PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – While not necessarily ready for the Winter Olympics, sixth-graders at Presque Isle Middle School now have a new found appreciation for skiing and other winter activities.
On March 1-2, the students traveled to the Nordic Heritage Center to participate in a Winter Field Day where they experienced what the facility has to offer the citizens of Aroostook County.
“We had been talking about weather, frostbite and wind chill, so we tied the Winter Field Day to what we had been doing in science class,” said teacher Elaine Hendrickson. “Skiing and its history are very important to this area, so I wanted them to realize that, and think about either what their parents or grandparents did as children compared to what they did.
“The students took home a family questionnaire and interviewed their parents or grandparents and then based upon that information, they wrote a poem for English class,” she said. “After the students returned to school, they wrote a reflection piece where they talked about their skiing and snowshoeing experience and told me what they liked best. One thing that I found amazing was when I did a little tabulation, about one-third of them had never skied or snowshoed before which really surprised me.”
Brittany Page was one of those students who had never strapped on a pair of skis before.
“I had never, ever gone skiing before,” she said, “but I liked it the most. I liked downhill the best. At first I couldn’t control my speed, but I got better at it. I did get a few bruises on my leg though. It was still fun.”
Page interviewed her father, Donald, to see how he kept busy during the winter months as a kid.
“He used to go skiing, snowshoeing … practically everything I do,” said Page. “Hopefully we’ll be able to go skiing with all this new snow we got.”
“We did both downhill and cross-country skiing,” said student Samantha Simonds, “but I liked downhill the most. I had only been skiing once before, but I only fell a couple of times going down the hill and up the hill.”
Simonds said she wrote a poem comparing what her father, Jared, used to do in the wintertime as a kid.
“He used to snowmobile and go ice fishing up at our camp,” she said. “I’ve done both of those activities with my Dad and it’s a lot of fun. I like winter.”
Dakota Fox was joined at the Nordic Heritage Center by his father, Rhett.
“It was fun having my father there,” said Fox. “He did all the same activities I did. It was pretty fun.
“We went snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and sled racing which consisted of pulling each other to a cone and then switching and pulling the other person back. There was one puller and one person in the sled at one point. Halfway through, they changed it to two pullers and two people in the sled, and the last one was two sleds, four pullers and four people in the sleds,” he said. “After that, we played snow soccer, which my team happened to win luckily, 1-0. I had never played snow soccer before, but it was fun.”
Fox interviewed his father, and wrote a poem entitled, “Winter Fun: Yesterday and Today.”
In the poem, Fox said his father, “Ate homemade ice cream, icicles and snow,” while he eats “fresh baked cookies and drinks hot chocolate.”
“My Dad wore knitted gloves with idiot strings on them. Today, I wear gloves and hats that are not handmade,” wrote Fox.
Students also completed a scavenger hunt as part of the Winter Field Day.
“The kids had to look at the walls at the Nordic Heritage Center and answer questions on the history of skiing,” said Hendrickson. “It was meant to be both educational and fun.”
Hendrickson said she hoped the students came away from the Winter Field Day with “an appreciation for a tradition that has been going on in Aroostook County for many years.”
“We have many months of winter,” she said, “and so many young people sit in front of the TV or play video games on the computer. This is a way to get them outside and exercise, and learn about one of the area’s traditions.”
Hendrickson said she plans on making the Winter Field Day an annual event.
