Students hike for lessons in health, geography

LINCOLN - It was kind of quiet on a three-mile section of the Blackstone Valley Bike Path near Manville last Friday. Quiet, that is, until the town's elementary school children made an appearance.

Some arrived by bus. Others, who attend Northern Lincoln Elementary School, walked over. The sounds of chattering children (perhaps including a few renditions of grizzly bear songs) filled the air as they descended onto the bike path.

"Read the signs, read the signs," said Deb Reddy, physical education teacher for grades 2-5 at Northern Elementary School.

Earlier in the morning, the bike path had been decked out with a variety of messages, not to mention a 275-foot-long strip of yellow tape down the middle.

This is the annual Walk Your Way to a Healthy Heart Walk program. Each year, the program has a theme. This year's theme: Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks Day.

Reddy got the idea for the theme after she visited the Yosemite and Sequoia national parks last summer. She returned to the classroom in September with artifacts to share with students, including a two-foot-long Sequoia tree pine cone.

For weeks now, non-classroom specialty teachers, including teachers of art, music, physical education, library and health, have worked on a lesson that connects their subjects.

Along with bear facts posted on the walk - for example, one out of 10 black bears die of natural causes in the national parks while others die from such things as getting hit by cars - students stopped at stop signs and performed 10 jumping jacks, 10 lunges and 10 walking-in-place exercises.

"We want to emphasize the importance of staying healthy by encouraging the use of our local bike path," said Kara Haddad, enrichment teacher at Northern.

"I don't usually come down on the bike path," said 10-year-old Nathan Lozeau, a 5th-grader at Northern.

Of course, it didn't hurt to include plenty of facts about the national parks, said Reddy. "My goal is to make kids global learners," she said.

That yellow tape which ran down the middle of the bike path for 275 feet?

The General Sherman Sequoia tree is 275 feet tall and the yellow tape was to give kids an idea how tall the tree is, explained Haddad.

"I didn't realize how tall that would be until I saw the tape," said Cameron Hill, a 5th-grader at Northern, who seemed amazed as he stared at the length of yellow tape.

Asked how he was enjoying the walk, Zack Clayton said, "it's fun."

Lincoln High School students also volunteered to help out on the walk.

"I like seeing the elementary school kids outside on the bike path," said Mike Wheeler, who said he and fellow high school seniors also had fun reading the facts on the signs and doing the exercise requests at each stop sign.

"This was loads of fun," agreed Meagan Dubois, who, along with a group of students, wore black bear crossing tags crafted in art class with construction paper, bear pictures and string.