Outdoor Education Winter Activities Kick-Off

Riverstone Outdoor Education Winter Activities are in full swing! Our students step out of their comfort zones with opportunities to offer and receive assistance from classmates, which helps knit our community together in sometimes subtle, but significant ways. Likewise, teachers and parent volunteers help ensure that students know they are supported even when the going gets tough. Furthermore, the most important outcome from these activities are the attitudes towards outdoor recreation that take root during these long, cold months fostering an appreciation for shared outdoor experiences and for our natural environment.

For example, our Elementary students are getting valuable practice layering for the cold and managing personal equipment while also improving balance, endurance, and coordination through swimming lessons with our younger students in Preschool; ice skating at Ice World with PreKindergarten, Kindergarten and Grade 1; nordic lessons for Grades 2 and 3; and a 5-day McCall Outdoor Science trip for our fifth graders.

Grade 4 classes participate in SnowSchool on the slopes of Shafer Butte. The following is a post and pictures shared on the fourth grade classroom blogs by our teachers, Ms. Fitzharris and Ms. Smackey:

We began the winter session of our Outdoor Program with a layer of fresh snow on the slopes of Shafer Butte. Outdoor Education Director, Mr. Brock, had visited our students earlier this week to discuss the importance of layering during outdoor adventures. Much of what the students learn during these trips in fourth grade will serve them well when they spend several consecutive days and nights outside in the wintery mountains as Middle and High School students.

The fourth grade broke up into three groups to learn how to strap on snowshoes in order to navigate the terrain without getting stuck in the drifts of snow. Each group was led by a member of the Bogus Basin SnowSchool staff. These field instructors took their respective groups off into the woods to learn about hydrology – the branch of science concerned with the properties of the earth’s water, especially its movement in relation to land.

The students conducted experiments to discover the powerful insulating effect of a snowpack as well as to explore the significance of the Boise River watershed on which life depends. The team accompanied by Ms. Smackey hypothesized the temperature at the bottom and top of a snow pit they dug using collapsable shovels, viewed snowflakes under a giant hand lens, and tried to determine which animal had left fresh tracks in the snow. They also cruised down slopes on their bellies like otters and were even given the chance to enjoy the inside of a five-person igloo! Each team worked independently, then met back at the Cross Country Lodge for lunch. The gorgeous weather and blue skies made for a terrific day of learning about winter ecology while enjoying the best of our Idaho winter.