On Monday morning as the bus pulls away from Prairie Creek's curb on its way to Wolf Ridge, I always feel elated. Behind us are the meetings and the forms and the e-mails and the checklists and the fundraising. In front of us, Wolf Ridge. Five whole days to live and learn together in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
Wolf Ridge has been a Prairie Creek tradition since the mid-80s. But there are a lot of things we were doing in the mid-80s that we don't do today (my asymmetrical haircut for one) so why have we continued go to Wolf Ridge?
Simply put - discovery.
Wolf Ridge's naturalists always seem as excited as the students about what we are learning. While I know that they have all seen snowshoe hare scat before, you would never be able to tell by the gusto with which they wade through snow to see the round pellets a child has found under a tree. Joe Walewski, who developed the graduate naturalist training program at Wolf Ridge, espouses an improvisational teaching approach in which naturalists say "Yes...and..." to the discoveries and interests of the students. As a result, we never have the same experience at Wolf Ridge but it's always a great adventure.
A few examples:
- The Herons have been keeping track of phenology signs for many years and when we heard the chickadee “fee-bee” call I knew that it might be one of the first of the season at Wolf Ridge. We checked the phenology board and it hadn’t been recorded yet. The student who first heard it gathered up her courage to find Charlie and tell him the news. And Charlie? He stopped everything he was doing to have a conversation with her. He put down his lunch tray and got out his notebook to write it down and then he asked her name so that everyone would know who the observer was. “This is your observation!” He didn’t know that the child was a kid who doesn’t always get that kind of affirmation. He didn’t know how huge it was for her to be celebrated by a “real scientist” (her words). He just cared for her and honored her science observation as real.
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We were in waist deep snow when a child called out to me (from very far away) “MICHELLE! I FOUND A BURL!” I waded toward him and he waded toward me (much more quickly) and when we met up the words tumbled out of him, “I found a burl in a tree. It’s a big ball thing and Joe [Walewski] told me it’s like a scab except it doesn’t fall out and it’s from a bacteria or a virus. And the tree keeps growing around it and it gets bigger and bigger and the virus can spread to other trees so they get them too…” This was not a child who usually effused like this but he had seen something that made him curious and Joe was right there in the waist deep snow to recognize that curiosity and stoke it. Joe wondered along side the child and validated his amazement. Soon he was seeing burls everywhere and the other kids were finding burls for the child. That would be a good story, of course, but Joe went out with a chain saw the next day and cut a burl from a white spruce. The kids had wondered what was in the middle of a burl and Joe came to the end of our frozen lake class, burl and chainsaw in hand. Together, they planned the cut and then went outside to watch the "Chainsaw of Science". It was very exciting. The burl is heading home with us to dry a bit and be sanded. It will be a part of our classroom’s museum and will, I’m sure, become legendary.The Herons' new burl.
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And there's always the wonder of Chickadee Landing. By the time they are fifth graders, our kids have been watching and learning about chickadees for years. But Chickadee Landing gives them the chance to discover the birds in a whole new way. Wolf Ridge has built special benches that have backs that look like people. They keep a well stocked feeder in the center of the space. When we arrive, we lower the feeder and sit perfectly still with seed on our heads and mittens. And the birds come! They flutter by our ears. They call to each other from just behind our hats. They seem impossibly loud for such little beings. They perch on us and we watch them choose a seed and fly away. I have lost count of how many times I've been to Chickadee Landing but it's magical to see the students' eyes widen when a chickadee chooses their hat.
But all of the discovery isn't academic. Students also discover that they are capable, essential workers during KP where they serve meals and clean up afterwards. They discover that they are ready to be out on their own (at least for a little while) when they sleep away from home for four nights. They discover new friends who love to play Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza as much as they do. They discover new adults who care about them and enjoy swapping dad jokes along the sometimes very long trail. They discover that they can wake up, brush their teeth, and dress themselves for -20 degree weather pretty much by themselves. They discover they are responsible enough to belay a friend on a rock wall. They discover that if they put one foot in front of another, they can achieve their goals on the ropes course (even when it's scary).
Next Wednesday at 12:20, the fifth graders will share their discoveries with the rest of the school at a special all school gathering. We invite you to join us and experience a little of the wonder of Wolf Ridge.