With the last warmth of Autumn waning, Fulmar Road Elementary students visited the Taconic Outdoor Education Center on Tuesday.

The group included students from Lisa Tornambe’s class as well as those from Maria Natiello and Kimberly Grabeklis’ fourth grade classes.

“Make sure that you bring your jackets and your hats,” said Program Coordinator Gregory Kofsky. “But don’t forget your water, you’ll need to stay hydrated!”

The students filtered out of the main building and onto the education center’s grounds, where educators described the team-building games they would play.

First up: “Where’s My Pig,” a “Red Light, Green Light” style game in which students attempt to stealthily pass a rubber pig to each member of their team without being caught. 

Another group split into pairs to play “Tanks” where one member of the pair became the blindfolded “tank” and the other became the “commander,” guiding their tank toward foam balls that the blind tank had to throw to eliminate the other teams.

Deeper down the trail, another group was trying to get its entire team onto a wide seesaw, while preventing either end of it from touching the ground. As soon as they arrived, the students began to form a plan to get all 10 members of their group onto the delicately balanced platform.

“We should form two lines,” one student said, “then one person from each line can step up in the middle and move to each side slowly.”

Getting onto the platform was not that difficult, the Fulmar Road students discovered, but keeping the balance once they were there was challenging. 

“Layla, Layla! Wait, go back!” yelled a student.

A small tilt of the seesaw caused two students on the opposite side to hurriedly overcorrect and the platform touched the ground.

“Ok!” said a student named Emma, “You two, step up. Now, both take a step toward the outside slowly. One step at a time…”

As the students focused and Emma took the lead, they slowly, but steadily, got the entire group up onto the unstable platform. By that time, the fourth graders were moving like a well-organized team.

“It’s all about learning to work together,” Tornambe said. “They’re learning how to communicate and plan and to think strategically.”