PHOTOS: Paynter Elementary ESL Students Enjoy Carnegie Museum

What better way to learn than hands-on?

Sixty-nine English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students from the Baldwin-Whitehall School District and six parent volunteers went on a field trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on March 22.

W.R. Paynter Elementary School ESL teacher Renee Christman applied for and received a scholarship through Target and the museum itself which covered the cost of the trip—a-one-hour tour for all of the students and digging in the museum's Bonehunters Quarry for Paynter's kindergarteners and first-graders.

"Even the cost of our transportation to the museum (was covered)," a grateful Christman said. "The majority of the (ESL) students are refugees who had never been to the museum before, so it was especially memorable."

The students and the teachers each wore matching T-shirts with purple dinosaur logos on them.

Prior to the trip, Paynter's ESL teachers taught the students about fossils, dinosaurs, mammals, rocks, minerals and Native Americans to prepare for the experience.

While the younger students were digging for fossils in the Bonehunters Quarry, the older students completed scavenger hunts.

"The trip added a lot of background knowledge and information about people, animals and nature that will help the students succeed at Paynter," Christman said.

Kathryn Toki is a first-grade teacher at Paynter who had some students go on the trip.

"I thought this was a great thing, and all of the students that went had such a wonderful time and experienced so many new things," Toki said. "All of the kids from my class that got to go couldn't stop talking about it after they returned to school!"

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