My little first graders were completely thrilled and giddy to be going on a field trip! One child even said she was too excited to eat lunch. It was field trip day and judging by their reactions, any outsider could have easily believed that we'd all be going on safari or something. Well, we were leaving our little hill, but not going far. As an ending to two of our science units (plants & living things) we were going to a family's house to see their GARDEN! Whoa, I know, it's a big deal.
The little scientists were thrilled to jump in the cars of 4 parents as we headed 7 minutes down the road to the area called Nyaturama.
They were impatient as we gathered around the table to discuss expectations of the day. We had to work first and play later, as they had already seen the cool playground the family had in their backyard (brought in a container from America, no doubt). The precious six and seven year olds put on their scientist jackets, glasses, and took out their cameras so they could capture mental images of the different living things! Tall tree, tomato plants, and even 2 cats! After we were fully prepared to walk around the house to the backyard, we got in an organized line (because sometimes scientists have to be a bit serious!) and ventured up the hill.
They did pretty well taking pictures of what they would later record and looking at how different plants can be! If you look closely you can see that some of the little ones are holding their arms up to hold their cameras. One of the wonderful things about teaching primary students is that they never question using imaginary objects. This is extremely helpful when you want each child to have their very own digital camera. They can even go back and look at all of the photos they took so they can draw pictures. Technology has helped creativity! Yes! They were excited to remember that we were even walking on plants! After the walk they met again on the porch and drew pictures, labeled the plant parts, and recorded living things that they saw. They were both happy and scared of the cats. After recording their findings they each got to plant a tiny tomato seed! They looked precious digging a hole and delicately placing it inside. They'll have a high population of tomato plants in a small area, but that's okay!
After that we got to have snacks. Many of the snacks came from plants, which was very fun. We managed to avoid most of the rain (despite being in the prime of rainy season here in Rwanda) and had an enjoyable, information packed field trip!
