With tight budgets many of the favorite things from our childhood may not be there for future generations. Several school districts in eastern Idaho are running budgets that leave little room for the fun things, like fieldtrips.
Principals rarely have room in their budgets to pay the expense of transporting students away from school. However, there are a few who refuse to let this exciting part of a child’s education go away.
Principal Bingham of the Irving Kindergarten Center in Blackfoot has worked hard to preserve these opportunities for her students and Tuesday, they all reaped the rewards of her hard work.
It took a team to make this happen and we are not talking about the school board. The busses were paid for by Farm Bureau. The owners of the Wild Adventure Corn Maze let the students in at a fraction of the normal price, and they even gave each of them a pumpkin. B&D Farms pitched in by showing the students how a potato farm works.
Through their generosity, 357 kindergarten students were able to make a memory that they won’t soon forget.
“It’s something I always loved and these kindergarteners, they get to come out to the farm and they get to see the real thing,” said Jeremy Johnson of the Wild Adventure Corn Maze. “This is something that a lot of kids don’t get to see much these days and I always loved fieldtrips and leaving. It’s local and the kids have a good time coming out here and I think it’s good for them to get out of the school once in a while.”
It may look like this is just fun and games but by time the day is finished, all of the kids will have gained an educational experience that they may not have otherwise had in the classroom.
“At a five-year-old level, you can show them pictures of things and you can try to explain to them what’s going on but they do a lot better if you can give them that hands on experience,” said Allysse Bingham, Principal of the Irving Kindergarten Center. “So when we go back and we are reading stories about potatoes or pumpkins, they can remember this fieldtrip and relate that story to their lives.”
Whether it was picking a potato, or navigating through a maze, lessons were learned and there was a clear consensus.
“Best fieldtrip ever!” exclaimed a large group of students.
We love hosting fieldtrips here at KPVI. To schedule a visit, please call Rhea at 235-3124.
