The Clanmore Montessori Middle School students, grades 7 and 8, have embarked upon a journey this school year that is now a Clanmore tradition – The Odyssey Trip.
An Odyssey trip is usually longer than a week so the children can see the cycles of nature and get a real feel of living with their peers and learning from one another. It’s an adventure out of their comfort zone. It’s a roller-coaster of new experiences, weather, coming together and sticking together.
The Odyssey Trip explores historical and remote locations like the French River, honouring the people before us and following in the footsteps of an ‘average worker’, voyager and early fur trader. It’s the telling of stories around a campfire of how history was made and having the children turn towards the river… imagining a birch bark canoe laden with fur traveling down that same river that they had just paddled down that day. Last year the students visited the French River Trading Post on their last day.
Throughout their trip the students study Economics and the early settlers’ economy and how they made their livelihood. It’s Physical Education along with Outdoor Education. It’s exploring Geology and examining rock formations.
