Colorado History Project

The year 2005 was our ground-breaking year for the Foster Elementary 4th Grade Colorado History Field Trip.  It started when two teachers, Dawn Axelson and Greg Aigner, realized that they both shared an interest in providing students with a learning experience through the avenue of travel. As discussions formulated and Foster’s involvement with the PeaceJam Foundation grew, we soon realized that PeaceJam was the perfect partner to help us visualize our dream.

PeaceJam guided us with service learning opportunities and helped us seek the funding that we needed for our first year. The trip which consisted of stops in Durango, Mesa Verede, Alamosa, Great Sand Dunes National Park, and Bent’s Fort was a big success which led us to planning our second trip in 2006.  Because the curricular focus was the Native People of the U.S., we chose to include New Mexico with our Colorado travels.   Our stops for this trip was Bent’s Fort, Santa Fe, Chaco Canyon, Great Sand Dunes National Park.  During this trip, we implemented the aspect of service learning and the students chose to conduct a mini-information drive in the plaza in Santa Fe. 

The purpose of this information drive was to inform the public about the development near sacred Native American land in South Dakota called Bear Butte.  The students wanted to do their part to help save this land. 

We are excited to be planning our third annual 4th Grade Traveling Field Trip for the Spring of 2007.  This year we are planning to tour in Colorado for all five days.  We also plan to add another element to our travels this year which is to work with youth in another area of Colorado, thus bridging two groups of students in the name of service learning. For our 2007 trip we will be working with teenage youth in the Durango area.  We will be helping them with a community project that they choose
and facilitate. 

(click here to view last years photos)

This project will meet Colorado State Standards in many of the following categories:

     Geography
     History
     Science
     Civics
     Economics
     Language Arts

     Music
     Dance
     Theater
     Visual Arts

Our target standards are:

    Geography, standards 1 and 6
     History, standards 1-4
     Civics, standard 4
     Reading and Writing, standard 4

For further explanation on the Colorado State Standards click

Colorado Department of Education, State Standards


Please see the About Us page to learn more about
these groups of students.