Fussbudget and Field Trips

What a fitting word for today! 


The two 5th grade girls were definitely fussbudgets today, always picking at each other and nitpicking about every single thing the other one did. 


We spent some extra time on Mystery Class today, figuring out the longitude coordinates.  The boys had a bit of a head start since the girls had a special music practice (they get to be in a small ensemble for one of the musical songs).  Since the boys finished early, they began working on the cultural clues.  We only have one set of cultural clues to use.  These ones give us a hint on which continent the Mystery Classes are located.  I think the boys figured out three of the continents so far.  Only 7 more to go!  This Friday we should be able to narrow down the country of each location.


I didn't post on Friday after our field trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota, so here's a quick(ish) overview.  Grades K-8 left school around 9:00am (15 minutes later than planned) on a bus.  Once we got to the museum, the planner of the field trip (aka- me) headed into the museum to check in and get chaperone badges.  Everyone else unloaded their lunches and followed me inside.  All the badges were passed out to chaperones with just enough time to head up to the Omnitheater for our Dinosaurs Alive film.  And then I noticed an extra parent standing there.  He had driven up separate and asked if he needed a badge or something.  Uh... I scrounged in my bag for the chaperone interest forms, and he hadn't turned one in.  So.  Now what?  Buy another ticket I guess.  At the school entrance desk they told me I had to go up to the 5th floor to purchase another ticket.  Lovely.  Meanwhile, everyone else is milling around, trying to keep track of their charges.  I am supposed to be supervising two kindergartners and one of the 5th grade girls.  The 5th grade girl decided she'd rather be with another group and was avoiding me.  The two kindergartners decided they both wanted to hold my hand and follow me everywhere.  Mrs. E saw I was struggling and stepped in to take the two little girls.


Long story short, we made it up to the Omnitheater and everyone made it into the movie all right.  Mr. E and I stood in line to get another chaperone ticket.  By the time we made it through the long line, the movie had started and the doors were roped off.  We tried to go around/under the rope, but got stopped by a museum worker.  She told us we had to talk to another lady (who was busy doing something else).  So after that lady wasn't busy, she buzzed another lady to take us into the movie.  And we made it. 


One interesting thing about the movie was that the scientists changed their minds about how a lot of dinosaurs got fossilized.  They're now saying there was a flood that trapped so many animals.  Ha!  The movie said that TWICE! 


After the movie was over, my 5th grade girl bugged me some more about switching groups.  I should've made her stay with me for a while longer, but I just gave in since I had to watch the two rambunctious kindergartner girls.  We ate lunch in the lowest level of the museum and then went to the special Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit.  I wasn't too impressed with it.  There were a lot of dinosaur bones.  That was pretty much it.  The little girl I was with kept pulling my arm to go see the next one.  "Where's tyrannosaurus rex?  I want to see the tyrannosaurus rex!"  We went through nearly all of the exhibit and I was a little worried we wouldn't see that particular dinosaur... he was at the very end of the exhibit. 


From there we had about 45 minutes to scope the rest of the museum until it was time to leave.  Our kids were very well-behaved compared to some of the other schools.  My favorite exhibit was the mummy.  I would've liked to look at it some more, but a little girl was tugging at my arm to go look at something else.  It was really fun to see our kids figuring out the interactive displays. 


Pretty soon 2:00 came and we loaded everyone on to the bus to head for home.  About halfway back, our bus began rattling, so the bus driver pulled into a town to check it out.  He said we should be able to make it back.  Should?  Gulp.  We kept going.


A few minutes, one of the 5th grade girls meandered to the front of the bus and asked the driver if we could stop so she could use the restroom.  He told her to ask Mr. E.  He told her to ask me.  I said no.  She did a little bathroom dance, "But I really, really have to go!"  "Did you go before we left?" "No."  "Why not?  We gave everyone a chance to go before getting on the bus."  "I didn't have to go then."  "Well, you had the chance and you didn't take it.  You're just going to have to hold it."


No more than two minutes passed and one of the parent chaperones called out, "Miss Heintz?"  I turned around.  "She really has to go."  The fifth grader scrunched up her face to show how badly she needed to go.  I said something about her having the chance and not taking it and having to face the consequences, yada, yada, yada.  I noticed a few other moms/chaperones nodding along which made me feel better about making her hold it.  After that last ditch effort, the 5th grade girl moved up to the front seat so she could be the first one off the bus. 


So.  We made it back okay.  We didn't lose anyone.  It seemed like everyone had a good time.  All in all, a good whole-school field trip.