Field Trips Galore!!

Okay, I have a LOT of catching up to do.  Over the past two weeks, we have been taking a field trip to a part of Jacksonville or St. Augustine almost every day.  If you read my earlier post about the Sunshine State, you'll know that our theme this month was the State of Florida.  I decided to focus the last half of the month more on Jacksonville and St. Augustine since this is the area in which we live, there is so much history and culture right at our fingertips, and I think it's important for the boys to know more about their city.  The map skills I had planned to start working on with Hayden never really took off because I became so wrapped up in the history and ecology of our area.  But, I figured, no big deal, we have plenty of time and opportunities for that.

For each of the field trips, I'd take along our math and language arts to complete while there.  Most of the activities didn't really follow the theme of the month or have much to do with Jacksonville. 

For math, we played with cuisinaire rods for the majority of the past two weeks.  I got a few pretty cool ideas from www.ttac.odu.edu/Articles/cuisenai.html  and Varnelle Moore's Primary Math Activities that was helpful in introducing cuisinaire rods to students.  Hayden had a good time learning to build a house, make stairs, models of short vs. tall and horizontal vs. vertical.  He made brick wall patterns, designed a bridge, and measured several everyday objects with different sized rods.  For each activity, he manipulated the rods, drew a picture of what he had done, and I helped him write a few words about the activity.  I also had him practice writing his numbers a little bit, and we did a couple other activities which I will bring up later.

For language arts, we did our mini books for letters Hh and Ii (short i sound).  I also read a couple of phonics books related to these sounds.  We also worked on a small phonics workbook I bought at School Aids, a local teacher store here in Jacksonville, in which Hayden gets to add a star to the back of for every page he completes.  We did an activity (at the car dealership waiting for an oil change one day) where I printed out about 5 different fonts of each letter, and Hayden had to glue the letters to the appropriate letter's box that it matched.  I also made an ABC game with egg cartons and craft sticks which Hayden would go back to over and over again when he had nothing else to do.  It was like a puzzle for him.  He'd stick the craft stick (with the capital letters written on them) in the upside down egg carton that had the matching lower case letter written on it.

As for the field trips, we went EVERYWHERE.  And with each trip, we had a special book to go along with it.  I used the books from Mayor Peyton's Book Club.  They're found at all the local libraries and were made for a special reading program, RALLY Jacksonville - Leading with Reading.  They're kind of silly sing-song books, but great for Hayden's age, and there is a book for every aspect of Jacksonville.

Field Trip #1:  The St. John's River and the Cummer Museum
We went across the Main Street Bridge and walked along the Riverwalk by the Landing for the first part of this field trip.  Hayden learned a little bit about bridges, the name of our river, what swims in the river, and things to do to preserve it.



On the Riverwalk by the Main Street Bridge




Cuisinaire rod activity at the Landing



Drawing finished bridge of cuisinaire rods

The second half of our field trip took place at the Cummer Museum which has quite a display of European and American paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, antiquities, and amazing gardens that are awe inspiring at certain times of the year.  I was planning on doing our reading lesson here, but Hayden got completely wrapped up in this "Art Right Now" that the museum had set up specifically for kids, that I just let him go with it.  He had to pick a spot in the gardens that inspired him to draw and create an impressionist piece of artwork.  He chose to do this activity twice.  I couldn't say no!

Hayden's first drawing spot.



2nd drawing spot




















Field Trip #2: The Alltel Stadium (Jaguars Football Stadium)
Our dog, Sparky, ended up going on this little field trip with us.  He hopped into the car before I could stop him, and I didn't have time to shoo him back into the house.  So, I just decided to take him along.  We did our lessons outside the stadium next to the big Jaguar statue.  I started a new reading lesson from this book that a friend told me about: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann.  Each lesson is 12-20 minutes longs depending on how quickly your child can go through it, and how much time you spend on each task.  We also did the Domino Parking Lot Game which we've done once in the past, adding the task of writing down each equation that the dominoes make up.  Afterwards, we tried going into the stadium, but it wasn't possible to tour inside during the football season.  However, the lady at the front desk did give Hayden a book (it just so happened to be the very same book from Mayor Peyton's Book Club that we read before going inside), and she took a picture of the two of us next to all the Jaguar paraphernalia. 

Big Jaguar statue we sat next to for our lessons

Domino Parking Lot Game

In front of the Alltel Stadium.  Go Jaguars!

Entrance of the Jaguars' stadium

Field Trip #3: Timucuan Preserve at Fort Caroline
In Jacksonville, one of the main tribes of Native Americans that first lived here was the Timucuan tribe.  We learned quite a bit about the Timucuans this week from our trip to Fort Caroline, but also from the Old Florida Museum in St. Augustine which is in it's own separate post because it was a field trip we took with our homeschool group, The Palm Tree Peace Group. 

We didn't get to do the whole planned field trip at Fort Caroline, unfortunately, because the mosquitoes and fire ants were really bad.  It was unreal how badly those mosquitoes swarmed us just going from the car to the visitor's center.  Even inside the visitor's center, I was slapping a few of them off of Hayden that escaped inside with us.  Needless to say, we were unable to hike over to the fort, but we did get a little education while inside the visitor's center, and Hayden was able to complete a worksheet that made him an official junior ranger of the Fort Caroline Timucuan Preserve.  He got a badge, and the ranger signed a little certificate.  He was very proud of himself. 

Box of shells, bones, etc. found here

Working on the junior ranger worksheet

Timucuan artifacts inside the visitor's center

Proud of his badge and certificate!

Field Trip #4: Jacksonville Beach
Of course we had a great time on this field trip!  We did our lessons before we left on this one.  I know what kind of mess we always end up with on trips to the beach, and I didn't want anything getting destroyed while there.  The boys mostly played in the sand and water, but I also had them collect 5 shells to bring home.  Back at home, we observed, drew, and measured each one. 



The collection



Measuring the collection

Tracing/drawing a few favorites

So that pretty much sums up the last couple of weeks.  There is the one homeschool group field trip not mentioned here, and there were a few days that we just stayed home, but for the most part, it was a whirlwind of activity.  We still have two more places to go that I have planned for next week.  After that, I think I'll be ready for a break from field trips!