Classroom in the Forest: Forest in the Classroom

That was the name of the field trip my fifth grade daughter went on last Friday. They went to the local YMCA campgrounds out in the woods and learned all kinds of wonderful things about Mother Earth. Now that’s a field trip that our friend, Hippie Spelunker would love! Oh! That’s me! That’s right - silly me!

Seriously, though - the treehugger in me LOVES this field trip! I only wish they had let parents go! At any rate, I got a great rundown from Sammie and her friend when they got home from school! They had so much fun! The two of them yammered on and on to me for at least half an hour, interrupting each other right and left. Her girlfriend had come home with her on the bus and was spending the night with us, and all throughout the evening, little tidbits of ‘field trip stories’ would come up. There was one particular story that had the girls laughing and hollering at each other in the kitchen - it was so funny! Apparently, they went on a ‘hike’ - and I say ‘hike’, because, the girls say it was just basically climbing up this one little hill and they called it a ‘hike’! They thought that was hysterical! They also were quite amused at some of the silliness of the kids climbing up the hill with great difficulty, as though it were some huge mountain! And they said that people were running into each other, falling into each other, and teachers hollering for the kids not to hold onto each other and pull everybody down at once! It would have made a great home movie, I’m sure!


This was a very well-planned field trip. The papers came home about it several weeks ago, and the teachers started some of the curriculum in the classroom two weeks ago. The kids were given all kinds of interesting and helpful handouts. Sammie’s favorite one showed all different kinds of animal footprints. She took it with her, for help in identifying any tracks she found. I forgot to ask her if she saw any and if she was able to identify them. I’ll have to ask her when she gets home today.

And the activities for the day of the trip were all planned out, too, and the part that made me so happy is that the teachers sent home a paper with the permission slip packet, that outlined all of the things that the children would be doing once they got there. So even if we didn’t get to go, we still got to be involved. I re-read over the list of activities on Friday morning, and that helped me feel more ‘aware’ of what she was doing that day, and also, helped me when she came home with her mile-a-minute explanations of everything they did!

Let me tell you all of the cool educational activities they participated in, though. This is -for real- my kind of classroom! Directly from the teacher’s handout:

1. Flag a Tree: The leader will explain and show examples of trees that are not healthy or crowded or crooked. Students will use the criteria to flag a tree they think needs to be cut. They usually have a chance to explain their choice.

2. All Things Need Space: Students will pretend to be trees, looking for water, air, and sunlight.

3. Oh Deer!: Students are split into two groups. One group begins as deer. The second group begins as food, water, or shelter. In a “red rover” type activity, each deer chooses food, water, or shelter until the deer have used up those resources.

4. Nobody Lives Here, Why Does It Matter?: Students look for signs of life as they walk through the forest and record things that they see. The students will compare their lists at the close of the session.

5. Tree Identification: Students will learn ways to identify trees and see examples of different types of trees.

The kids got to stay out there pretty much the entire school day, enjoying their lunch and snack out in the woods, as well. They had so much fun - I think this is a wonderful field trip! We had an environmental center in Texas in our school district, and while we always did enjoy our field trips there, they were always way too short. To have an entire day of outdoor learning is just divine - in my book!

And one of the coolest things - guess what they saw! An otter! A real, for real - otter! Haha! I said, “The only otters I’ve ever seen are on that show we used to watch - ‘PB&J Otter’!” That was so long ago that Sammie doesn’t even remember it. Gosh, we used to watch it every day - every single day - on PBS.

For some of you, that might be no big deal, but, for me - having lived in the concrete-jungle that is Dallas most of my life - seeing an otter - in the wild, no less - is a BIG deal! I hate to say, I almost didn’t believe her. *sheepish grin* I thought maybe they’d seen a beaver - of which we see plenty! (And that was a big deal for me when we first got out to Small Town, Alabama, too! Now we see them all the time!) So I went and looked up otters.

Check out these guys that I found on the Northern River Otter - Wikipedia page:

Awwww!!! Aren’t they adorable? And yes, Wikipedia tells me otters can be found throughout North America! Well, silly me! See how much I learn from my kidlets all the time? I might be dumb as a rock if it weren’t for them!