Powder Valley Field Trip

Since I went on the first grade field trip, Kiersten was insistent that I go to hers as well. The third graders were headed over to Powder Valley for some hiking/exploring/learning.

The day turned out to be pretty nice.

Kiersten's class went to the classroom first to learn about food webs and animal teeth. 

She got to be part of the food chain demonstration. She was an opossum, so she was atop the food chain since they eat all the dead animals. They were pretty funny trying to put themselves in order. 

Then they assembled food webs from animal photos. They all had the same pictures, but came up with different food web variations. 

They got to play detective with an animal skull to determine what sort of animal it was. They looked at teeth, eye placement, skull size, etc to determine that they had a bobcat skull. 

Once they solved the problem, they got to check out the corresponding pelt for their animal. 

One of the groups had a beaver. 

Kiersten was happy to see the opossum pelt, since that was the role she played at the beginning. She kept saying it was her little brother. 

A terrifying rabbit skull!

The bear had the softest fur, and the biggest skull. 

In the next classroom, they learned all about owls.

These girls were less than excited to dissect an owl pellet. I had to force the tweezers into Kiersten's hand. 

Once they started getting some bones dug out, they got into it a little bit more enthusiastically. 

The naturalist came over and helped her figure out that her owl had eaten a deer mouse. He showed her where the skull was crushed, which is likely how it was killed prior to being eaten. As grossed out as she had been at first, now she will not let me throw her mouse bones in the trash. 

After lunch, our group had free exploring/hiking time. We hit the trails first thing. 

It didn't take long to meet up with friends out on the hiking trail. 

Kiersten's teacher spotted this frog chilling in the pond. 

Inside, they had a great time exploring the tree house and all the exhibits. 

Some of the kids were pretty terrified by all these bees!

These big snapping turtles were pretty popular with the kids. 

It really warmed up by the time we were ready to go on the nature walk. 

Mrs.Thompson's class.

They played a food chain game with several grasshoppers, a handful of voles, and 2 hawks. Kiersten was excited to be at the top of the food chain. The grasshoppers picked up poker chips off the ground, and if a vole ate them, they handed over the chips they'd collected. Then if one of the 2 hawks ate a vole, they got all of the chips they had gotten from grasshoppers. 

2 really sweet, slightly timid hawks were not very aggressive capturing those voles, but they had enough chips to get the general point across. 

After the game we went on a nature walk. The kids got to see what poison ivy looks like and then dig for bugs. My 2 charges were not very into to bug collecting, so I had to get down in there with them more than I'd have liked. 

We kept catching the same daddy long legs, but it would escape as we tried to get the lid on without it crawling on us. The poor thing must have been traumatized after being caught 5-6 times. 

Go! STL and Cards Game

On April 8th we had a packed day. The girls all ran in the Read, Right, Run marathon for Go! St. Louis. We had a lively group assembled on a chilly morning. 

Kiersten and Evie hanging out on the side. 

There's Kara in the back, looking at the camera like she always does so well. 

At 9:30 we headed over to the start line. 

Kara told Evie she would run the whole way with her. Kiersten wanted to run with her friends. 

Ready to go!

I tried to start my watch right as they started, but Kara and Evie were slightly ahead of Kiersten, so her time was a little off. 

She wasn't too far behind. 

Kiersten was pretty quick to the end of the mile. (Well, 1.2 mi.) I had her clocked around 8:44 if I recall correctly. 

I'll admit I was surprised to see Kara and Evie making their way down the final stretch. Kara usually likes to stop and walk a few times. I guess Evie was a good little motivator. 

I had them in just under 10 minutes, somewhere around 9:50 I wanna say. I'm sure Ben remembers what it was. I just know Evie beat her last year's time by more than a minute. 

Recovering with some snacks. 

So proud of these running ladies. They wore their medals proudly. 

We grabbed a quick lunch, got the girls changed, and headed straight to Busch Stadium for the Cardinals game. Karalee's special chorus group got to sing the National Anthem again this year. 

She forgot to grab her black shoes when we left that morning for the race, so she felt a little conspicuous in her running shoes. At least they are gray and not too noticeable. The music teacher sends multiple reminders about black shoes, so I was definitely avoiding eye contact.

These girls were just bubbling over with excitement and nerves. 

We got to watch a bit of the warm ups while we were waiting for the kids to walk out on the field. 

It's fun to see them coming out of the tunnel. 

This picture makes me laugh how tall Kara's friend is compared to her. She gets mistaken for a teacher all the time. 

2016-2017 Woerther Special Chorus. What a cool experience this is for them!

A job well done!

Meanwhile, up in the nosebleed section...

It was pretty breezy up there, but nothing stops these kids from having a great time! We didn't stay for the entire game, because Ben and I needed to get ready for our friend's surprise 40th birthday party. I can't remember if the Cards pulled off the win or not. That's what I get for getting so far behind on updating.

Every set of besties needs a matching set of pajamas. 

Kiersten is still into fencing., I'm sort of surprised how well she likes it, but she is my good sport, so I shouldn't be. 

She has chosen the foil as her weapon. 

Evie in her fancy new night gown. My kids' night gowns would have been my fanciest dress as a kid, seriously. 

The purple clovers have played a few games, and boy, have they had a great time. They are such a funny group!

Evie has had a few hits off the machine, and only 1 or 2 times she used the tee. Sometimes she does still need to be reminded to tag homeplate before running in. She likes playing any of the bases, but doesn't like short stop, because she considers it an insult to be called "short". Multiple explanations about the position have not changed her mind that when she gets put there, it's because the coaches think she's short. 

Special chorus had one last concert for the end of the year. 

The singing was beautiful as always. Kara was very excited about the medley they sang at the end with songs from the later 80's through current songs. 

Kiersten had a softball game, so she missed the concert. I couldn't be more proud of these uniformed cuties.