Howell Nature Center

On Friday, November 2, the students and staff of Summers-Knoll took their annual trip to Howell Nature Center. It was an exciting and exhausting day, and I have roughly 180,000 photos that I'd like to show to you.

For now, however, I'll just share these highlights:

We began our adventures sitting together for a whole-school meal.

Those seated at Dr. George's table were treated to a discussion on how to make a particularly effective potato gun. 

Activity #1: Fire Building

After a tutorial on the essentials of fire building, our class was divided into three teams. Each was challenged to construct a safe and productive fire using as few matches as possible. It was no small task, given how wet everything was from the previous day's rain. However, the chill in the air provided an excellent motivator!

Alexandra, Kaeli, and Melissa prepare their site.

Henry, Noah, and Kathy try to breathe life into their fire pit.

Success! Aristea, Laurea, and Kaeli warm up.

Activity #2: Zipline! 

Henry A. comes in for a landing.

Melissa zips across the gulf with gusto.

Frozen in time, Kaeli looks as if she's falling from the sky (or ascending into it?)

Kathy adopts the classic Peter Pan in Flight pose.

A video of Noah's run on the zipline:

Activity #3: Climbing Tower! 

The class contemplates the height of the tower.

Laurea makes her ascent.

Henry and Henry on the wall.

Noah making progress.

Matthew was the first person to make it to the window!

Kaeli in search of the perfect handhold.

Lee braves the wall.

Alexandra was the only one who made it all the way to the top! It was amazing!

After she rappelled back down to Earth, I told her to throw up her hands in celebration of her triumph! This was her response:

An excellent climber and humble!

Activity #4: Shelter Building

Given a tree, some sturdy branches, and a trillion twigs and leaves, each team was tasked with constructing a shelter that would fit everyone in the group while providing protection from the elements.

Henry A, Noah, and Henry K begin framing their shelter.

Kaeli, Alexandra, Melissa, and Aristea constructed a shelter that was both spacious and well-insulated!

Lee, Matthew, and Laurea, warm and dry in their shelter.

Stomping through the wilderness from one activity to the next.

By the end of the afternoon, we were all spent. However, everyone managed to rally for several epic matches in the Ga-ga pits. Many of us had never heard of Ga-ga before Howell, but everyone sparked to it in a major way. Here's some footage of a game in action:

It was tremendous fun to watch. First graders often squared off against middle schoolers, with no guarantee of who would win. The number of strategies and playing styles were as varied as the individuals in the pit. For example, watch the above video and see if you can spot Aristea. She pioneered and mastered the strategy of calmly standing perfectly still along the edge of the wall for most of each match. Time and time again, she would make it to the last few minutes of a game, at which point she would spring to life, rested and ready to go against the players who had been running nonstop. Crafty!

Before long, students, teachers, and parents were suggesting that we strongly consider constructing a Ga-ga pit back at Summers-Knoll. It's an idea that hasn't waned, as evidenced by this makeshift pit I noticed on our playground last week:

Dr. George has already mocked up a possible design for a full-size pit, which would be a delightful and idiosyncratic addition to our evolving campus. 

Dusk gave way to night, putting an end to the games. We sat down to a subdued group meal, then wrapped up our evening with campfires and s'mores.

It was a really wonderful trip for the school in general, and for our class specifically. The day was packed with different types of challenges, and I was proud to watch as each student rose to the occasion and was met with success.

I'd especially like to thank the parents who spent the day with us climbing, zip-lining, and tromping through the woods: Kathy, Paul, and Jenny: THANK YOU!