Field Trip

Last week, Emily's 3rd grade class took a field trip to UCR. They had just finished their biome projects and were supposed to go on a field trip to visit a biome. Originally they were supposed to go to see a tide pool but that didn't quite work out for them and time was running out for the year so they opted to just go to the UCR botanic gardens. Luckily, we could just walk there.

I went as a chaperone. Christian met us on the way there and joined us. It had been a scorcher of a week but the last two days was quite pleasant and somewhat overcast in the mornings and it made for a much nicer walk.

We took a quick tour through the gardens. We were a bit disappointed that our docent was not more knowledgeable (but I guess they are all volunteers). At least she knew the desert plants pretty well and that was more interesting.

After we finished, we headed to the entomology department for a quick little lecture. One of the girls in our group was not feeling well. She had been out most of the week due to some stomach problems already and they hadn't really figured out what was wrong with her. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea for her to go on a strenuous walking field trip in the heat. We had to arrange for someone to drive her back to school to call her parents. Emily's teacher ended up taking off to make the arrangements and Christian and I ended up leading the entire 3rd grade to Entomology.

Due to more scheduling problems, we ended up in the hallway to the side of the main entry instead of the courtyard but it worked out for the most part. They talked about bugs in general, got to see some displays and to handle a couple of live bugs. There were a few activities included.

When we were done, we headed back to the gardens to pick up their lunches and ended up on the lawn next to A&I for a picnic as the botanic gardens was booked all afternoon for similar groups. The fifth graders of their school was on the same field trip and they were expecting another group afterwards.