A Wild, and Record-Setting, Field Trip for Students
It was both a Wild – and a record-setting – field trip for hundreds of DMPS students.
Thursday was a great day for a field trip around the district and excited students were converging on Neverland and the Iowa Events Center by midmorning for a couple of extra special outings.
The entire Northside feeder pattern was invited to attend a matinee performance of Peter Pan in the auditorium at North High School, courtesy of the Polar Bear Drama Department. Besides the hundreds of elementary and middle school kids in the audience the cast of the show is sprinkled with 30+ from their ranks. The show formally open its weekend run on Friday night with performances also scheduled for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Thursday morning’s sneak peekers were giving the production rave reviews.
Meanwhile, downtown the Iowa Wild were playing the Milwaukee Admirals in a School Day hockey matchup on the ice at Wells Fargo Arena.
More than a dozen DMPS elementary and middle schools were represented in the big crowd that was made up almost entirely of school kids from around Central Iowa. Most of them brought sack lunches along to munch between periods while also enjoying entertaining science experiments staged by the Science Center of Iowa and mugging for the crowd cam shots that flashed up on the scoreboard’s giant video screen.
Each student also received a special edition game program (Iowa Wild School Day Workbook) that was educationally themed with features like Merchandise Math, Anatomy Assist, Geography Goal and Science Shootout. Also included were word puzzles and good advice about bullying, cyber safety and healthy snacking.
Unfortunately the Wild were blanked by the visitors, 3-0, but they did set a new attendance record of more than 11,000, thanks in no small measure to the sizable DMPS contingent. They may have lost one game but gained lots of new fans in the process.
Nothing spices up schooldays like a polar production of Peter Pan – plus pucks!
