“You all did a great job cleaning up!” Miss Nell praised the class. “Please go find a seat on the Circle Time rug. We need to talk about one more thing before you leave for the day.” She then informed them, “Today, in your mail boxes, there is a paper for you to take home. It’s the information that your parents need concerning your first field trip!” Most of the children responded by saying ‘all right’ or ‘hooray’. Katie said, “I can’t believe you all are so excited about seeing a field.” “Yeah,” said Brian, “I’ve seen lots of fields. There isn’t anything exciting about them.” Some children giggled. Jerome rolled his eyes and said, “Oh man, I can’t believe it.” Miss Nell said, “I need you to quiet down and turn on your listening ears. I want you to be able to hear what I’m going to say.” She then went on to explain, “We’re not going to see a field. A field trip is when you go somewhere else other than school to learn things.”

“We’re leaving the school?” asked a shocked Aleisha. “Cool!” shouted Brian. “Does that mean we won’t have to do work that day?” “Yes,” Miss Nell couldn’t help but smile as she answered him. “We don’t follow our regular routine on a field trip day.” “Do we go on a lot of field trips in kindergarten?” Brian asked hopefully. “Let’s not worry about that right now, okay?” Miss Nell answered him.

Tyler raised his hand and asked, “Where are we going?” “Great question, Tyler! We will be going on a tour of a bakery so we can learn how they make the things that they sell.” Now Tyler had another question, he asked, “Will they give us anything to eat?” “Maybe,” was all that Miss Nell offered. She then continued, “I know that leaving the school may be a little scary. Some of you have just gotten used to coming here and you’re wondering why we’re doing something new. But I promise it’s going to be a great trip and all of you will have a lot of fun.” “I’m not afraid of anything,” Brian informed them. “I can help anyone who doesn’t know what to do,” Miranda offered. Aleisha wanted to ask when or even if they were coming back. But then more children started talking and Miss Nell told them that it was time to leave. They needed to get their things and line up to go home.

Aleisha almost panicked as she thought, “How can it be time to go home? Isn’t Miss Nell going to tell us more about this field bakery trip thing?” Aleisha continued to worry as she packed up her backpack and she thought, “Where is the bakery? How are we supposed to get there? Don’t we need a grown up to go with us? Why are our parents sending us away?” There were so many things to worry about. Maybe she should ask Jerome, he always seemed to know everything. But she didn’t have time; she had to get on the bus. She spent the entire bus ride worrying. The more she thought about the field trip the more questions she had and the more questions she had the more she worried. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t even hear the other children talking about the field trip. If she had, a lot of her fears would’ve been calmed. By the time Aleisha got off the bus, she had made up her mind. She wasn’t going on any trip.

There was no way she was leaving her mother. She just wouldn’t show her mom the paper. She knew she had to figure out a way not to go to school on the trip day but she was sure she would think of something. Now that Aleisha had decided she wasn’t going, she wasn’t worried or upset. She spent the rest of the day playing and being happy.

At bedtime, when Aleisha’s mom came into her room to kiss her goodnight, she held up the field trip paper and said, “Look what I found in your backpack. Why didn’t you tell me you are going on your first field trip? It’s going to be so much fun!” “Yea, that’s what Miss Nell said but I don’t think so,” Aleisha answered. “You don’t? Why not?” her mom wanted know. “I don’t know. It just seems so scary.” “Since when are you afraid of cookies and cupcakes?” her mom teased her. “I’m not,” Aleisha giggled in response. “It’s scary not to know where the bakery is or how we’re going to get there or when we’re coming home…” “Whoa, slow down, you don’t need to worry about all of those things; besides, I’ll be with you,” her mom told her. Aleisha sat straight up in bed and asked, “You will?!”

“Sure, for special events they let parents go along to help keep track of all the kids, they call us ‘chaperones’,” her mom informed her. Her mom then went on to answer all of her questions about field trips. She told her things like: the teacher will assign each child to a group and there will be a parent in charge of each group. They will ride in either a bus or a van to get there. Each chaperone will lead their group thru the bakery and help anyone if they need it. And everyone will be back at school in time to ride the bus home.

Her mom asked, “Are you feeling better about the trip, now?” “I guess so,” Aleisha answered. “I’ll sign your permission slip and you can give it to your teacher tomorrow. I’ll write a note on it so she knows I’ll be able to be a chaperone, okay?” Aleisha gave her mom a goodnight hug and said, “Okay!”