Art Club’s Field Trip

Art Club group photo

Elizabeth Smithey, writer

On April 13th, Art Club went to Sainte Genevieve for a field trip during the school day. They headed out right after 1st hour ended and traveled for an hour on the road. For their field trip, they started at Sainte Genevieve Musem Learning Center to learn about everything there and view all the different artifacts. The workers there were really friendly and it was not crowded. After everyone was done viewing the artifacts, they went upstairs to dig out small artifacts that were inside a specific set of bricks. Once they were done they got to keep them!

Digging for fossils (Mrs. Smithey)

After this activity, they got the chance to open geodes themselves with a manual hydraulic press. Once everyone completed the activities they had one last look at all the articles and all sat down on the floor to draw what they saw at the learning center.

Art Club’s drawing circle (Mrs. Smithey)

At 11:30 am they got on the bus and headed to Subway to pick up their food and then to China King for Chinese food, once everyone had their food and was loaded up on the bus they found a park to sit and eat at. They sat, ate, and conversed until everyone was done eating and started their walk around the town. They first stopped at a cute little candy shop to look around. Some members who had money bought some candy. They had a wide variety of candy for such a little shop and the workers there were very friendly. One of the members of Art Club had bought cheddar-flavored mealworms. Many people in Art Club tried at least one, but most people didn’t like that they immediately fell apart when you ate them. Although it was a funny site, they did not have a very pleasant experience. They continued their walk and eventually ended up at a little ice cream shop called Sally’s Ice Cream. This shop was interesting because the inside of the shop was vintage and they even used original vintage machinery from an old grocery store. There was only one person working there. Her name was Sally and she was really nice. While she was making their ice cream orders she keep up a conversation with everyone and told them all about the history of the town. Overall the environment was really cozy and nice.

Continuing their walk, they stopped by many different shops to learn about the history of the town. They went to the catholic church to look at all of the stained glass windows and the architect of the building.

Miles and Elizabeth relaxing in a cemetery (Mrs. Smithey)
talking about the different gravestones (Mrs. Smithey)

From there they went to one of the oldest cemeteries in that part of Missouri. They had a fun time there and visited the graves and took some pictures of them. They were fascinated by all of the different types of tombstones, especially the really big ones. They liked how there was a gentle breeze and how peaceful it seemed once they got into the cemetery. Two of the students laid down and relaxed on the grass where there was a little clearing away from the actual graves. After everyone was done looking around and paying their respects they walked back to the learning center to be picked up by the bus. The field trip turned out great for the Fredericktown Art Club. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, and it could be counted as one of the best field trips yet.