Colebrook students hit the Cape

COLEBROOK — After fundraising for the past three years, sixth-grade students from the Colebrook Consolidated School spent a week on Cape Cod, Mass., building on what they have been learning in their science class, visiting and viewing locations not common in their rural, wooded community and spending one last time with their elementary school friends before graduating to middle school.

Departing Colebrook on Monday, May 18, 17 students and four chaperones spent five days in Yarmouth, Mass., at a camp similar to Camp Jewell, where they participated in a Nature’s Classroom program. Outdoor classes included dissections, crafts and pond studies. Students also prepared foods and skin care products from fruits and vegetables. They participated in an Underground Railroad, visited two beaches, searched for life in a tidal pool and went on a whale watch out of Provincetown.

“It was a great trip,� said Superintendent James Chittum, who spent three days with the students. “The weather was terrific. Again we have to compliment Nature’s Classroom: They designed a very good program for us.�

Chittum added that the trip was almost an extension of what the students learn in their Colebrook classroom, giving participants hands-on experience and real world application.

“I think that two of the outstanding parts of the trip were the whale watch on Wednesday, when the students left from Provincetown to go out into the Cape Cod Bay for approximately two-and-a-half hours. They observed humpback whales. Second was a morning on the bayside observing life in the tidal pools,� said Chittum. “They had an opportunity to study some of the ecology in the ocean and in the bay.�

Now back on dry ground and under the tree cover of Colebrook, Chittum said he and his staff are already making arrangements for next year’s sixth-grade class trip.

“As soon as they come back, we debrief and start our planning for the following year,â€� said Chittum, who seemed excited about returning to the Cape next year. “It was just a great trip.â€� 

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