Brighton Field Trip - Mud Pit

My school took a field trip to a mudflat last month and I never posted pics from the day.  Oops.  Well, I finally got around to dumping a ton of summer pics off my camera (and realized that I lost two whole day's worth of rose garden pictures- ugh!) and sorted them out and voila!  Here are the pics from Brighton's trip to the Jeonju Mudflats. 

All dressed for the mud! 

Marisa Teacher with Florida Class

Deborah Teacher and me with David, our little rascal!

 The school bought all the teachers these Korean roll-visor things that you see everywhere over here.  (It fit so low that I couldn't see much, so I wore it too high and/or bent the front up so I could actually use my peripheral vision)  

The mud flats!  The kids got to dig for clams to take home

Squishing our way into the mud :)

Prepared to ruin a perfectly good pair of socks

Diggin' for clams

Alice gave up trying to stay clean or dry early on - just plopped herself down in that muck

They dug up quite a haul

Messing with mah hat

Headed back in to clean up for lunch

All our socks after walking in the mud... sick!

Lunch!  Noodles with clams from the flats

After lunch, the kids got to push around some sea salt and see how it's harvested

I totally wanted in on that action!  It was also good for a good salt scrub pedicure ;)

Florida Class with the mountain of salt

Crashed out on the way home :)

The sure sign of a good field trip!

Brighton Field Trip #2

This past Saturday was Children's Day, which is a neat holiday here in Korea.  Usually, kids (and TEACHERS!) get the day off school, but since it was on a weekend, no such luck this year. 

Anyway, to sorta prep for Children's Day, we had an extra field trip this month!  They're usually on the 3rd Friday of a month, so this was pretty neat.  We went to an English Village near Gwangju.  It's basically a pseudo-town, like one would find at a theme park, with fake stores and things to sight-see, and it's all in English.  I didn't think anything of it at first, other than that it felt a little like a summer camp program.  There were staged activities like "baking" (my kids never received their decorated cookies!!  what a gyp!), a magic show, and a chance to play with a fire hose and fire extinguishers next to a "119" firetruck.  The Korean emergency response number is opposite of our emergency phone number in the USA, which is 911.  I think that's funny :) 

Once my kids walked into the little play Supermarket, I realized how different this place was for them!  The signs were all in English!  The money was all US Dollars!  What just seemed like a 'normal' pretend store to me was completely different than any pretend store they'd ever played in.  THAT is what made the uniqueness of this little English village click for me. 

All in all, it was a cute little village, even if the folks running the show didn't expect 240 kiddos (and thus seemed a little disorganized for much of the day). 

I really like field trip days.  Here are some pics!

 

 

 

On the left - yeah she makes that face at me a lot :/

"Magic" show

One of my boys got to be a volunteer :)

 

Brighton Field Trip #1

Well I have been on my first field trip with my kindergarteners!  On Friday, we went to the Naju Forest Institute, which has very little to offer, so the whole field trip amounted to walking around, looking at trees and plants, and playing games.  My Korean (who teaches in Korean) co-teacher and I were jointly in charge of Libra class (Virginia and Montana).  It was great to hang out with my kiddos for a day in their native language, for the most part.  I'd talk to them in English, of course, but they spent most of the day in Korean.  It was very relaxing for everyone!  I noticed that most things on field trips translate well without understanding the language.  For example,  "Look at those trees" (check).  "Sit down, please!" (check).  "Let's go over here" (check).  Field trip games also cross international boundaries really seamlessly.  I had a great time, and I know that the kids did too! 

Here are some pics :)

 Yeahh we're going on a field trip!

We're so excited!!

We're here!!!
  

  

Look at those trees.

Here's a pond with big ol' tadpoles in it

 

Right after this pic, G. (the one crouching and leaning over) fell in :-/
 

 

Walking around, looking at trees
 

More walking, more looking at trees.

Lunch!!

 

No PB&J on this field trip.  The kids bring home-made gimbap!!  

(Notice the children's chopsticks with finger holds, to teach proper chopstick management)

And then every single kid gives the teacher bites :)  

Post-lunch games
 

 

Bus ride home :)

 We were exhausted!

And we love field trips :)