First field trip of the year today! We went to Fort Ridgely School Day and the weather was beautiful (if not a bit windy). I came prepared with my gloves and extra jacket/sweatshirt/headband, but many of my students did not check the weather beforehand... they were cold. We ended up eating our sack lunches in our cars where it was toasty warm.
It was a good day! I had two great chaperones along, both who were interested in the history of the place. The kiddos were slightly on the wild side, but since we were outside for most of it, their wildness could be let loose a bit. And kids from the other schools were about the same, so we did all right.
They changed things up this year, having us unload at a totally new place (next to the fort instead of by the parking lot). There weren't any signs, so we didn't actually unload in the place we were supposed to. Apparently the change is due to political reasons... there's some controversy going on between the state park, the fort, and the golf course. Many of the speakers were ones I hadn't heard before, and they were good! We learned lots of interesting stuff about the history of Fort Ridgely and the lives of soldiers and settlers in the area. There were even people from the Lower Sioux Agency who had a station about Dakota tipis. Did you know that the women were in charge of the tipis? It took two of them about 20 minutes to set up an average one. And if a couple was thinking of divorce, the Indian woman was the one who made the decision; the man couldn't. She let him know she was done with him by putting all his stuff outside the tipi. He couldn't come in without her permission!
I'm keeping this short for today since the bank closes at 3:30 and I need to drop off our bake sale earnings... we raised enough to cover Camp Omega for the year! Woohoo! It think the grand total for donuts/bake sale was about $175.
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