hear from my partner teacher that we should go out to the bus. Ten minutes passed, and I decided to look next door . . . and noticed that there were no students next door. Ahh. They must have been waiting for us on the bus.

So, I get everyone, quickly, lined up and take them outside. . . but there is NO bus! Did they go without us? They wouldn't do that. No, we just crossed paths, and the bus wasn't there. Actually, the office forgot the order a bus for the field trip! Slight detail.

So, me and the five parent volunteers head back into the classroom. I don't want to tell the students we are not going, because maybe we will be able to go, but then again, maybe we won't. It is now 10 am, and we were going to drive 30 minutes, be at the farm for 2 hours, and then drive back. If the bus were to arrive at that moment, we would have 1.5 hours at the farm, but a bus hasn't even been called.

Not knowing how long this is going to last, I have all the students sit on the floor and we practice all the songs they need to know for their Thursday performance: Inch by Inch, Are you Sleeping?, Angels watching over me, Take me out to the ball game and three or four more songs. We learned how to sing "Are You Sleeping"? as a round. Then we sing old Mac Donald had a farm. (with over 7 different animals) We all went to the bathroom again. Still, no bus.

Finally, sometime just before 11, the bus arrives. (The kids are complaining about being hungry and we normally have already eaten.) The driver gives a bunch of instructions in English and I stand up to translate, but my voice is 50% gone. Hmmmm.

The farm itself was great. They got to pet goats, rabbits, plant some pumpkin seeds. They went on a fun hay ride, got to look at honey bees and go down a very big slide. It was a very short trip, because of the 30 minute drive there and back, but it was quite fun. We had to get back, because the students had a dress rehearsal for the music performance in the afternoon. (That was great for me, because by the afternoon my voice was gone.)

For the last five minutes I had them in my class, I held up geometric shapes, and the students general got the idea that they should say whichever shape I was holding up, and then we got ready to go. I think I won't be in much of a state to teach tomorrow:( I will enjoy extra time with Mateo and Alayna!