F.E. Miley Elementary School's kindergarten and 1st grade class were treated to an educational ride on the commuter train on Thursday, April 18. The outing was part of a longer unit on transportation, which the students had been covering in class. Twenty-seven students and six chaperones from Big Sandy boarded the Amtrak commuter train in Shelby for their journey to the station in Havre.
Mrs. Weaver, who teaches the kindergarten class, explained that the trip itself was the brainchild of Mrs. Leader, who "...approached me about taking a train trip with the first graders as part of their curriculum on transportation. It was a great opportunity for the kids because there's some kids that have never been on a train or may not get the opportunity to ever be on a train. So it was a lot of fun."
Renee Leader, the first grade teacher, explained the rationale for the outing: "We had been talking about transportation in the west and trains. They didn't believe that trains still ran in Montana." She explained that most students were "...thinking it was going to be a long trip. Some of them were really nervous about it, because they thought they were going to be gone overnight." Students were surprised that the trip was such a short jaunt."
Mrs. Weaver described the start of the trip and the accompanying excitement: "There was a lot of excitement watching the train pull up and then when we got to our seats. Really just the whole experience was great. They enjoyed sitting and eating their lunch on the train and bringing their little trays down. They were super excited about the whole experience. We gave the kids an opportunity to explore all the cars. They got to see how people sleep on the train and where they do that. Then we got to go to the viewing car. We brought games and the kids played and interacted with each other. We took a trip down to the dining car to see how people eat lunch on the train."
The railroad gifted each student a conductor's hat, a paper model of an Amtrak locomotive, and an activity book.
The best part of the outing for Mrs. Leader was, "Seeing the excitement of the kids getting on the train. When we first got to the train station, a freight train was going by and just the awe of the kids standing right by the freight train as it was going by. It was a great moment. And I think everybody that went on the trip enjoyed the experience, because a lot of parents that went on the trip had never been on the train either."
The inspiration for the outing came from Renee's years of experience as a teacher: "I have done this field trip with the kindergarteners at Rocky Boy and every time they really liked it. They were very well behaved. I asked if we could do it, because I just felt we needed some background" for their transportation education." In addition, recent research for her family to take a trip prompted Renee to explore the possibility of F.E. Miley students participating in the same trip. "I've been researching a train trip for my family. When I looked at pricing, I found that you can have up to eight kids for half price. I knew that the ticket from Shelby to Havre was not that much. I thought, 'If we could get half priced tickets for eight kids for every adult we bought a ticket for, it would have be a pretty good price, so it wasn't very expensive at all. They gave us a really good deal."
Regarding future return field trips to ride the train, Renee remarked that the trip would likely happen again and possibly with additional classes.
