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Field trip to Tosanak

  • Lilie Mohring, 10, shoots an arrow at Tosanak Recreation Area.

  • Lilie Mohring, 10, smiles after shooting an arrow at Tosanak Recreation Area's kids day. Press photos by Thomas Nelson.

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Fifth-graders took part in a long-standing tradition with Floyd County Conservation this week, visiting Tosanak Recreation Area and learning about maps, raptors and the outdoors.

Floyd County Conservation staff and volunteers offered the classes to the participating students.

“We’re here for the outdoor classroom,” said Central Springs teacher Brooke Weipert. “At the end we’re doing a skills competition.”

The Central Springs, Rockford and Charles City kids split into homeroom groups and competed at the end for a trophy.

Floyd County Conservation regularly reaches out to schools for classes and trips like this, where students get to learn outdoor skills.

Schools have been going to Floyd County Conservation parks on this event for more than 20 years. In the past the schools would come in the spring, but lately have been participating in early fall.

“The class is free so it’s really nice for the kids to get to experience a lot of this stuff,” Weipert said. “Some kids wouldn’t be able to shoot a BB gun or do the archery.”

“We’ve gone hiking and learned about different types of trees and different kinds of nuts that grow on trees,” said Teresa Jensen, a teacher’s associate for Charles City Schools. “They do this trip once a year for Charles City.

“I love the archery,” Jensen said. “I think the kids are amazed at how far they can actually go with the arrow, and a lot of them hit the targets.”

“This is my first time here,” said Lilie Mohring, 10, a Charles City fifth-grader, although she said her grandpa Jeff takes her to other camps.

She’s shot a BB gun and a bow before, but never in a group setting like this, and those were her favorite activities.

“It’s really fun and adventurous,” Mohring said.

Floyd County Conservation Naturalist Heidi Reams was helping teach the children weapon safety at the BB gun course, among other things.

“We had a presentation on raptors, which they had a live red tail hawk that the kids got to see,” Reams said. There were also classes on orienteering, where the students learned about maps and land navigation with compasses and GPS units.

“They went on a woodland hike,” Reams said. “There also was a station on soil science.”

The event also gets lots of volunteers from groups around Floyd County. The Double C Archery Club in Charles City helped with archery class, and Linette Bernard, communication director from Save Our Avian Resources (SOAR) did the raptor presentation.

The soil science presentation was from the NRCS office and BB guns were taught by a former Floyd County Conservation worker.

“Originally this event was in Charles City,” Reams said. “It’s a long standing tradition.”

This event is for fifth graders to get hands on learning outside of the class room, Reams said.

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