Schulenburg Kindergarteners Take Flight on Their Very First Field Trip

Kinder energy filled the air on Thursday, November 13, as thirty-one Schulenburg ISD kindergartners embarked on their very first field trip and for many their very first school bus ride to the Stanzel Model Aircraft Museum.

The Museum staff shared that they were thrilled to be the children’s very first field trip experience, and they welcomed the young visitors with a full day of history, hands-on learning, and aviation-inspired fun.

In the main museum, students learned about Victor and Joe Stanzel, the Schulenburg brothers whose passion for flight paralleled that of the Wright Brothers. They walked through the steps of airplane construction, and saw many of the models, toys, and rides the brothers created. Kindergarteners then became designers themselves, coloring wooden airplanes and folding their own paper airplanes, strengthening fine motor skills while bringing their ideas to life.

A visit to the original 1935 Stanzel Factory introduced students to the properties of balsa wood and the workings of the plastic-mold presses that produced the iconic Stanzel toys from the 1950s, to the 1990s. Kindergarteners also took turns controlling the flight simulator and drafting their own creative flying-machine designs.

In the ancestral home of the Stanzel brothers’ grandparents, who immigrated from Austria in the late 1860s, students learned about genealogy and created their own simple family trees. They explored the history of cotton farming in Schulenburg 150 years ago, held cotton straight from the boll, and compared seed cotton with ginned, ready-to-use cotton. The children toured the bedroom and kitchen of the 1870s home, viewing artifacts such as a suspended quilting frame, rope bed, cowboy bathtub, and a German-style speck schrank. They discovered how families used cotton to create quilts that told stories stitched over generations, then made their own paper quilts to take home.

The biggest highlight of the trip was the Stanzel Fun Field, where students explored Newtonian principles of motion using air-pressure stomp rockets, Stanzel frisbees, and foam airplanes.

Before heading back to school, each child was invited to choose a free book from the Melinda Stanzel Barneycastle Little Free Library, adding one more moment of delight to an already unforgettable day.

The Stanzel Museum is honored to support the education and enrichment of local students through TEKSaligned field trips and looks forward to welcoming many more grade levels in the future.

For booking information, contact Cynthia Fogleman at cynthia@stanzelmuseum.org or (979) 743-6559.