Since West Michigan (and now the rest of the state) has been blanketed in a bouncy layer of snow, 5th grade decided to take advantage and introduce the kids to Cross Country Skiing at the local nature center. On Wednesday, 3 of the 5th grade classes piled onto big yellow buses and made our way to Sarett. Bundled in snow clothes and wearing big warm boots -- the kids filed in for their crash course on the history of skiing. After learning the basics about the "babbish" on a snowshoe and how we don't want to be "high sticker-nose pickers..." but rather "low sticker - thigh flickers" with our ski poles -- we got our boots and separated into groups of 10.
We met our naturalist in the parking lot, skis in hand as we all fumbled putting on the (very) slippery skis. Once our boots were locked in, she taught us how to get up if we fell. The entire time I was thinking, "It's fine...I just need to avoid falling so I don't have to do that much scooting and rolling in the snow." (I wasn't that lucky). The groups wobbled on their skis toward the "practice circles" so we could test out our skills gliding, walking, and pushing ourselves through the snow.
Each group, like ducklings to their mother, disappeared into the woods. My skis were awesome! A nice pair of Crown skis and pretty blue poles. I know nothing about skiing and had never been on a pair of skis -- but I enjoyed my pair and really liked gliding around.
We ended up with a perfect day, quite warm and sunny with beautiful, snow-covered trails to glide through. Eventually we made our way to one of the "baby hills" as our instructor assured us. By this time I'd fallen twice -- once landing my head right into the side of a tree. I was a little apprehensive of this hill -- so I played "photographer" at the bottom.
We had some wipeouts on this hill -- as I watched it be quite difficult for some kids to stay in the track. Those that did fall,
became experts at popping back up after wiping out! I had a dad from my class attend the field trip! Mr. Tavolacci was our seasoned expert on the skis -- and he raced his son down the hill a few times, which was fun to watch!
After a tiring day of skiing -- the kids were quiet on the bus ride back to school. Most were chilled and had bright rosy cheeks, but had nothing but great things to say. One of mine came up to me while turning in his skis and said, "Miss Brown -- I can snowboard and not fall...but I fell 8 times on these things!" I asked, "Did you have fun?" "Well, yeah..." "Then it was worth the falling.." I replied. :)
I felt the same -- the kids were overly interested in how many times I fell on my skis -- I kept my number at 3 .. but one of them was because I crashed into one of my students.
It was a phenomenal day and a great field trip. I love getting out of my comfort zone -- and watching kids get to try something they might not have tried on their own -- or have never done before. I thank Sarett and the parent volunteer for giving us a great day in the snow!
To end this post -- I'd like to share a picture from yesterday. Yesterday was "Team Day" at school. Students were told to wear a shirt/jersey representing their favorite team. Our principal pushed for increased MSU gear...heavily biased in his favoritism :). I wore an old school hockey jersey -- representing the San Jose Sharks. Now, I'm a Wings fan all the way -- but I couldn't pass up wearing one of the old jersey to school -- plus it's TEAL! The kids had no idea it was one of the old jerseys..but they liked it anyways. A handful of staff members had a similar idea representing, MSU, Boston Bruins, and Chicago Blackhawks for hockey!
A FANtastic Friday!
