Lewis and Clark Expedition... 4th Grade Style

Learning about Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, etc. takes center stage in fourth grade at our elementary school. One of the things the kids do is go to Hoyt Arboretum in Portland's west hills and do some "treking" in the wilderness like Lewis and Clark did. It was an all day field trip that I was fortunate enough to chaperone. The weather certainly wasn't the best, with lots of rain and clouds, but the kids did great and overall had the best time!

Evelyn, Tori and Evelyn ready to head out!

Mr. Peterson, their fearless leader! :) 

Waiting for the bus. We took public transporatation and it was a great experience for the kids!

Lots of fun on MAX... these are silly kids! :)

We got off the MAX at the zoo to find it POURING! We huddled up for a pep talk and an attitude check then headed out on the trails. Thankfully we were expecting bad weather and most of the kids were prepared with rain jackets.

These three were great encouragers to each other.

We had a uphill hike to the trail shelter

The girls studying the map and planning our route. The kids were in charge of figuring out which way to go and what they wanted to accomplish.

My five charges for the day...

We spent the day hiking around, looking at things and learning about things. Lots of cool things to see for sure!

Big worms...

Big trees...

Cool plants...

Cool rocks....

Huge banana slugs...

Fairy houses....

A cool wooden bench...

...and one wet mom! :)

These kids did great, both navigating the trails to get us where we needed to get safely and on time and in seeing God's beauty around them. It was a super fun day!