Brenna's class field trip was to the Lorne C. Henderson Conservation Area in the adjoining community of Petrolia. Of course I volunteered to chaperon and enjoy some time with Brenna and her class. The day was gloomy with the prospect of rain. The whole focus of the field trip was "Loving the World the Lord Made". We started our morning out with a presentation from the park administrator about how we can care for our world and preserve the natural habitat of the creatures we share it with. First, we started outside with a game of bingo! Each kid was given a bingo card with pictures of animals and different plants. The kids had to find the matching picture which was hung somewhere among the trees in the common area of the park. Each match had a letter that they would write into that bingo spot. The kids who received the most bingos would win and uncover the secret message hidden on the bingo board. The kids ran wildly from one tree to the next trying to collect all the matches. It was a fun twist of traditional bingo!
Next we moved on to a maze game. The kids pretended to be fish swimming in a pond. The blue tile represented the water. Chemicals leaked into the pond causing the water to become polluted. The blue tiles were turned over to gray to represent polluted water. The fish must find a path through the pollution to the other side of the pond. If a kid made a mis-step onto a gray tile they were removed to a "fish care facility". As the pollution continued, eventually there was no clear path across the pond and everyone was in fish care. The kids enjoyed the activity and I think it was a fun and creative way to help them understand the importance of preservation.
Next we went on a 1.5 mile nature hike. We got to see turtles, birds, squirrels, and tons of plant life that the park administrator educated us about. Needless to say, by the end of the hike the kids were worn out and ready for lunch. By the time we were done and ready to move on to our next activity the skies had opened up and the rain was falling. After waiting a short while, the rain slacked off enough to allow us to get outside with rain coats. Our next activity took us to the area pond. The kids were broken up into teams. Each student received a strainer and each team received a tub. The objective was to the fish the pond with the strainers and collect a variety of pond wildlife in your teams tub. The kids loved it! It was fun to hear the teams excitement as they shouted across the pond to each other what they had caught. There was lots of frogs, minnows, and insects of all kinds. Brenna was especially excited that our team caught a crawfish! She shouted out "We caught a crawfish! We caught a crawfish!" The park administrator ran over and corrected her by saying "It's called a "cray"fish", to which I politely corrected her and said "We're from the south! It's called a crawfish!" She got a good laugh out of that! After nearly 45 minutes of fishing, we carried our tubs back to the pavilion to use our Pond Wildlife Worksheets to identify what we had collected. After we were done with all our observations, the kids returned their catch to the pond.
Finally at the end of the day, all the kids received binoculars for a bird watching adventure. Unfortunately, it was still raining so our adventure took place underneath the pavilion. But the Conservation Park was even prepared for that. They had color photographs of different birds and tree animals hung from the branches of several trees throughout the parks common area. Since there wasn't a lot of wildlife out and about on that rainy afternoon, the kids could search the trees for the photographs and then use their binoculars to focus. It was a race to see who could focus the fastest and shout out the name of each creature first.
Overall, even with the weather, I thought this was a fantastic field trip. The park did a wonderful job and included activities that balanced educational content with hands on activity that held the kids interest! As far as field trips go, this has been our best so far.
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