Tradition!
We have a long-standing
Third Grade Field Trip tradition.
Mrs. C. came to me as we were closing in on the end of maybe my first year here and explained that she would be saying goodbye to third graders who had started with her as first graders and she wanted to find a special way to mark the occasion. We adapted a “Towers and Tunnels” field trip that another public Montessori teacher was already doing with her third graders and made it our own. With two experimental detours, we eventually settled into a downtown trip tradition. A year or two into it, Mrs. C. and I looked at each other and realized, “
The children should be doing the planning for this!”
and that has made all the difference.
Since 2006, the trip has been
theirs---
and, as an added bonus for their teacher chaperones, since the children have begun planning the trip, there has been zero whining about the heat (trust me, May in Houston is hot and sweaty!) or the walking (sometimes from one end of downtown to the other!). Being an Excel geek, I arm the children with largely blank spreadsheets on which they organize their research and keep track of places, addresses, names of contact people, phone numbers, web addresses, costs, etc.
METRO has attempted to make public transportation more difficult (and expensive!) for anyone who is not a regular commuter. Five years ago, children could buy a day pass for 50 cents, including transfers from bus to train and train to bus. (We loved an excuse to ride the new
rail!) Last year, with the advent of the Q-card, we discovered it was no longer possible to transfer from bus to train without paying an additional fare. As a result, for the first time in the history of our tradition we did not transfer to the rail this year, instead riding our bus all the way downtown. To make matters worse, we discovered this year that children now have to procu
re official METRO discount ID cards in order to receive the discount child rate. Roundtrip transportation this year cost each child $2.50! Talk about inflation!
The day finally arrived. We rendezvoused early in the classroom,
dispensed with bathroom visits, and hurried out to the bus stop.
“
At 7:47 we went to the bus stop and we waited for the bus. When the bus finally came we got on. On the bus I sat with Morgan and Alicia. The bus ride took about 45 minutes.” (K.E.)
“
Then we walked and walked” (E.N.). At each turn, I asked the children to consult their maps and compasses to tell us which way to go--
A very real opportunity to practice their map skills and exercise independence, but also my sense of direction is terrible. Honestly, we are much better off with them as navigators.
To my great glee,
my young geologists began to notice the building materials around them as we walked. “
We're walking on bricks of granite!”
“
The first place we went to was City Hall” (M.H.). “
We were going to see a video but the video wasn't working so instead we got smelly pencils” (W.L.). “
City Hall was cool but I was sad because the movie wasn't working. I liked the pins and smelly pencils that they gave us” (C.G.).
“
So I called my Aunt Karen. She came and I got to introduce her. Then we walked out of the theater and Aunt Karen told us that the seal on 
the ground represents liberty and the one on the ceiling represents the universe and Houston is in the center. She told us that the old city hall burned down and she told us that in the 1930's the employees would get their paycheck and then get drunk then the mayor would have to get them out of jail. So he got the reflection pond so when they got drunk they could stay there.” (K.E.)
When we walked out to look at the reflection pool and the surrounding green space, the children exclaimed, “
This building is engraved with fossils!” “
It's limestone!”
“
At City Hall we had to go through a really cool inspector thing” (E.N.).
“
Then we went to the council law room where they make the 
laws. We got to bang the hammer that the mayor uses” (W.L.). “
We got to sit in the council members' chairs” (J.B.). “
I got to sit in Bill White’s seat” (C.J.).
“
And after City Hall we had to walk to the Wells Fargo Tower. We took the elevator to the very top that our ears popped. 
It was WEIRD! But it was like we could see the whole city.” (M.H.)
“
Wells Fargo Plaza was cool. It was scary when my pencil got stuck in the elevator.” (C.G.)
In the Wells Fargo building, the children got distracted by more rocks.
“
Look! This is polished marble and this is marble that isn't polished!”
“
Then we went to the library. “We got a tour of the children and teen's rooms” (K.E.).
“We went to the teenage area and sat in the cool egg chairs” (M.H.).
“
Then we got on the new catalog. Then checked out books.” (K.E.)
“
And you should know after that was a long walk to lunch” (M.H.). “
We went through the McKinney Tunnel to Discovery Green” (C.J.). “
It was fun when we got to go to the underground tunnel” (C.G.). “
They smelled good” (J.B.). “
It looks like a mall in there” (C.B.).
“
After starving from hunger, we saw Discovery Green” (E.N.) “
and ate at the Lake House. I ate a hamburger, chips, and a drink. We ate outside.” (C.J.)
“
After lunch we played on a cool playground and then we had to rush to the bus stop” (M.H.).
“
We had to catch the bus and on the way back most people fell asleep" (J.B.).
“I read on the bus ride back” (K.E.).
“
Then we arrived to tell our story” (M.H.).
I always worry we will miss our return bus (which only comes once every hour!), fleetingly wondering as we pass a series of van taxis how many children we could jam into one, how much the ride back to school would cost, and would they take a credit card. When we are safely on the bus, I can relax and enjoy the pride that comes with having accompanied our third graders on yet another successful downtown adventure.
I had begun to wonder if
this just might be the year we would break with tradition and not go at all. I was sad and missing Mrs. C., and the children were slow on the follow-through with planning. I’m glad they pulled it off!
It is a pleasure and an honor to go downtown with the third graders. They are joyful and excited to be on a trip that they planned themselves—paying for the bus, enjoying the destinations for which they have made arrangements to visit, consulting maps and compasses to figure out which way to go, buying their own lunch. Everyone is so very kind to the children—cheerful about us occupying the usually plentiful bus seats, curious about and amused by their field trip plans, pleased to meet the children with whom they had spoken on the phone, impressed by their independence and excellent manners, happily pointing us in the right direction when we are mislead by a tunnel sign, patient with their money fumblings as they each order and purchase lunch on their own. Every May, just when I need it most, this trip renews my faith in humanity.
“
The third grade field trip was awesome. All the third graders were happy.”—C.G., 3rd grade
“
It was so much fun! The super fantastic marvelous end.”—W.L., 3rd grade
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