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As the Islandwood Overnight Outdoor School tradition did not happen at Genesee Hill this year, the 5th grade families and the PTA organized an outdoor school experience for 5th graders on the weekend of March 22-March 24th at YMCA Camp Colman on Case Inlet.
70 students and 28 parent chaperones attended and had a great time building relationships, learning about the natural world, playing games, and singing songs. Students stretched themselves out of their comfort zone in a new place with different people, learning all the way.
On Friday night after a full school day, students arrived at Camp Colman and jumped right into dinner, before a rousing and silly campfire where every student got up on stage. Each cabin group was celebrated for their creative cabin cheers and we ended the day with s’mores and some cabin time before lights out.
All day Saturday and on Sunday morning, students experienced six outdoor environmental education classes, led by the Camp Colman teachers. Every student experienced a beach walk, marine invertebrates class, climbing wall, outdoor wilderness skills and orienteering, forest ecology, and the circle of life game about population dynamics. On Saturday night, they went on a night hike to learn about the “changing of the guard” from diurnal to nocturnal animals and some special adaptations for seeing and hearing in the dark.
Students saw everything from harbor seals to salamanders to banana slugs and some even held snakes and shore crabs! Students learned hands-on things like different fire building and wilderness shelter techniques, climbing and belaying on the climbing tower, and some groups played games like camouflage and the rock cycle game.
The 5th graders did a great job and we are very proud of them for doing things that challenged them, whether on a night hike, on the climbing wall, an uphill hike, or being in a cabin with unfamiliar people. Both the experience of independence as well as the environmental science learning are crucial for the development of early adolescents.
This was truly a full community effort to mobilize volunteers to support this transformative experience and the PTA is committed to ensuring that this experience continues to happen in future years!
5th Grade Overnight Education Committee Leaders,
Mike Montgomery and Heather Thimsen
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