I am so glad I was not gone today!

That's what one of my students said and I felt the same way.  It was a good day to be a third grader.

We went on a field trip which is always slightly fraught.  Before school, Miriam and Janelle and I were bracing ourselves and asking each other if we were ready and what we were forgetting about.  

Everyone was very excited and math was a struggle but we did it.  My class had four dad chaperones which was pretty great.  They weren't very flappable or worried about anything.  I saw some mothers who were chaperoning the other third grade classes and they had the same intensity about them that the teachers had.  It was nice to have chilled out dads as a counterpoint.  

I counted heads at every juncture and we went home with the same students we left with.  A few of them were suspicious of the field trip in general.  A few of them were very excited.  A few of them were nervous.  (Will there be restrooms?)

On the bus, one little guy bounced up and down and said, "It's been years since I rode a bus!"  We have a walking school so any time they get to ride a bus, it is exciting times.  They were shocked there were no seatbelts.

Here are some things that delighted me:

The bravery it took to let a cockroach crawl over their hands.

The students that posed "like flowers" so a butterfly would land on them.

It worked!

The girl who stood perfectly still for a long time so a butterfly would land on her.

And it worked!

The student who produced a fraction tile from his shoe right in the middle of everything.  He said, "Remember yesterday when I lost this?  I just found it in my shoe!"

I said, "How did you not know it was in your shoe?"

He shrugged and said, "I just thought it was a wood chip."

One little guy is generally unhappy and was determined to hate the field trip.  I asked him to tell me if he saw any butterflies that they have in Guatemala (where he is from).  He got very excited at one point and, through Nola interpreting, showed me a tree that they have in Guatemala.  He was happier after that.  He is homesick, poor little guy.

We watched stick bugs and praying mantises being fed, we studied up on life cycles of butterflies, we saw tarantulas and scorpions and lots and lots of butterflies.  

when two magnifying glasses are better than one

It was a good day to not be gone!