The Big Outing

Thursday was a huge day for the staff and students at ZED-South Campus. We all loaded into a school bus at 8:30 am and headed to St. Paul. We made a 2 hour stop at the Minnesota History Museum. This was an experience that the majority of our students would never and will never again have. I walked around the museum with 5 elementary students. I captured some fun shots of the kiddos. Unfortunately, due to privacy, I had to put these little black stars over their faces, but I wanted you all to see a few of the exhibits that the kids just loved!

I think the kids probably enjoyed the Through the Generations exhibit the best. They could have spent all day making ice cream sundaes at the Ice Cream Parlor. This little girl is making me my 3rd sundae for the day! 

There was a jukebox in the ice cream parlor that the kids could play music on. This little guy stood there for 15 minutes listening and playing with it. 

This little guy would ring up the ice cream sundaes and take our money. In the background you can kind of see an old radio. If you push the dial on the radio, it brings on the announcement from the president when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Then footage begins to play on a tv in the corner of the attack. The kids were mesmerized by this. 

This is also in the Through the Generations exhibit. They took turns cranking the shells out. Then one kid would put the powder in and another would put the top of the bullet in. The red number at the top counted how many bullets they made. The kids worked so well together! 

This would be the second favorite exhibit: Minnesota Weather. There were all sorts of gigantic boots for all the weather Minnesota experiences. Here's a little guy trying some on. Also in this exhibit, there was a mock tornado. The kids sat in this little room that was set up like a basement. The lights went out, the walls shook, and we heard accounts of people who were apart of a big tornado. I can't remember where it was exactly. I left halfway through with a student who got quite frightened. He's been through a tornado before, and it hit very close to home for him. 

The highlight of the trip for me was our last stop: The Orpheum. We took all of our students to "The Lion King". It was phenomenal. It melted my heart to see my third grade boys clapping as loud as they can with huge smiles on their faces! That was a long time to sit still for them, but they did a great job! We never got up during the show, just at "half-time" as they called it! What a great experience for these kiddos, and for me too!