Kindergarten Rocks!: Kindergarten Field Trip

The Kindergartners on Their Outdoor Field Trip

On Thursday, May 5th the kindergartners and I traveled to the lake for our field trip. First we went by the lake in town and we saw Double-crested Cormorants, a Canada Goose on her nest and Painted Turtles.

We traveled about 8 miles to the larger lake and the kids played on the playground equipment first. The weather was very nice! With temperatures reaching the mid-80s later in the day.

After the kids had a chance to get acquainted with the area we went on the old bridge and looked at the water rushing over the spillway. Levi's cap fell off of his head and down below, but a mom rushed down to get it.

We got to the trail head and started our hike to the top of the spillway and watched the water spill over. Then we continued down the trail. We saw a tree with several Double-crested Cormorants in it. They thought the old, rock steps were cool. We heard a Northern Cardinal singing and then we saw it! The kids were excited! We also saw the Great Egret a couple of times and that was awesome! We also enjoyed watching the Cliff Swallows build mud nests under the bridge.

The kindergartners did a great job of recognizing bird songs. Ryenn picked out the White-throated Sparrow song several times. Some others noticed the American Crows, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds calls. They did very well on identifying birds, but the small birds were hard for them to find with their binoculars. I announced that a Mallard was coming our way and Kason said, "You didn't need to tell me. I've got my ducks down."

During this hike we saw an odd thing. There was a raccoon with its head stuck head in a tree. Nearly its whole body was sticking out, but not its head. After not moving for a long time, we realized it was dead. We wondered what happened. We saw cool insects along the way too.

After the hike we had a picnic because they said they were starving! Fresh air and hiking does that to a person! Then they had free play followed by kite flying. The kite flew quite well much of the time. Then they chased bubbles that I made with the giant bubble wand.

Next was the outdoor classroom portion of the trip. I set up three centers of activities: #1 Make a pine cone bird feeder with peanut butter and bird seed. #2 Weave nature items into a Y sticks with a web of yarn. #3 Build a house/stick fort for the fairies. I think the kids enjoyed it.

To wrap things up we had a snack and water break before we hiked the other side of the lake. On that side of the lake we saw American Coots, Spotted Sandpipers, a Forster's Tern and Northern Waterthrushes. The total of species I saw with the kids was 40 different species of birds, but of course we didn't all see the same ones.

When we returned we all agreed that we were hot and thirsty. They played for a bit more and then we cleaned up camp and headed back to school for dismissal. I've done this trip for 23 years and this day is still one of my favorite days of the school year. I think it was for some of them too! We had a great time!