Last April, children from Mechanic Falls and Minot went to Ferry Beach Ecology School in Saco, for the first time. Sixth graders from Poland had gone many years before, and since this was our first year we were very excited! Now this wasn’t any ordinary field trip, the students got to stay for two nights and three days learning about science and nature in a fun, hands on type of way.

Most of the children learned a lot, met new people, and had so much fun. But some kids missed home, or just hated the weather. We had a blizzard and really cold temperatures. In fact, we ended up going home one day early because of the power outage.

Every day we would have three lessons. We had one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night. We explored the forest, the beach, the sand dunes, and the salt marsh. Also, on our second night we went to a marine lab and learned about different sea creatures.

When we arrived we got divided into three groups. A study group, with whom you would have all of your lessons with, our group got assigned a naturalist who taught us all of our lessons as well. We would also get assigned a table with about eight to ten students where we ate all of our meals. The food they cooked was both delicious and nutritious. Lastly, we were assigned to a dorm group and a room with two to six students. Don’t panic! Boys and girls were SEPARATED!

It took a lot of preparing to get ready for Ferry Beach last April. Right now the sixth graders from Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland are preparing to go the first week of October. Hopefully they have a great time like we did!