E1 Third Years Visit the Land School

On Thursday and Friday of last week the E1 third years came out for an overnight visit to the Land School with their teachers. It was very exciting for us, because we generally have few elementary visits in the winter. Donna and I were eager for them to have a great time out here. And they did!

On Thursday they arrived in the early afternoon and we welcomed them with a brief orientation. We could keep it short because everyone had already been to the Land School several times. We went right into our first activity period. The students divided into groups and one group went to the bird blind, another went to Strawberry Hill to go sledding and a third group went to the Farmstead to do animal work. My group was animal work and we fed the sheep and llamas and brought the chickens their food too. This group spent some time observing the sheep by climbing on the big bales of hay in the pasture and watching the sheep from there. Everyone worked hard and they also enjoyed hanging out with Pippa, the farm puppy. The bird blind group saw a multitude of birds, and the sledding group had fun and tired themselves out in the deep snow.

That evening we had tacos for supper and then our friend Nancy Frank came over and gave a presentation about llamas. Nancy has a farm called Opportunity Llamas and at one time she had 43 llamas and took llamas to national shows. She is a fountain of information and the students had great attention for her.

On Friday for breakfast we had pancakes, sausage and blueberries and for lunch we had chili. All the meals were cooked by LCS parent Teresa S., who had everything on time and delicious. Teresa had the innovation to serve family style instead of buffet style. The advantage for a large group like this one is that with family style everyone starts eating at the same time. This helps us avoid the situation where some students are done eating and other are just starting. There are more dishes to wash, but in general we like the family style for big groups. Thanks for all your hard work Teresa!

On Friday, we had two different activity periods, so each of the three groups could get to do each of the activities. The animal work groups helped to clean out the llama pen, which consisted of piling bedding on a tarp and dragging it to the compost pile. We were all tired after that work! The birders saw a plethora of bird species and even saw over 30 goldfinches at one time. The sledding crew returned each time with good stories, rosy cheeks and no major injuries.

There was plenty of free time for play on the snow piles in front of the Homestead. In their free time the students also could be found inside playing foosball and board games, playing with Sabine, playing the piano and drums, and interviewing classmates for a game they played in their closing community meeting. Connections were made across the level and a good time was had by all.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this a great event!