Field Trip to Cherokee, NC

If you've been wondering if I am still here, I am! We have been so busy at school and we went on a field trip to Cherokee, North Carolina yesterday! It's a big field trip for us...we ride on a chartered bus and drive out of state. Many kids see the mountains for the very first time. It's always so sweet when someone says, "Mrs. Geren, oh my gosh, there is a mountain!" Even though it seems so simple for me, I always act excited with them! First, we visit the Oconoluftee Indian Village. Then, we eat a picnic lunch and visit the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. We saw a Cherokee woman making a wampum belt.
We learned how they make pottery.

We saw a presentation of how they use a blow dart gun. The kids loved this!

We saw many different styles of houses!

We learned how to make a dugout canoe and what they were used for.

Our picnic lunch went well. We have the kids pack their lunch in a gallon size ziploc bag (provided by us) and that's their "ticket" to get on the bus. We always have some parents complain that they want to bring something else, but here's what we tell them: 1) One year everyone brought lunch box and it took 2 teachers, 3 chaperones, and a golf cart to get all of the lunch boxes. 2) Another time a parent followed the bus and wanted to get her child a lunch somewhere on the way. Except she didn't make it to the field trip until an hour after lunch and they child have nothing to eat so the teacher had to share her lunch with the student. SO....we require a lunch packed in a gallon size bag AND we always pack an extra lunch! Next stop: Museum of Cherokee Indian. The kids couldn't believe how realistic this looked.

Overall, we had a great time! The kids were all well-behaved!