Saukville Teacher Makes Super Bowl Trip a Learning Experience for Students

For most fans, Packers football is nothing to joke about, but for Saukville Elementary teacher Christina Bretl, a little kidding around took her to the Super Bowl.

“My husband was joking about going after the Bears game,” Bretl said.  But only a few days later, Bretl and her husband booked their trip to meet their daughter and see the Packers play in Texas.

“It was a fabulous, great surprise,” she said. 

While in Texas, Bretl was amazed at the friendly, happy atmosphere.  While some team rivalries can be fairly bitter, she noted that there was no poor sportsmanship to be found in Cowboys Stadium.

“The Packers and Steelers fans made for a really great crowd,” she said.  

However, Bretl said that the atmosphere of the stadium changed during the game’s third quarter. 

With the back and forth and stressful plays, “it got a little quiet on the Packer side,” according to Bretl.  Obviously the silence didn’t last long as Packer backers celebrated another Super Bowl victory that evening.  

Amidst the tension and celebration of the game, Bretl didn’t forget her students at Saukville Elementary.  One second grader asked Bretl to bring his Flat Stanley — a paper doll that children send on an adventure with a friend — on the trip. 

So, while in Texas, Bretl photographed the character experiencing the vacation, even the security check-in at the stadium.  She plans to present Stanley’s adventure to her students in the next week.

With quite a few sports fanatics in her first grade class, Bretl said that before the game, the children spent a lot of time discussing the team and writing about the game in their journals.  She also took the opportunity to help her students map out where in the country she’d be visiting. 

Bretl taught bigger lessons as well.

“We talked a lot about winning, losing and sportsmanship,” she said.  

Now that the game is over and the Packers have returned to Titletown, Bretl has returned home with something to check off her bucket list.  

“It’s something you have to do once,” she said.