Pulling up to the Challenger Center after a day of travel, seeing all our friends. Rushing off the van, screaming our friends' names. Hugs, still screaming. Yup. It's another Inter Island Field Trip. This year we're in Bangor, doing lots of stuff about Space.
After piling off the vans, cars and more cars that we traveled in, we had a few minutes to catch up. So, in other words, a lot of screaming, hugging, jumping, trying to run up buildings, and all the other craziness we do. We are special that way. Then we had one of our famous circle-ups. (Surprise, right?) The best part is, they are never circles. Blobs, squares, ovals, stars, anything besides a circle. We went over the plans, then trooped inside the center for our first activity.
The K-3 graders were doing a program called Astronaut Life. It was a program where they learned what it would be like to be an astronaut. What they ate, how they slept, all that good stuff. The 5-8 graders did a Simulated Space Mission. The fourth graders could choose what they wanted to do. The Simulated Space Mission was a program where we had to be astronauts. We had two groups: people in Mission Control and people in the space shuttle. Halfway through we switched. A few hours later we went back to Camp Jordan for dinner.
Dinner was delicious. Who doesn't love spaghetti? Once everyone was eating and deep in conversation, music started. Kid after kid jumped up and started dancing. Soon almost everyone was dancing and having fun. It was a flash-mob, started by Islesford. After the music ended, everyone went back to dinner like nothing had happened.
The next morning, bright and early (well, actually it was still dark) we had breakfast then left (after we had a circle-up). A field trip isn't a field trip without a sufficient amount of circle-ups. Then we got onto the school bus and settled in for the long ride to the University of Maine. We waited next to the planetarium for a few minutes, waving to people to pass the time. The younger kids went inside a few minutes later for their program, Earth, Moon and Sun. The older kids headed off to the rock wall for a morning of climbing. We were there for about an hour, then left to meet up for a snack. Then the olders went inside for a show on black holes and the youngers went to the climbing wall. An hour later we met for lunch. After lunch we were off the rec center for the challenger course. After yet another circle-up, we split into two groups. This time it wasn't olders and youngers. It was one-twos. One group was on the high ropes course and the other was on the low course. Actually, the name ropes course is sort of misleading because it has nothing to do with ropes except that you are in a harness. The high ropes course had two options: The cat-walk and multi-vine. The cat-walk was a log between two trees about thirty feet in the air. There was a ladder that you climbed, climbed up some staples in the tree, onto the log and across. The multi-vine was like a tightrope with ropes hanging down to hold onto. You climbed the ladder on the staples, onto the wire and across. Scary but addicting. The low course was called Whale Watch. It was like a short, wide teeter-totter. The group split in half. Each person had a partner that was on the opposite side from you. The pairs switched, one at a time when the "boat" was balanced. It took a little while.
Back to camp for dinner and the Halloween Party!! Dinner was burritos. Yum! It was quick, because everyone was eager to get in their costumes and start the party. There was a runway where people could show off their costumes. Dessert followed, then the awards. Then the music started, and the dancing began. We're big on dance parties.
Friday morning arrived. The time had flown by. We couldn't believe it was already time to leave. Monhegan had to leave early, before everyone else. The rest of us ate breakfast and had... guess what? YES! ANOTHER circle-up! Are you noticing a theme here? Then we had a few minutes for good-byes. Reluctantly, we all got into our cars, vans, whatevers. Another field trip had come and gone.
-Meg
