Friday May 6th,
I had a class from Toronto on an exchange to Winnipeg come out for the day. Fifty students in all with Four teachers.
They all seemed to have a good time. The tent was a big hit. They were full of questions first about wild animals and then about the plants and trees.
After briefing them on the area with the aide of a blown up aerial photograph with the ski trails on it and showing them poison ivy as a plant to avoid I let them know about wood ticks.
When I described ticks and how to deal with them it didn't take long before someone got the idea to take a piece of big bluestem and start tickling anothers neck causing shrieks and lots of laughter.
I took two groups of twenty five on an hour long hike to look at different trees, flowers, prairie grasses and talk about the topography and the history of the area. Then switched to map reading and using a compass.
We had a lunch of hotdogs and cookies.
In all they walked about four miles around the ski trails. No complaints from the kids at all.
The teachers that escorted the group had some questions and enjoyed the chance to get out of the classroom themselves. To my surprise none had ever see a Prairie Crocus before. There are a lot on Reggies run and all over Ken's Prairie.
The weather was great. We got a few drops as we were walking back to the parking area. Other than that it was sunny and warm. A perfect day for wandering around.
The next course planned is a teachers instructional weekend going over basic camping and other related bush craft skills for taking groups out.
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