Pant Splitting Fun...

It is amazing how fast time goes by. It has already been two weeks since coming back from fall break!

It seems that having a week off turned my students into little crazy children! We have spent much of that past two weeks reviewing how to obey and follow directions! It has been tiring but I think they are starting to get back into the routine of school.

We jumped right back into school after break with a field trip to Papahana Kuaola. In Hawaiian Studies we have been teaching the kids about indigenous and endemic plants and animals of Hawaii and how different plants and animals got to Hawaii. So we got to go to Papahana Kuaola where the kids got to explore and see different plants of Hawaii, learn about how Hawaii was formed, see early Hawaiian tools, and learn how the Hawaiians used different plants for different things.

Walking in the mud through a Taro patch! Most of the kids loved this part.

The field trip was a great success with the kids but it wasn't without a couple of glitches along the way. As we were all lining up to get onto the bus to head out to the field trip one of my little ones started to throw up in the parking lot! Luckily it happened when it did because if we had gotten on the bus two minutes earlier she would have been throwing up all over the bus! Needless to say she didn't go on the field trip. Well you would think that was enough excitement for one field trip but no...

During the field trip we were all enjoying wading in the stream fishing for little minnows the kids were squealing with delight all in all it was great! Well I decided to take a seat on one of the rocks (bad idea!) where my pants decide to get caught on a sharp edge of the rock and proceed to rip right across my butt!! I sat there for a second thinking to myself did that seriously just happen?? Why?  I slowly began to stand up, making sure there was no one behind me, pulled my shirt down over my butt and scoot myself over to Kim where I whisper, "Um Kim my pants just completely ripped I will be back!" She laughs and says "OK I will cover for you!"

Before my pants ripped!

Luckily for me being a teacher has helped me become a more prepared person! I very strategically made my way back to my backpack where my extra set of clothes was waiting for me! I quickly changed and headed back to the group where no one was the wiser about my pants splitting other than Kim! Other than those things the field trip was great!

Another fun thing that we got to do since coming back from fall break was have some fire fighters visit the the school (this may have been more fun for me than the kids ;) ).  One of the first graders in Kim's class has a grandpa who is a district fire chief so he offered to have one of his crews come out and show the kids a fire truck! So on Thursday this last past week we had a fire truck, an ambulance, and a whole crew come out the the school and let our first graders go in the trucks and taught them about fire safety.

In the ambulance!

I love being a teacher!

One of my favorites!

The kids (and their teacher, me) had a great time with the nice fire fighters! ;) Apparently to be a firefighter in Hawaii one of the requirements is to you have to be an extremely good looking Hawaiian!  I didn't mind at all :)

Firefighter Jessica and Kim!

After the firemen left and we were wrapping up the day with our kids, having them write a thank you note to the firemen for coming to our schools. One of my students, while writing his note, says to himself "I can't wait for my grandma to pick me up from school today so I can tell her about this AWESOME day!" (Grace it was Dane). I love days like that when the kids have had a blast at school.

Both first grade classes in front of the fire truck!

After all the business and excitement of the past two weeks Laura and I have plans tonight to sit at home and carve some pumpkins! It is as close to having fall as we can get in Hawaii!

Love and miss you all!
Jessica