Week 10

 On Tuesday, I put together things for the students' portfolios. At Hubbell, the students are given portfolios in kindergarten that their teachers put important projects in throughout the year. These portfolios are brought with the students all the way until 5th grade when they get to take them home. My brother and I still have our portfolios from our time at Hubbell, and I think that it is such a cool thing for the students to have. On Wednesday, we walked to Roosevelt to watch the Roosevelt Theater program's musical. The kids had so much fun, and I was happy that I got to see the musical too! On Thursday, I finished up putting together the portfolios. There was a lot to put in them, but it was fun to see all the great work the students have been doing. On Friday, we got to go on a field trip I have been looking forward to for months, and I'm sure the students had been too. We went to Fort Des Moines Park, where we did lots of activities. We started off the day by playing games in the field at the park and doing a nature scavenger hunt. Then, we went to the pond to fish with an instructor from Polk County Conservation. On the way to the pond, one of the students found and picked up a baby Painted Turtle. The person from Polk County Conservation said that the turtle was likely only a day old! I was also lucky enough to be able to release the turtle into the pond. The students were very excited to fish, but not as excited about waiting for them to bite. I also had to untangle a few tangled lines. Just before we finished fishing, on of the students caught a fish! The whole class was so excited and ran over to see it. To wrap up the day, we went on a nature hike with another person from Polk County Conservation who told us all about the animals that live at the park, such as beavers, frogs, turtles, fish, owls, and birds. She also emphasized how important these animals and taking care of them and their habitats are. I feel so lucky that I was able to go on this field trip and spend time with the students learning outside of the classroom and doing more hands-on activities.