Kindergarten Field Trip on the Lakewalk

The Banana’s kindergarten class has had a lot of field trips this year!  Dr. Peds and I have had fun helping on several different occasions.  On Tuesday, the antepenultimate day of school, all four kindergarten classrooms were scheduled to ride a bus down to the Rose Garden, and then walk along the lakewalk all the way down to Bayfront Park.  I knew right away that this would be a great field trip to volunteer at.  Not only was it the day after my students’ end of the year piano recital, therefore nothing was scheduled, but it would also be an easy field trip to volunteer at because I could bring along Mr. TOF in the stroller.

It was a chilly morning that once again looked like rain, so Mr. TOF and I packed up some umbrellas, rain jackets, and a little lunchbox for him since the kindergarteners were going to eat lunch at the playground at Bayfront.  We checked in at school and then met the bus down at the Rose Garden, since I definitely didn’t want to try to load a stroller onto the school bus.

The Banana’s fabulous kindergarten teacher divided everyone in her class into groups, and then gave us some bandaids and a map with stopping points and activities to go with all the sights along the lakewalk.  I love maps!  So do kindergartners!  We had a fantastic time.  Sometimes it was chaotic!  Sometimes it was downright crazy!  Sometimes the kindergarteners in my group were hungry.  They asked how much longer it could possibly be before lunch many, many times.  We had a marvelous time even if we did use up all the bandaids along the way due to various scrapes, tumbles and minor casualties.

The kindergarteners were wearing pedometers, which made walking extra special fun.  Some kindergartners were more busy than others.  At one point, about a third of the way through our travels one little guy in our group had walked more than 8,000 steps, while The Banana had only 4,000 and another little girl had only 2,000.  He was definitely a busy little person!  The pedometers were a great way to incorporate numbers into our journey.

We saw many exciting things along the way, but the thing they were waiting for most?  It was walking past the candy store!

It began to rain during the last part of the walk, so we pulled out the umbrellas.  The wind was coming in right at the coldest possible angle for eating lunch at the park, but everyone seemed to have a great time anyway!  When the buses were loaded up, Mr. TOF and I walked back to the Rose Garden.  Along the way he finished up his lunch.  He was so excited about having his own backpack and lunch box!  Right as he ate the last cucumber cookie (that’s what we call cucumber slices these days) he zonked out in the stroller.  The walk back was a lot quicker and quite a bit more peaceful, but I had a lot of fun both ways.