Field-Stevenson students had great time during their Covenant Harbor retreat in Lake Geneva last week. Working with the Snake Road outdoor education staff, the 5th graders enjoyed outdoor education classes in archery, fishing, orienteering, basic survival and canoeing.
The focus of the retreat was to develop cooperative learning and team building skills through two “ropes” courses. The “lower ropes” course challenges teams with a problem that the students had to solve as a team and without adult intervention. The real-world frustration and impatience that they experienced had to be worked through by the team through cooperation in order to achieve a solution. The “high ropes” course challenged the students to step up and out of their comfort zone as they traveled many feet above the ground to work toward individual goals and face their fears.
While they were not in tents, they had to go without the comforts of home, including tv and wifi – so they were still “roughing it.”
