Saturday, May 21, 2011

Class Trip - Children's Museum and Como Zoo

We headed to St. Paul last Wednesday for our First Grade Class Trip to the Children's Museum and Como Park. We had a beautiful day, and the kids were all very excited.



Are we there yet?


Some of the girls took advantage of the long bus ride for a little hair-styling.


Looks good, Lauren!

Finally, we made it. We listened to instructions in the Big Room at the museum. There were only three main rules - stay with your helper, walk, and have fun! Each child was assigned to a group of 3 kids and an adult, so the groups were free to explore the galleries on their own. Our volunteers were fantastic, and everyone had a really good time.


The kids listened carefully to the rules, and they were really good at following them (well, most of the time).


Who do you stay with??

Creative play is encouraged in all of the galleries, and the following pictures show just some of the activites available.

Making paper









Blowing giant bubbles





Doing business

Building




Driving?? Yikes!

Performing Pretending


Dressing up Shopping





Constructing



Jousting






Exploring in Earth Works









Face painting












And eating lunch!




After lunch, we got back on the bus and headed to Como Park, where we had just time for a quick tour of the zoo. The animals were all outside enjoying the bright sunshine, unlike last year when we had to skip the zoo entirely due to rain. Unfortunately, the batteries on my camera gave up so I didn't get very many pictures.


The lazy sloth was sleeping.



The monkeys were jumping all over the place!


The bison was keeping the grass trimmed.



And the giraffes were hanging out in the shade


That's when my batteries died - end of pictures, but not end of trip. We had a much quieter ride home, and I'm sure the kids slept well that night. I KNOW the chaperones did! Thanks again to all who volunteered, and thanks, kids, for being on your best behavior!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

April Students of the Month

Congratulations to our April Students of the Month, Dominic and Bryan!

Way to go, guys!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Visit from Charlie

My little grandson, Charlie, turns one on Sunday! To celebrate his birthday and also Mother's Day, my daughter, Jenna, paid a surprise visit to school on Friday (and brought me a special treat - a Caribou coffee dark chocoate mocha - yum!). The kids have heard stories about Charlie all year, and also seen pictures of him, so they were very excited to meet him in real life.

He hung out at Centers,


checked out the desks, went with us to lunch, and...




went outside for recess!


The kids loved taking him down the slide,



and they were so careful with him (don't worry, Jenna and I were standing close by).

Happy Mother's Day!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

April Students of the Month

Congratulations to Tre and Drew, April Students of the Month!


Keep up the good work!