Arctic Wednesdays 2025: Week 2 Post-Trip Blog

 

As an elementary school environmental science teacher here at Hollis Primary School, I have always told the kids, you can go outside in any weather, you just have to dress for it!  …standard catch phrase of New Hampshire right!?  Well, with -10F and 30-50 mph winds I must admit I was a little stuck on where to start!!  I have done plenty of winter hikes in the White Mountains, but admittedly I have turned around at tree line when reading this sort of forecast!  

I knew I needed lots of layers and even justified a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports for a new pair of the warmest wool socks I could find.  If someone looked at the pile of clothing I have on my spread out on my bed right now they would think I was headed out for a week long trip! 

I also knew I had to get there safely.  With the forecast of snow on Wednesday morning I  decided to book a room at The Glen Hotel and head up the night before …AND I wanted to enjoy this experience to the fullest!  I’m SO excited!  Up on top of any White Mountain ridge, overlooking the wilderness with blue and purple peaks layering the entire horizon, is literally my most favorite place to be. I am so thankful for this opportunity …even if it’s a cloudy, snowy overcast day!  I appreciate the Observatory, the weather observers, and all Observatory supporters for making this trip happen.  I am also thankful that my school and all of the staff have been, not only so supportive, but equally excited for me to go on this adventure!

This will be a whole school event!  Since I teach environmental science to every Kindergarten through third grade student here at Hollis Primary School, all of the classes have been invited to log onto the zoom and participate.  These young students are the world’s best cheerleaders and are so excited that I get to go to the highest part of New Hampshire!  Although if you ask some of the youngest ones they will still tell you I’m going up Mt. Everest for the day …I guess their parents will be left wondering about that story on Wednesday evening! :)

I have lots of plans for my time at the summit.  I hope to mirror an experiment our third graders here have started working on here in our forest.  The experiment involves building a shelter from natural resources for a warm gelatin buddy and seeing if it can remain liquid while hanging out in the shelter for a while!  Each of our six grade classes has given me very specific instructions on how to care for their warm gelatin buddies and I hope it goes well!  

We also have a Wiggly Hand Dancey Dance Party planned out on the observatory deck too.  If you are lucky enough to witness it on the live stream feel free to dance along!

Oh, and I promised to bring some Mount Washington snow back so the kids can touch it.  I’m not sure how that will go, but I’ll try!  Of course when this snow inevitably melts we will be able to include it in our “Clean Snow” display, where we see snow from different places, like parking lots, playgrounds, forests, trails, etc…  After the snow melts we can see how some of it looks much “cleaner” than snow from other places  …this is done for our younger snow eating students.  Now, I am not promoting eating snow, but if you can’t stop them, at least educate them so they at least stay away from the super yucky snow!  :) 

I am looking forward to getting these young kids excited about an amazing place that we have in our awesome little state of New Hampshire.  I want them to realize weather is a special and amazing force that we need to respect.  It can destroy and create chaos, but also create the most perfect day with the most magical of settings.  Learning to love and respect the outdoors is a required step in becoming a person who cares about the earth and all of the humans on it. I hope my students learn to lessen their impact on the world and realize that the world is bigger than just the space they see.  

: )

Mrs. Happy

Hollis Primary School