Class bids adieu to double decker buses

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This article was published 24/09/2003 (8018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE annual trip to the pumpkin patch came early this year for the Meadows West School kindergarten class, as they bid farewell to the Paddlewheel Riverboat Cruises double decker buses.

The Meadows West class makes a trip each October to the East St. Paul market garden of Walter and Betty Peterson, in order to visit the farm and learn about plants and how things grow. For the last 10 years, since kindergarten teacher Janice Kozoriz came up with the idea, the class has ridden in style in the double decker buses.

This year, the trip was moved up because the buses have been sold to a Vancouver tour operator.

Last Thursday, 60 Meadows West kindergarten students and about 15 parents took one of the last scheduled trips the double deckers will make in Winnipeg.

There were more cameras than usual with the parents on the trip, and the adults seemed to enjoy it more than usual.

“This year, I guess because the trees are starting to change colour already and it’s the last year for the double decker buses, I guess it was kind of neater,” said Kozoriz.

Learning about plants and how they grow is part of the kindergarten curriculum, and Kozoriz says the students understand it better when they can see how things work in the real world.

“It was neat to see because a lot of kids don’t realize how pumpkins are grown,” she said. “You can talk about it a lot, but they don’t really get it until they see it.”

Kozoriz said the Petersons usually take the kids out into the pumpkin patch and let them choose their own to take back to school and decorate. The class also used to scoop out all the seeds and roast them, with the help of older students.

This year, though, the schedule was off because the buses wouldn’t be available in October, so Peterson drove out of the barn in a mini-tractor pulling a wagon full of miniature ornamental pumpkins that he handed out to the children.

Next year’s kindergarten class will likely make the field trip out to the Petersons’ farm, but it won’t be the same without the double decker buses.

“I’m not too sure how we’ll get out there next year,” said Kozoriz. “We’ll have to try to think of a different way.”

Lesia Esposito, a teacher’s aid with the Meadows West kindergarten class, said the trip is educational. But for her, a big part of its appeal was the bus tour.

“There are things you can see from the top floor I never knew were there,” she said of the double decker bus ride. “Part of it is the tour, and I don’t know if it would be the same on a regular school bus.”