Field Trips Close to Home

Nicole LindeTumwater, Olympia, Washington

Olympia and Tumwater have a rich history and should be shared with the kids in school today.

Henderson House Museum • A large part of

Tumwater and Olympia’s history has to do with the brewery.

• William Naumann built the house in 1905.

• Housing workers of the brewery for years.

• Now purchased by the city of Tumwater the house is expecting a renovation.

• The kids could learn about the house and how the people would have lived there back in the day. The kids can act out a play of what they believe happened back in the day.

• http://www.ci.tumwater.wa.us/about-tumwater/history/henderson-house

The Schmidt House• Leopold Schmidt build the house on the

Deschutes River.

• Leopold and family moved from Montana to Washington in the 1890’s.

• Leopold was the owner of the Olympia Brewery.

• The Artesian Spring was used for brewing the beer.

• The house sits on top of a hill.

• Their son Peter inherited the house when they died.

• The house was called “Three Meter”.

• The house has had few additions and is close to the original design.

• Now owned by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation a non-profit organization.

• Listed on the state and national registries for Historic Places.

• The kids can learn about the Schmidts, more than likely they will have met one of the Schmidts as a substitute teacher. They can explore the house and the grounds of the house and write a short essay on how the Schmidts could have lived.

• www.olytumfoundation.org/schmidt-house-history/

Washington State Capitol Legislative Building• Tours are free and open 7 days a

week for tours.

• There is a lot to see besides this building, all within walking distance.

• Has the tallest masonry dome in North America

• The Nisqually earthquake in 2001 took 3 years to fix and upgrade and 120 million dollars.

• Kids can learn about how our government works, who does what job and about the artifacts in our state building. There is a lot of money that is put into the things in the building. There are old artifacts and furniture. There can be a print out of items and they can write down the price of the items that “wow or shock” them.

Priest Point Park• Priest Point Park is a

great place to go outdoors.

• Kids can learn about the bay, the different type of trees, and could even be productive and help pull Ivy.

• I had a field trip here to pull weeds and it actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds. My class had a blast.

• There is also a play ground and lots of places to sit for lunch.

Burfoot Park• Many different trails and

lots of room for large groups.

• The beach could help interest the learning for shellfish and the ecosystem in the bay.

• There is a beautiful garden that has been kept up for years and a plaque of those who volunteered and died.

• The garden can help kids learn about the different types of flowers.

• A great field trip idea is to have the kids each plant a flower and then they can get excited about watching it grow.

San Francisco Street Bakery • In Olympia Washington,

across from Roosevelt Elementary School.

• Kids can watch the bakers and see how the kitchen works. The transportation from Roosevelt is free since they can walk.

• Little kids would have just learned to read the gingerbread story and could enjoy a gingerbread man cookie.

• The bakery also upkeeps a garden and the kids can enjoy the cookie outside on a nice day.

Olympia Airport and Museum • On Old Highway 99,

there is the Olympia Airport. Little planes and such fly out from here.

• There is also Glacier flying school and it is a great place to learn to fly a helicopter or airplane.

• The Olympic Flight Museum has many aircrafts that were used. There are pictures and statistics.

• After seeing the different aircrafts and asking the people there questions the kids can pick one of the planes to research.