In April our Upper Elementary students went on a camping trip to Echo Hill Outdoor School. Echo Hill Outdoor School is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with 242 acres of forests, meadows, and freshwater shrub swamp bordering a mile of sandy beach on the Chesapeake Bay. This trip was a great opportunity for the Upper Elementary students to live close to nature and learn about our environment and our place in it.
The students enjoyed many interesting classes like swamp biology, how to experience the environment through all our senses, wilderness survival, and bay biology. In bay biology, the whole class joined together on a small working boat and experienced firsthand the living creatures of the Chesapeake Bay. They collected fish and micro-crustaceans and discussed the ecological value of an estuary like the bay. They even found a freshwater eel which the students had a chance to touch.
The trip also provided ample opportunities for community building as well. On the last night, the class participated in a campfire story and an escape room challenge before sharing their gratitudes from the trip. The students came home tired and happy.
