The Rookery

I think I've been to Wolf Ridge with our fifth graders fifteen times now.  One would think that it would be old hat, routine.  But it's not.  Every class is based on discovery and on finding things to wonder about.  That's what makes the learning so powerful and so authentic for the students.  We might find a cavity under a spruce tree to explore or we might get to feed a raven or we might catch a perch or we might find a rare lichen or we might visit a boulder cave or we might have a chickadee land on our head.  The outlines of the course are there but the naturalists are always up for a detour or a discovery.  Our classes always run long – our students always have a lot of questions and we rarely stay on the trail.

It's a week full of first times and never befores.  It's a week full of friends and memories.  It's a week that is always surprising and always wonder-full.