I was fortunate to be chosen to be a chaperone for Ben’s 3rd grade class, on a field trip to the Ogden Nature Preserve. I really enjoy accompanying my kids on their field trips, and sign up to be in the drawing to be a chaperone as the opportunities arise. My lists of field trip ventures is long since I have 6 kids.
Usually, I am with the well-behaved, mild mannered, group of children, in which category my child would be. This time however, I was placed with the “high energy” group. Hmmm.... It didn’t take me long to figure out why. The teacher, not wanting to offend asked if she could “tag along” with my group, since it was the most demanding one.
The Ogden Nature Preserve is located on 152 acres of land. The students walked along trails leading to various animal habitats. Really, we didn’t see many animals, when Ben brought that to our guides attention, she was absolutely offended.
They bird refuge (as I call it) was lovely. We were able to see many endangered birds and some even did some tricks for us.
I learned a lot about nature, and about nurture, or lack of. I learned from our guide that caged birds can be bullied. She stated that if the students talked or were loud they were bullying the birds. She also informed them about the penalties for taking fallen feathers with them. They would be fined $10,000 and sent to prison. Wow, pretty deep stuff for third graders!
Our guide also insisted that the kids walk on the trail without speaking. Well, that didn’t work out so well. My group got sent to the back of the line several times for excessive talking. I was relieved that there was a little noise, the last thing I wanted to come across on the trail was a SNAKE! Yikes!
Maybe I am defending my rambunctious group just a little too much, but really, for the most part, they were full of energy, but fun and enjoyable.
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