Field trips

We took a field trip to an animal park this week.




I think it was a successful trip. We played games with the chimpanzee Tarzan who would clap and stomp several times, waiting for students to mimic him. We didn't stumble upon any animals mating, thus also avoiding awkward questions (apparently that happened last year). We fed bread to the emus, goats, rheas and llamas. No one stuck their fingers in the tigers' cage; the tour guide warned that one tiger had already consumed two kids' fingers (only peaking curiosity in one student's mind). "Johnny" managed to have "on-topic" questions; in the classroom he sometimes feels prompted to tell me his mom's name during a math lesson on fractions. Oh yes- no one asked me if I was traveling with the pilgrims. A co-worker recounted a field trip to Chicago where an adult asked her if the Amish children were pilgrims.

The low point for me came today. I gave my students a quiz over the animal park brochure (it's an Indiana state standard to read all different kinds of literature). So the quiz was "open-book"- all they had to do was find the information on the brochure in front of them. In fact, we even read the brochure together first. Nonetheless, here are some of their answers (no joke):

What months is the park open? weekends
How much does it cost for children to enter? yes
On what street is the park located? 1/3 mile

You can see that perhaps a few kids have checked out for the year- 10 1/2 more days!