The field trip......

I normally don't post about my classroom and students. I just don't feel like I should. However, a couple of folks commented about kindergartners at a pumpkin patch, "how cute" and "won't that be fun." I have to share the story.........

To begin, let me start with the planning stages. We had seen the billboards for this pumpkin patch/corn maze. In six years of teaching kindergarten, I had never taken that field trip. I thought it sounded like fun, convinced everybody that it would be great, the weather would be fine, and that the kids would L-O-V-E it!! The website made the place sound fantastic. So I placed the phone call.

I tried to get this place on the phone and couldn't. I tried emailing and he didn't respond very fast. Finally, the other teacher (there are only 2 of us for kindergarten-small school) talked to them. They booked us and we got the kids pumped up. Well, they called on Tuesday at the school to see if we were still coming, and I said that we were scheduled for the next day. He said, oh yeah, but I thought it was maybe a different group or something.

My radar was buzzing then that this trip might not be all that we thought it was going to be. By the way, it was snowing when I talked to him on Tuesday. Snowing - in October!!!!!! I can't remember it ever doing that in east Tennessee before. Wait. It gets better.

So, next morning, we are at school getting ready to go. We are making sure the kids are bundled and ready to go. Forecast of 50 and sunny with blustery winds. Grrreeeeaaatttt!!!!!! Off we go, 45 minutes away to have fun outside!! By this time, Mrs. H and myself and decided that maybe, just maybe, it would be smarter to bring our bag lunches back to the warm school and eat instead of doing the "oh won't it be fun to eat at the corn maze" idea of when we thought the weather would be in the 60s.

We get to the place and find out that it is beside the sewage treatment plant!!!!!!! I wish I were kidding but I'm not. To quote a co-worker, "It smells like straight-up you-know-what!" Yes, the plant was on one side of the road and the farm was on the other.

The bus parks and the kids unload to get on the hay wagon. Before we know it, our coolers and lunches are also loaded. Guess we are eating here anyway!! Remember the smell?

They take us to the play area and let the kids run and play for close to an hour. They build a fire and roast marshmallows. (The nicest part of the trip.) Then, they tell us that we can walk them through the corn maze. We had to walk our classes through ourselves!! No pumpkin patch in sight, even though the website said that you could pick a pumpkin!! Our poor kids kept asking us if we were getting a pumpkin, and I felt so bad telling them that I didn't think so. So, we walk the kids through the maze for almost 30 minutes to come back out to take a hayride.

The man rides us around a separate field and we get even closer to the sewage treatment plant! The kids even notice the smell. He stops the wagon and asks if anyone wants to be an Indian. Next thing we know, he has shown them how to take these berries and smear the juice on their faces. I can only imagine the phone calls that would be coming from seeing Little Sally all decked out with war paint on her face! Then, he tells them that porcupines come and lay eggs there and throws those little sticky-things at them. Not the burrs, but the little things that stick to coats and stuff. Magical, I tell ya.

We go back to get ready for lunch, and guess what? We are eating outside at picnic tables, under walnut trees that keep dropping nuts, and the farm's DOGS won't get off the tables!! By this time, I don't think I can roll my eyes anymore. The kids are frozen, the temp is only about 48, and the wind keeps blowing papers and knocking drinks off the tables. And, remember the smell?

Finally, we load these little kiddies back onto the bus and head back to school. Luckily, this was our first field trip so the kids were so excited about just leaving the school. They did have fun being outside, playing, going through the maze, and the hay ride. Thank goodness.

You want to know the kicker? I could have taken my 5 year old daughter and she would have gotten in for free, but because we were a school group, it was $6 a child.

Needless to say, we won't be going back. The Griswalds will be going somewhere else next fall to get a pumpkin.