Dear Parents,
On February 10th the Chinook 8th grade will be visiting the Capital in Olympia. This trip is an extension of our study of state and federal government. Part of our goal for the day is for students to see the three different branches of representative government and how they work together. We will be there during the 2011 legislative session, so they should have a chance to meet with their state senator and representative. In past years we have also been lucky enough on occasion to meet with the Governor and with our federal Senators.
In the past, the Capitol tour guides have taken us on fantastic guided tours of the Legislative building and state Supreme Court. However, cuts to the state budget have reduced the number of tour guides and the days of the week they are available for tours, eliminating the possibility of guided tours for our students.
This year, Chinook will need parents to act as both tour guides and chaperones
for the Chinook trips to the state capitol.
We have checked with Olympia and paying for private tour guides is not an option.
Persons who volunteer to be Parent Tour Guides would be responsible for preparing themselves with knowledge about the Capital Campus. There will be a packet given to each chaperone which will contain the information you need to be able to explain to students. There will be a meeting of tour guides a month before the field trip that you would be required to attend.
On the reverse is the outline for the parent/tour guide responsibilities. We are looking for roughly 25 volunteers per day. Please review the information provided and email me at jonasa@bsd405.org if you want to sign up for our February 10th trip to the Capitol.
Thanks in advance for your participation, I look forward to working with you – Anthony Jonas
Basics for the Self Guided Tour of Olympia
Goals for students:
· To understand the role of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of the Washington State government.
· To see a legislative session in action in Olympia.
Parent tour guide responsibilities:
· Each tour guide would be responsible for 10 or fewer students. If enough parents volunteer, we could have two adults to a group, one responsible for the actual tour, the other specializing in “crowd control”
· The parent tour guides will meet the students at Chinook by 7:45 AM on the day of the trip and remain with the students until we return to Chinook at approximately 3PM
· Parents will help students organize lunches into labeled boxes
· Parent chaperones will sit on the bus with their group
· Parents will help students get lunches out of the bus storage area
· Parent chaperones need to be certain that none of the students bring electronics off the buses (besides cameras)
· Parents will lead the group to the Rotunda for an orientation
· Parents will need to follow the schedule for your group and explain the buildings, their history, and function to the students
· Following the schedule will be very important as there are several special events happening along the way: a Mock Judicial hearing and meeting with our Legislators for which timing will be essential
· You would be responsible for assisting your group of students as they take photos for their photo essay and take notes on what you are explaining to them.
· Getting the students back to the buses and being with them on the buses on the way back to Chinook
There will be teachers on each of the four buses. Teachers will be with the groups and will circulate to support you during the day.
The Olympia tour office will do the following for us:
· meet the buses and store lunches until lunchtime
· give a general orientation to the whole group of students in the Capitol Rotunda
· arrange for the Senate reception room to be open for our visit
· arrange for our Legislators to meet us in the reception room
· arrange for a place for the Mock judicial hearing