Indian Mound Middle School students are spending study halls in an outdoor classroom right next to their school.
Two groups of sixth-graders trek weekly through the McFarland School Forest adjacent to their school during their study hall period. They participate in various activities such as the recent scavenger hunt to look for and photograph things like deer tracks and evidence of animals eating.
"It's just a good way to get outdoors (and) shed off the extra energy we have," said sixth-grader Dayne Mickelson. "We just have one recess."
The field trips are part of an effort to have students spend more time in the immense natural resource in the school's backyard.
"I would love to take every child in this school out in the woods as much as possible," said Janet Moore, community outreach/school forest coordinator in the McFarland School District. "It is good to kind of get an ongoing relationship with the place."
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