Photography and poetry field trip

On the bus on the way back from the zoo, I was bus partners with Dylan. We hit a huge bump, and I almost hit my head on the ceiling of the bus! - Michael

At the zoo before we ate lunch, we took some pictures of the animals who weren't hibernating and my favourite zoo animal was the tiger. - Jenna

At the zoo, we took some photos about bird's view, worm's view, and we had to take a picture where it looks like you're holding the sun. My favourite animal that I took a picture of was the bald eagle. - Joey

Today we went to the zoo, and Marie and I were bus partners and we were almost laughing the whole time. Marie took pictures with the camera, and I took a picture of her holding a buffalo. - Kyra

When we went to the zoo, my partner was Cameron. When we saw there was the eagles, and then one was sitting on that branch, and the other was far away. The one that was far away flew to the other eagle, and they started fighting, and it made a creepy sound. - Gal

On the field trip, we were looking at the camels, and there was one camel that had its bumps hanging to the side. - Hailey M.

Today we went to the zoo, and we got to take pictures. My favourite picture that I took was of the bathroom sign. After that we had lunch, and then we did poems where we had to have silence for a long time - it was awesome! - Evan

After lunch, we went to the English Garden and we sat on a mat. Bran, the instructor, would play a drum. The first drumbeat would be for silence, and the second one would be to close your eyes, and the third one was to line up. - Lexi

At lunch, I sat in a group of four with Evan, Michael, and Kurt. Evan and Michael had a hot dog, I had a burger, and Kurt had chicken nuggets. Evan did want all of his fries, so he passed them to Kurt, and they kept passing them around until Evan accidentally dropped them. - Logan

On Monday, we took part in a Photography/Poetry Art In The Park field trip at the Assiniboine Park. It's a pilot project they are running, and our class (along with Mrs. Steinhoff's Grade 4/5 class) was lucky enough to be one of the classes chosen to participate. The first part of the day was dedicated to photography. Our guide, Bran, talked to us about some of the principles of photography, such as the Rule of Thirds, focus, perspective, and so on (as a photography buff, I was very excited by this part of the day). After this, the students were partnered up to share a camera, and were given about an hour to explore the zoo with their lenses. They were very excited to do so, and it was fantastic to watch the students discover the joy of photography.

After lunch (provided by the Park - the kids were beyond excited to get french fries!), the focus was poetry. After a bit of direction from Bran, the students went into the English Garden, spread out, and spent about 10 minutes in silence, with about half of that time spent with their eyes closed as well. After, they created poetry based on what they experienced with their senses. It was hard for the students to stay still/quiet for that long, but they did a great job, and were surprised by what they could 'capture' with their senses. It was a really neat writing exercise, and it's one I'll likely use in the future. It was a great field trip - if they pilot program is successful, and the Park decides to offer this program in the future, I can't recommend it enough!

(BTW... sorry for the lateness of the post. Monday was a crazy day, and I was away sick yesterday...)