SAULT STE. MARIE – A group of young students in the Algoma district kicked off the beginning of Thanksgiving weekend on October 11 by spending the day learning outside the classroom.
The students, ranging from grades three to five, put their problem-solving skills to the test at a local corn maze at Mockingbird Hill Farm.
"It's a great way to get the kids active in their learning opportunities. This is great curricular activity to do with the kids because we have coding for mathematics, problem-solving the whole way through. And social studies because it gets us out into the community," said Cass Swift, Mountain View Public School Teacher.
While learning, many students say they attended for the fun and to get into the fall spirit.
"It just reminds me of Thanksgiving because the corn… there's a lot of corn at Thanksgiving," said one student.
"It was really fun but all my friends got lost and I had to find them," said another.
What some students may not have realized is that the maze is shaped like an alien as part of this year's theme.
And the man behind it all is hard to get out of character at this time of the year.
"This is the most exciting theme we've ever had because of my personalized involvement with the aliens… I met them. Personally. I saw the spaceship come and hover over the maze and it defied all rules of aerodynamics," said Farmer Bob, Mockingbird Hill Farm.
While Farmer Bob claims the maze 'appeared' because of an alien invasion, he admits that he put a lot of work into it too.
"35 days of labour… you know, cultivating, disking, harrowing, fertilizing… everything involved with it. The cutting out, the taping," explained Farmer Bob.
Swift says the hope is that her students will write about this experience for class.
"I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of really good deep writing from the experience of all of this," she said.
Officials say going through the maze requires a lot of concentration and focus, and teachers say those are two skills they hope students won't forget.
