Sixty sixth-graders left Kimball Elementary School for Deep Portage Environmental Learning Camp near Hackensack Wednesday, May 12. While at the camp, students participated in numerous activities including archery, canoeing, the climbing wall, water canaries, TEAM, the bat program, hunter-gatherer, bandings turtles and free time. Deep Portage is a conservation site, and students were encouraged not to waste anything during their stay. At meal times students weighed food waste as part of the “waste watchers” program. Students didn’t want to waste the delicious food. Deep Portage instructors made the students’ experience fantastic. On the last night they learned songs and watched skits by a campfire. They also celebrated Mrs. Hauge’s 25 years of teaching in Kimball. Pioneer Olympics also took place on the last day of the trip. Students threw hatchets at stumps, played cat and mouse (a logger’s game of tug of war), visited the bookstore, and cut wood with a two-person saw. The hardest part was trying to light a match by hitting it with the edge of a hatchet using only one hand. It was a wonderful learning experience. Submitted by Andrea Woodford, Tina Marquardt, Lindsey Pramann and Tabitha Capes
