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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Morse Hill!

Thirty-five feet above the ground suspended by cables, the whole class straining to pull the giant slingshot tighter and tighter... and instead of a stone or a ball, this slingshot is designed to hurl children into space, down and out, through the canopy of leaves...
Our journey to Morse Hill began with an introduction to orienteering. We learned how to use a compass and orient ourselves with it. We kept "red in the shed," learned our paces, and used that knowledge to find buried treasure (a hidden coin) and lost loot from a wrecked pirate craft.  We used the loot to lash together two sea-worthy rafts, and in the time honored tradition of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher, we set ourselves adrift on the mighty Mississippi.

Planning to build:  Raft design teams surveyed their materials...

Putting the rafts together...

The good ship Riptide...
Riptide: getting upright and ready to launch...
Strong enough to hold a fully grown teacher???
Snowflake embarking on its first voyage...


Riptide maneuvers in a counterclockwise spin.  Put yer backs into, it me hearties!
After building our rafts and taking them for a spin (literally!), it was time for a swim... ah, Autumn in New England! You never know what the weather will be. Today it was 75 and sunny, so we went for a swim!

The water was actually warm.



Then it was back to Morse Hill to haul each other up into the air and to sling shot one another to infinity and the trees beyond!

Flying high without a net


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