Sayre Fourth Grade Takes a Field Trip to SRAC

This year was the eighth year that SRAC has been doing field trips for Sayre's 4th grade classes. In fact the first kids we did this with at Sayre should be graduating this year. We are so proud to be a part of these kids' childhood memories!

 The Field Trip The school bus arrived at 9:30 am and as the kids unloaded, SRAC's Jack Andrus who is part Native American was dressed in clothing that the Native Americans in our region may have worn during the late 18th century drummed his drum as the school children entered the Center.

All 4 classes that make up Sayre's 4th grade were brought into the lecture hall where they were given team names and told the agenda and rules for the game that they would play at the end of the field trip, called "Stump the Chump." The most important thing was for them to remember to listen to each speaker at the stations they would visit and to try to come up with questions that would "stump" the other teams.

Station 1: Jack Andrus: Native American Children Stories - at this station, Jack told authentic children stories - with the "closer" and most popular story for the kids about a star in an apple....

Station 2: Ted Keir: Hunting the woolly mammoth - Ted told the kids about the ice age, woolly mammoths and other animals that lived here 10 - 15 thousand years ago and about the first men that arrived in our region hunting them...

Ted Keir: Hunting the woolly mammoth

 Station 3: Dick Cowles: Early European /Native American Contact - Dick told the kids about the initial and ongoing contact between the Native Americans of our region and the "White Men"

Some of you might not realize that Ted and Dick will both turn 89 this year!

Dick Cowles: Early European /Native American Contact 

Station 4: The SRAC Gift Shop! The teachers asked us if we could add the gift shop as another station a few years ago because the kids always want to shop when they come - so we did - and the kids love it!

Teacher Robin Munn helped her students shop and even bought them all a small toy!

It's important to point out that SRAC never charges kids - or schools for their tours - and every field trip we do for the schools is on US and offering shopping in the gift shop is totally up to the teachers!

At the end of the day - Robin Munn's team (class) "The Sparklers" won the "Stump the Chump" game and won special prizes. But all the kids (85) and the teachers also went home with an authentic Native American artifact donated by Ted Keir - a net sinker stone and our SRAC magnet!

And so we bring the 2013 school year field trips to a close - and we look forward to making more memories with the 2014 4th grade classes of the local schools. We sure hope the kids enjoyed the their time with us as much as we did!