Sam's 3rd grade field trip

I went with Sam's class to the Natural History and Science Museum. I was asked by the autism specialist, Kathy Chamberlain, to be a chaperone. Of course, I said yes. Except no one told Sam's teacher, Mrs. Hahn, so when I showed up she was surprised. There was one other chaperone, a dad, and each class was allowed only one chaperone. What's a teacher to do? She asked Sam what friends he wanted in his group and gave me five kids. From left to right starting with Sam is Jaylani, Raquel, Nicole and Polo. The kids loved the bus ride. They are still at an age when riding the bus on a field trip is so exciting. Here are the boys uncovering fossils.

This light on this wall changed colors from red, blue, yellow, orange, green and white.

Two cute bubble faces. I had to include this picture even though Sam is not in it.

This was the robotics room. Some pretty cool stuff in here but the kids were everywhere and I didn't get many pictures in this room.

This was part of the human body room. This nose actually sneezed on the kids. One kid stood up inside the nose before he knew what would happen.

The water room was a favorite. There were two big bubble tables with giant bubble blowers.

Look what Polo can do! He put himself inside his bubble! Of course, every other kid started doing the same thing.

The way this little contraption worked was, you put a ping pong ball into the top of the cone and the air blowing up from the inside would hold the ball above the top of the cone. It wasn't very stable so I didn't get a shot of the ball in the air.

This little guy and MANY of his friends tried to join us for lunch. We ate outside next to this pond and the turtles started to crawl out very slowly towards us. It was kind of creepy. I mean, what kind of turtle will deliberately go toward a bunch of kids? Maybe a turtle that is used to getting fed from groups of kids.

After lunch, we were treated to an electricity show. I forget the name of the gizmo that simulated this lightening. It was called Tesla something or other. Very, very cool in the dark and very, very loud. I made sure to tell Sam to cover his ears.

Another bigger and better Tesla burst of lightening. It was done three times. The auditorium was filled with screaming kids. They loved it.

Here is a recreation of what a prehistoric turtle might have looked like swimming through the ocean. Wait til you see the Mammouth.

All my kids except for Jaylani. He was kind of surly and not wanting to cooperate. Sam is doing his impression of the "The Thinker" pose in "Night at the Museum:2". Boom, boom, Firepower!

And here is the Mammouth. I had to tell the kids that this is what Manny from the movie "Ice Age" looked like and then they knew what it was.

When we were walking back to the buses, Jaylani, who can talk your ear off, pointed out these hieroglyphics to me and told me, "You should read that. It's good." Like he's giving me a suggestion for a good book to read. This from the kid who, on the bus traveling to the museum, told me about how his family had to walk from Texas all the way to Kansas and he passed out on the sidewalk twice. I don't think he understands that there is no sidewalk from Texas to Kansas. He also told me that one time his family was camping and his big brother had to save him from a wild tiger by throwing a spear into it. Never. stopped. talking. On the way home he fell asleep. Bliss!

Good times with 3rd grade.