The sixth grade school year often moves the classroom to the outdoors as students and teachers travel to nature camps to experience first hand what they’re learning through textbooks. This outing gives an understanding of nature, but also helps create a bond between students and teachers.

For nearly 25 years, the teachers at St. Joseph School have organized this early school year excursion to enhance their student’s classroom learning experiences. Retiring after 20 years, teacher Kathie Salek passed the reigns to two new sixth grade teachers, Madeline Honn and Chris Tiritilli. Together they traveled to Camp Tecumseh for the first time with this new crop of sixth graders. They boarded buses and journeyed south to Brookston, Indiana for three days of exploring.

Both Honn and Tiritilli attended outdoor education programs as sixth graders, but it’s as teachers that they have a better appreciation for these outdoor experiences. “I now realize how much goes into it,” said Honn. “As a sixth grader, you might be overwhelmed about being away from home, focusing more on friends or what’s for lunch. It’s fun and eye-opening for all, but as a teacher, you pay attention to every aspect.”

Awaiting them at this YMCA camp was ‘Earthship Journey,’ an environmental program designed to teach students about the natural systems on our planet and how these systems operate year after year. Complete with four outdoor classroom settings, this program provides an appreciation for and a better understanding of how to live side by side with plant life and the animal world. At the same time, the program provides leadership and team-building skills, and recreational activities like canoeing, archery and an obstacle course.

With workbooks in hand, the students, teachers and volunteer parents tackled four nature trails; the Pine Forest, the Meadow, the Oak Forest and Ghost Creek. A traditional flag-raising began their day complete with early morning fog, while a campfire gathering with stories and songs completed their busy days.

Sixth grader, Hannah Jura found that while the trails were really long and gave her sore feet, she found them to be her favorite part of this outdoor experience.

Pine Forest trail introduced the sixth graders to an overgrown Christmas tree farm. Honn, who taught the trail, explained that students investigated the physical landscape and the whys of the pine forest.

Tiritilli taught the Ghost Creek trail. “We studied the beaver and its unique qualities, while studying the creek itself. We learned about how clean it was based on the flow of the water and the types of critters that lived in the creek.” This was Jura’s favorite trail. “We got to catch organisms like crawfish and bugs,” she added.

Sixth grader, Allison Padovani realized the abundance of butterflies at camp. Padovani was awakened to how few are seen around home. “It’s sad. You see maybe one a day. They are not as common around here anymore. Even with so many wildflowers in our area’s wetlands, we are not seeing many butterflies.”

Team Building is an important part of this three-day adventure. This segment focuses on the education of the heart, trying to instill character qualities or life skills that will not only help at school but life in general. Each activity focuses on multiple foundations. Through experiential learning, students develop a more effective communication with their classmates, gain more self-confidence while trusting their partners as they manipulate an obstacle course, and use problem-solving and leadership skills to survive in a wilderness simulation. What appears a simple task for one can become a difficult task as a team.

Padovani realized how hard it is to work as a team. She and her group were given the task to move two boards five feet with eight students standing on them. They had ropes attached so they could lift with their hands. “It took us a while to think. It took 10 minutes to move five feet with eight people.” Realizing they needed to coordinate the process, Allison and her group established a leader. The job did get easier, but there were still difficulties. “We found that people would take too big a step for people with shorter legs.”

Even mealtime games and activities brought students an understanding of how hard farmers work for all the foods we eat. “By the end, we understood the hard work people put into creating our food,” said Padovani.

The students may not have been very excited at filling out workbooks, but it did help incorporate the concepts students were talking about in science class, Honn explained. “We discussed the vocabulary and concepts after returning from Outdoor Ed,” said Honn. “Our students recognized that they did learn a lot about organisms and ecosystems through this program.”

Beyond the learning experience, it was getting to see his students in a different environment that broadened his experience, Tiritilli said. “We got to hang out on a more level basis. We’re still the teachers, but we’re learning and experiencing the trip together.” Honn enjoyed the campfire. “I was loving it as a sixth grader, and I enjoyed it just as much as a teacher.”

While Jura said she definitely enjoyed getting to know her teachers, she opened her eyes to the beauty of nature. “I saw things I never paid attention to before, like the different patterns on leaves and the different types of animals.”