2012_10_18 Thursday

Jonathan had his first class field trip today to a "farm" that didn't have any animals. They did a hay ride and a hay maze; picked a pumpkin; and had apple cider and a doughnut. I'm guessing/hoping there was some sort of educational perspective there too, but that doesn't get reported home.

Then, in the afternoon, Elise and I went to his class to dissect three (well, two) hornet nests from The Barony. We had intended to do three, but I saw a bald faced hornet crawling up the rear window as I was driving, so I decided against bringing that one to 22 kids, the teacher, and the principal. I left the nest on the side of the road, although it's close enough to the school that someone is likely to find it. I had been messing with that nest all day, slicing it open and shaking it so I'm a little surprised to have found one bugger crawling out. Anyway, because it was a beautiful day, we did it outside, and that allowed for no mess in the classroom, too. The kids got a charge out of it. The best question was: "If there's a Queen wasp, where's the king wasp?" Oh, there were so many answers running through my head, but I settled on "There are none. All the boy wasps work for the Queen." Then, whoever wanted got to take some of the paper home. Less for me to deal with! Teacher seemed pleased too, and I think I may be the official science class helper now.