Wow!"
That was the universal reaction of the more than 50 fifth grade students from Howard Drive Elementary School the first time they saw the dome of the Capitol in Washington, DC.

Howard Drive Elementary School Washington, D.C. Trip April with Educational Field Trips

"That’s the signature experience of the whole trip," said Gary Sheckman, Howard Drive history teacher. "That’s what they’ve been anticipating all year."

Sheckman, Verbena Cummings and Marta Whitehouse coordinated the school’s annual fifth grade trip to Washington. They have led the trip for the past three years, but this year was something special.

"The week we were there happened to be the 50th anniversary of NATO, so there were many special activities and events going on all around us," Sheckman said.

Whitehouse said that streets would often be closed at the last minute, requiring their tour bus to make an unexpected detour, "but when the streets were closed we saw many, many VIP’s in limousines driving by, and many of the families of visiting NATO dignitaries were sightseeing around Washington right along with us. That’s something we had never seen before and may never see again."

The 52 fifth graders, accompanied by 27 parents and 5 teachers, spent three days in the nation’s capital in April as the culmination of a year of studying American government and history.

"Some people feel that fifth graders are too young to experience something like this, but you just have to take one look at the kids and you know they are having a wonderful time," Sheckman said.

"This was a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to experience something together," said Barbara Christensen, a parent who accompanied her daughter on the trip. "I had never been to Washington before, either. And it was great to watch my daughter correlate the information she learned in class with the actual sites."

Bringing history to life is what it’s all about.

"To see the kids excited about the experience is great, and to hear them talk about things they learned in class, that’s the best of all, because you realize that they really were listening after all," Whitehouse said.

Both Sheckman and Whitehouse are veteran "tour guides," having led similar trips at other schools for more than a dozen years. Some of their successful techniques include: having all the children wear bright red hats to quickly identify them in a crowd, and arranging for the children to visit age-appropriate exhibits.

For instance, when the children visit the Holocaust Museum, they go to see "Daniel’s Story," a special section designed specifically for young children, without graphic images. The group also visits places like Mount Vernon, the new Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, and the three Smithsonian Museums that are the most age-appropriate: the Air & Space Museum, Museum of American History, and Museum of Natural History.

Overall, the three-day trip is jam-packed, with visits to more than half a dozen historical sites and museums each day.

"But the most important thing we do is to try to make all this relevant to the kids," Sheckman said. "A building is just a building without meaning unless the children have learned about it beforehand. Then it comes to life."