5th Grade Winter Survival

Full-day Trip

Depart school at 9:30 am and return at 2:00 pm

Work in small teams to build a cooking fire and learn outdoor safety and stewardship etiquette.

* Family Letter

(Teachers, please feel free to cut and paste this text into a new document to personalize the letter for your class. If possible, please also consider sending the letter digitally to save paper.)

- Family Letter Translations (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish)

* Post Trip Activities

Naturalist volunteers demonstrate fire building.

Soon, the students will disperse to begin preparations to build and start their own cooking fire.

PERFECT SCORE!

The clean up game has a perfect score of ZERO. This means the FIRE is OUT and all WASTE is REMOVED. Sound easy? It's not - volunteer naturalists are really good at spotting even the tiniest bits of foil, kernels of corn, etc. It's takes careful work by every group in a class to ensure a perfect score.

For the 2025/26 school year, here are the district winners:

Pattengill - Ms. Homan's class at Freeman, Dec. 15, 2025

Ms. Maj's class listened actively during the demonstration lessons and kept their campsites clean and organized!

Past winners include:

A2 OPEN - Mr. Derhammer’s class,at Green Acres, 2011

A2 OPEN - Mrs Lawther’s class at Green Acres, 2012

CARPENTER - Mr. Slay’s class at Dixboro, 2013

LOGAN - Mrs Webster’s class at Dixboro, 2015

HAISLEY - Ms. Shafer’s class at Green Acres, 2015

ALLEN - Alice King's class and Carol Clyde's fifth graders at Sloan Nature Preserve, 2015

HAISLEY - Jim Weindorf's class at Green Acres, 2016 (pictured above)

CARPENTER - Mr. Slay ‘s class at Dixboro, 2017

LAWTON - Mrs. Gerhart’s class at Sloan Nature Preserve, 2017

ALLEN - Mrs. Bates’ class at Dixboro, 2018

PATTENGILL - Mrs. Hubbard's class, 2018

LAKEWOOD - Ms. Field's and Mrs. Recla's classes at Sloan Nature Preserve - DOUBLE class! Dec. 19, 2018

BACH - Ms. Ringo's and Mr. Borgsdorf's classes at Sloan Nature Preserve - DOUBLE class! Jan. 16, 2019

DICKEN - Ms. Chartier's class at Sloan Nature Preserve, Jan. 22, 2019

ALLEN - Ms. Clyde's class at Dixboro, Feb. 5, 2019

ABBOT - Ms. Barrett's and Ms. Stojcevich's classes at the Freeman Center - DOUBLE class! February 25, 2019

EBERWHITE - Ms. Lafferty's class at Sloan Nature Preserve, March 4, 2019

Carpenter - Mr. Slay's class at Freeman, Dec. 16, 2019

Eberwhite - Ms. Wright's class at Sloan Nature Preserve, Jan. 7, 2020

Allen - Ms. Clyde's class at Freeman, Jan. 15, 2020

King - Ms. O'Leary's class at Freeman, Feb. 19, 2020

Angell - Ms. Rademaker's and Ms. Maj's classes at Freeman- DOUBLE class! March 4, 2020

Pattengill - Dr. Theriault-Kimmey's class at Freeman, Dec. 17, 2021

Haisley - Ms. Fogel's class at Camp Woodbury, Jan. 13, 2022

Allen- Ms. Clyde's class at Freeman, Jan. 20, 2022

Pittsfield- Ms. Snadon's class at Freeman, Jan. 27, 2022

Lawton- Ms. Wesley's class at Merlin Way, Jan. 28, 2022

Dicken- Ms. Hane's class at Sloan Preserve, Feb. 10, 2022

King- Ms. O'Leary's class at Freeman, Feb. 15, 2022

Logan- Ms. Boles' class at Freeman, Feb. 25, 2022

A2STEAM- Mr. Tumolo's class at Freeman, Mar. 2, 2022

Lawton- Ms. Jackson's class at Merlin Way, Mar. 9, 2022

Mitchell - Ms. Tang's and Mrs. Field's classes at Freeman, Dec. 8, 2022

Mitchell - Ms. Massey's class at Freeman, Dec. 12, 2022

Carpenter - Mr. Parent's class at Freeman, Dec. 19, 2022

Pattengill - Ms. Bankey's class at Freeman, Dec. 21, 2022

Abbot - Mrs. Stojcevich's class at Camp Woodbury, Jan. 11, 2023

Dicken - Mrs. Hane's and Ms. Chartier's classes at Sloan Preserve - DOUBLE CLASS! - Feb. 2, 2023

King - Mrs. O'Leary's class at Freeman, Feb. 3, 2023

Allen - Mrs. Clyde's class at Freeman, Feb. 7, 2023

Wines - Ms. Spiroff and Mrs. Heaton at Merlin Way - DOUBLE CLASS! - Mar. 1, 2023

Haisley - Ms. Fincher's class at Green Acres, Dec. 13, 2023

Mitchell - Ms. Massey/Mr. Krigbaum's class at Freeman, Dec. 13, 2023

Pattengill - Ms. Homan's class at Freeman, Dec. 15, 2023

Eberwhite - Ms. Teall's class at Freeman, Dec. 18, 2023

Pittsfield - Ms. VanRiper's class at Freeman, Dec. 21, 2023

Eberwhite - Ms. DeRosia's class at Freeman, Jan. 9, 2024

Thurston - Ms. McGee's class at Freeman, Jan. 10, 2024

Eberwhite - Ms. Wright's class at Sloan Preserve, Jan. 19, 2024

Dicken - Ms. Chartier's class at Sloan Preserve, Jan. 25, 2024

Lakewood - DOUBLE CLASS - Ms. Recla's and Ms. Vasiloff's classes at Camp Woodbury, Feb. 1, 2024

Burns Park - Ms. Embry's class at Freeman, Feb. 2, 2024

Allen - Mrs. Clyde's class at Freeman, Feb. 9, 2024

King - Mrs. Gracey's class at Freeman, Feb. 9, 2024

Ann Arbor Open - Ko & Jason's group at the Freeman North Camp, Feb. 12, 2024

Abbot - Mrs. Stojcevich's class at Camp Woodbury, Feb. 14, 2024

Angell - Ms. Newman's class at Freeman, Feb. 15, 2024

Pattengill - Ms. Bankey's class at Freeman, Feb. 22, 2024

Ann Arbor Open - Kayleigh's AND Johnny's classes at Freeman, Feb. 23, 2024

Wines - Ms. Spiroff's class at Merlin Way, Feb. 26, 2024

Pattengill - Ms. Link's class at Freeman, Jan. 27, 2025

Bach - Mr. Borgsdorf's class at Sloan Preserve, Feb. 5, 2025

Haisley - Mr. Carnegie's class at Camp Woodbury, Feb. 11, 2025

Wines - Mr. Duggin's class at Merlin Way, Feb. 24, 2025

We appreciate your great work, and congratulations!

Eagle Eyes!

Students often notice interesting natural phenomena while they gather materials for their campfire. Some of these young naturalists are even lucky enough to find a recently shed deer antler! Impressive observation skills!