The Liebers: A Day in Jamestown with Fourth Graders

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A Day in Jamestown with Fourth Graders

I love field trips! I love planning them; I love going on them; I love the chance to spend time with kids, learning outside the classroom environment. Last year Frances' class did not make the annual third grade trek to Monticello and I was truly disappointed. Then I heard that switching from a PTA to a PTO meant that the kids might miss their Jamestown field trip in 4th grade and I was doubly upset. Thankfully through some generous donations from private people as well as a fundraiser from a JMU fraternity, the kids were able to go. And I got to go with them!!

We loaded the buses at 6:30 Tuesday morning and headed out. Getting the kids up that early was not as bad as I had expected, because apparently the boys are true early birds and they were ready to go to day care/before care with no problem. Frances, who is NOT an early bird, faked it because she was so excited about the trip.

After about a three hour drive, we arrived at the settlement and met with our tour guides. We toured the museum, the Indian settlement, the ships, and the settlers' fort with her. She was a great guide and asked lots of questions on the kids as well as answering their questions. And these kids knew their stuff! I was really impressed with their answers. Way to go Ms. Martin!!

After a lunch break the kids were allowed to go back through with their chaperones and visit any parts they especially liked. I had Frances, Robert and another classmate, C. We decided to go explore the ships and the Indian settlement a bit more in depth. It was a truly awesome field trip and I feel fortunate to live so close to so much history here in Virginia.

And now for the picture dump!