Final Kindergarten Field Trip

I took the day off today to enjoy the last of Ethan's kindergarten field trips and it was so worth it.

We went to the Museum of Life and Science and I had three children in my group. There is a petting zoo with goats (my personal favorite!), a donkey, pigs, a turkey, an owl and sheep. I don't think I am leaving anything out. The children had fun looking at the animals there but is was time to move on to something much more exciting. The Dinosaur Trail.

They loved looking at all the dinosaurs. And I thought they were pretty cool too. I mean they were really HUGE! Well except for these little ones. But that T Rex above was HUGE!

And this one that I can't think of the name so we called him Long Neck.

We were lucky enough to run across a turtle on our path. The children were just as interested in this, maybe more so, than the dinosaurs.

At the end of the dinosaur trail there was a fossil dig.

It had rained just enough to make it slightly muddy which was better for digging if you ask the boys.

After the dinosaurs, we headed to the Butterfly Pavilion. This was one of my favorite things.

It was very cute watching the children try to stand still so the butterflies would land on them. Sweet little 5 and 6 year olds who couldn't stand still if their lives depended on it. But bless their hearts, they tried.

Another favorite of the children was the exhibit Explore the Wild.

Here they got to see a couple of black bears, a couple of wolves and some lemurs.

There were also some interactive things for the children to do. This one shows the children how ducks move their webbed feet to paddle in the water.

Of course, ducks don't appear to use as much force as Ethan is using to paddle his mechanical duck feet. Chris calls this his "war face." :-)

This exhibit was used to teach children how putting rocks in the way of water flowing changes the way the water flows.

We put several rocks on the silver, metal part and then moved them into different positions to watch how it effected the water flow.

I think they got it.

Ethan thought these things were pretty cool.

At each station they had an interactive computer thingy that the children could select questions and learn about the animals. One of the questions was "What do I like to eat?" And then you pushed select and a short video played showing the animal and what they liked to eat.

The next area we went to was Catch the Wind, which was also pretty cool. We could have easily spent a couple of hours in this area alone.

All the children loved steering the sailboats. There is a fairly large pond and maybe 5 or so sailboats in the water. The children used the steering wheel to guide the radio controlled boats across the pond. Very cool.

The other sailboat exhibit was the one below. The children were able to change the sails on these boats to see how the wind moved them differently depending on the sail.

Although most of the children just enjoyed pushing them around manually.

This thing was really cool although I don't know what it was called except that it created a vortex (I think). It was like a drum that the children hit and aimed it at this silver, metal thing.

And when they hit it, it created a ring of air that traveled to the silver, metal thing and when it hit it made it appear like rings. I know that is not a good explanation and honestly I felt like I should have studied up on some of this stuff prior to going. :-)

Suffice to say, it was cool. And there you have my technical term.

This was called a Seed Drop and the intention is to teach children how seeds are carried by the wind and grow where they fall. There was a tall, crane like thing that had a magnet that would grab the "seeds" and pull them to the top of the crane then send them over the top where they would float down to the children anxiously waiting at the bottom.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Got it!

Three happy and I think tired little kindergarteners.

Well, maybe not that tired. They sprinted to the playground at the end.

And just when I thought we were done. They slipped inside and found this music exhibit. The children danced, jumped and grooved on the platform and each time their feet came down a different sound was made.

Go Emmie! Go Emmie!

He can be very uptight about things like this so it just thrills my soul to see him really cut loose.

And finally, the whole class.

I love this museum. I remember bringing Ethan when he was about 20 months old and Owen was about 8 weeks old. There are tons more things to do inside that are more toddler appropriate and I remember spending a lot more time there with him then. We really should go here more often. I know Owen would love it.