CARIBOU, Maine — Animal tracking, knot tying and first aid survival — Teague Park students might feel like they’re ready for a week in the woods after all the education they received during an outdoors-themed day at their school on April 3, 2015.
After teaching the kids about compasses, visiting Forest Ranger Will Barnum was pretty confident that most students probably would enjoy a week in the woods — so long as they had proper adult supervision, of course.
The wilderness-themed day was centered around the school’s reading of the book “A Week in the Woods” by Andrew Clements.
It was Barnum’s first time visiting Teague Park School as a speaker and his information about forestry seemed to impress the young students — particularly when he informed them that he was good friends with Smokey the Bear.
While compass skills are valuable for folks of all ages, Barnum’s visit with the elementary school students was mainly to develop a positive rapport with youths in a non-scary setting, and to teach them about the importance of fire prevention and safety.
Much of Barnum’s half-hour assembly with the students at the end of the day was spent answering questions about his occupation and, of course, the other questions third- to fifth-grade students like to ask.
Fielding all the questions, Barnum discussed how old he was, where he as born and even responded politely to one student’s assertion that his house was on fire one time and he’s pretty sure that he saw Barnum there wearing a hat.
The Forest Ranger — a Caribou native — shared that the biggest fire he’s worked to put out in Maine was about 750 acres. The largest fire he’s fought outside of Maine was 350,000 acres.
“That’s twice the size of Baxter State Park,” he explained, putting the numbers in perspective for the young audience members.
“Woah,” they replied in slow unison.
As Forest Rangers do have law enforcement duties, one student asked “How can you tell if someone is lying?”
“I don’t want to tell you all my secrets, but I usually do my homework,” the ranger said with a smile.
Barnum was one of a few special visitors to the school on April 3; Program Director at the Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center Neal Sleeper was on hand to teach first aid survival to students, and local Boy Scout Troop Leader Vaughn Keaton taught youths how to tie knots and make fishing lures. Sleeper said that the students were enthusiastic about learning first aid and enjoyed relating their new skills to things they read in “A Week in the Woods.”
Friday’s temperatures entered into the 50s, and students enjoyed the day with outside activities like snowshoeing and building snow forts. Inside activities were outside-themed as well, featuring campfire songs and even tent setup.
