The Arboretum

On Thursday, the first grade took our fall field trip to the Houston Arboretum. It was such a nice day! Except for the random train whistle, I completely forgot that we were in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the US. I just wanted to share some very special moments that occurred on our trip.

One of the areas in the Arboretum was the wetlands. Our guide called it "the Swamp". As soon as he said we were going into the swamp, one of my precious, sweet girls got a death grip on my hand and frozen in her tracks. I looked down at her saucer sized brown eyes and asked what was wrong. She told me she didn't want to go into the swamp because there were orges that lived there. Stifling a laugh, I took a few moments to reassure her that Shrek did not live in this swamp. She eventually joined the rest of the class. What an imagination!

My student that I blogged about two posts ago started a new medication on the day before the field trip. We were unsure how to prepare for this trip with her. We got an adult to be assigned specifically to her. To our amazement, she was the best behaved child on the trip. During a few moments of down time, my class ran around and played tag. She stood on the side and watched for a couple of minutes. Just as I was about to approach her, the first genuine smile I have seen this year exploded across her face. She ran into the mix and played with her peers. The next day, she was announced as the star student of the week for our class. The other students stood up, clapped for her, and yelled. She was so proud and the other students celebrated with her. I had to step in the hallway and cried tears of joy. The light is getting brighter everyday.

To kill time on the bus, my students took turns making up riddles. Here is my favorite (read as a script):

T: I am not a man but I my name is a man's name. I have a son who went away from me. He got nailed. Then he got un-nailed and came home to me. Who am I?
R: Jesus!
B: NO! Not Jesus! T said he had a son. Jesus didn't have a son. God did. Jesus got nailed!
Me: Why did Jesus get nailed?
T: We were bad. Then when Jesus got nailed, we weren't bad anymore. God was happy we weren't bad anymore and that is why Jesus got un-nailed.
B: Yeah, that is what I heard in my cad-i-chasm class!