Taking Children Out to Have Fun! --Nina

In China, there isn't a common word for "field trip," so whenever discussing our plans to take our kids on field trips with the principal, bus drivers, etc, I had to say, "the thing where we take children out to have fun." I organized two field trips this year, one to the Shaanxi Nature Museum for the 4th graders, and the other to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Terracotta Warriors for the 6th graders. Both of those field trips have been organized before by past fellows, so that made the planning process much easier. It was great getting to hang out with my students in a more relaxed, fun environment. I put some of the most mischievous kids in my chaperone groups on purpose, since they are often the most funny and lovable outside of class (during which they can sometimes wreck havoc). I think the kids had a great time and (hopefully!) learned many things that sitting inside a classroom all day couldn't teach them. Unfortunately, car sickness is a huge problem for our kids (since they aren't used to that kind of transportation), but beyond that, there were no problems!


The fourth graders started their day watching a movie in a globe-theater at the science museum. The movie was actually disappointingly lame (animals "dancing" to music), but I think the kids liked being in the cool theater.

My group getting ready for the movie. 

 Then we got to walk around the terrifying see-through floor on the top of the museum's glass dome.

Many kids (like me) were very scared and would only step on the steel support beams. 

Molly loved it! Brave girl. 

While the museum was definitely not as good as science museums I've been to in America, it still had some fun exhibits and hands-on physics games, and it had great dinosaur models outside.

My chaperone group posing in front of an animatronic dinosaur! 

Learning about human body systems. 

The 6th grade field trip was much more exhausting, since it involved running around the park and square surrounding the Wild Goose Pagoda all morning, then seeing the Terracotta Warriors all afternoon, which itself involves a lot of walking. I organized a scavenger hunt competition around the Wild Goose Pagoda, in which kids had to find things like famous fountains and statues, as well as silly things like mops, lollipops, and panda hats. The kids LOVED it, and the chaperones were all great sports about running around with their groups. It also produced some great pictures, since that was how the groups proved that they had found something.

My group, showing some attitude after finding yellow flowers. 

Posing in front of a red door!

Abby's group being adorable and pretending to read the statue's books. 

Jane and Cadence in front of the Wild Goose Pagoda. Their group won because they had the silliest pictures.

We took them to lunch at a dumpling place near the pagoda, then headed to the Terracotta Warriors. I don't have too many good pictures from there, since I could mainly see the back of the kids' heads as they looked at the warriors. Abby and I learned that the Terracotta Warriors are quite boring the second time around, but it was probably fine that we didn't have to pay close attention to the tour guide, since we were too busy making sure our kids didn't run off to join other groups or cleaning up the chips that one of our students spilled all over the floor (oops). 

I think I was more exhausted after that day than after any other full day of classes this year, but it was well worth it.