After four solid days of wind driven rain I was starting to have my doubts that this field trip I had been planning since August was actually going to happen.
But I awoke to the sun and all my weather fears disappeared. It was going to be a glorious day!
I arrived at school extra early so I could get organized. Name tags ready, chaperones set. I had emailed the bus company two days before just to confirm.
Jayna, my student teacher and I kept the kids busy for the hour before it was time to leave. We made sure they had used the facilities, checked the lunch situation, ordered bagged lunches for the kids that forgot then lined them up to go. The kids were getting antsy so I made the decision to wait for the bus outside.
There we sat...and sat. We waited...and waited. Thankfully, I have some moms who are very good at singing "The Wheels on the Bus."
At exactly 9:05 I decided to make a phone call to transportation, only to hear this, "We are unable to take any calls now, but please leave a message and someone will return your call."
So I left a message which basically said, "Hello, we are waiting, where are you???"
A bus pulled up, but sadly, not our bus. I did ask the bus driver to radio in to find out where OUR bus was, was it coming? Did they forget us?
She assured me there were only two buses out that day, the one she was driving and another waiting at Collins Middle School to take those kids to the Topsfield Fair.
"Umm, could it be remotely possible that they sent the bus reserved by Mrs. COLLINS to COLLINS middle school by mistake?"
Nice bus driver relays the message, gets her reply and politely says to me, "we're sorry there seems to be a mix up. The bus will be here in 10 minutes.
Now the only reason I even thought that was a possibility was because last year 10 giant boxes of file folders were delivered to me at my school, but were supposed to go the middle school, but I digress.
Exactly 30 minutes past the time we were supposed to leave, 54 kindergarteners and 15 grownups were on the bus headed for the fair! Hurray!
Because of our late start we hit some traffic. Arrival 10:15, 45 minutes later than planned. This was going to be a world record tour of a very large fair.
We split up into our groups, Jayna and I took 5 kids with us and headed off. The first stop, snack in the arena while we took in a horse show.
While I explained the fine art of walk, trot, canter and posting (yes, I know this stuff) the kids ate their snack. Because if we were going to run through this fair, we needed some energy!
Look how happy they are! (sorry for the smileys...privacy rules and all that.)
We stopped briefly to look at this amazing sand sculpture on our way to the sheep barn.
If you've never had the "pleasure" of smelling sheep, you haven't lived.
Yes, they are quite cute, and fuzzy, but they are not nicest smelling of creatures.
The kids didn't seem to mind though.
One of my little guys imitated every animal noise he heard. He baa'd when we visited the sheep barn, until he saw the cows, then he mooed. Until he saw the roosters, ducks and alpacas. I had no idea what sound an alpaca made until I heard the little guy make it.
Funny, no matter how much you tell a kid NOT to put your hand near an animal's mouth or into a cage, they will attempt it anyway.
These little horses named after the Seven Dwarfs may looks sweet and innocent, but they BITE, and little kindergarten fingers look an awful lot like carrots!
The hit of the fair, as always is the Giant Pumpkin. The kids are always amazed at this thing. Is it any wonder? Three of them could fit inside this amazing orange squash.
We saw this...
I readied myself for the quack, but it never came. Instead I heard....
"AFLAC!"
It was a great day, and you know you had fun when the kids (and chaperones) fall asleep on the way home! Can't wait for next year!
1 comment:
The bus showed up 5 minutes after you left. I was running around looking for 60 people no one to be found. I thought I was going to have a restful day back at school. NOT !
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