Andersen Skis Program

May 21, 2009: Mountain Biking with Trips for Kids

cityoflakes — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:22:42 +0000

A nice group of Andersen kids were able to make the trip over to Theodore Wirth for an afternoon of mountain biking. Bikes, helmets, and even water bottles were provided by volunteers from Trips for Kids, a non-profit organization that works with youth programs throughout the metro to provide this great outdoor experience. The Tri-Loppet race director, John Munger, guided the crew through some of the available trails at Wirth. This was a great help since much of the traditional mountain bike track is unavailable due to construction on the Luce Line corridor. The kids had a great time! Many thanks to John, Loppet interns Oumar and John A., and the skilled volunteers from Trips for Kids.

May 18, 2009: Adventure Races and Ultimate Frisbee

cityoflakes — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:22:24 +0000

Today we tried a new form of adventure racing with the TRI-Team crew. The park area north of the school was mapped with about a dozen pick-up or drop zones for tasks they had to complete in pairs. The trick was that teams didn’t know which location corresponded to a given task until they ran the course. Just some of the things they needed to accomplish:

inflate a balloon and tie it with a ribbon (from two separate locations)
empty a water bottle and refill with blue water + yellow water to return a green bottle
complete a math problem and return with it
empty a tube of rice and fill it with bird seed
find a bib and medal and wear them to the finish

It was fun to see how long it took each team and how they worked together to get all of the tasks done. Afterward, we spent the remaining time with ultimate frisbee and a quick game of soccer.

Tri-Loppet brochures were handed out today. We’d love to have everyone sign up for this fun event on June 27th. Kids can do one leg of the race or all three, and there is no charge. We’ll have boats and mountain bikes available for them. It would be great to have a couple of teams from Andersen! You can check out further details on the Tri-Loppet at: www.Tri-Loppet.com

A special mountain bike outing is scheduled for Thursday, May 21 right after school. We’ll be busing over to Theodore Wirth Park and back in time for the activity bus home. This will be our only chance to mountain bike this season before the Tri-Loppet in June.

We will not meet on May 25th due to Memorial Day but will meet as usual on Monday, June 1st for A Greenway bike ride to Lake Calhoun followed by canoing!

May 11, 2009: Biking with the Greenway Coalition

cityoflakes — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:10:31 +0000

We met with Nate from the Greenway for our second group ride. The kids knew the ropes this time and were ready to go pretty quickly. We headed east toward the river, stopping briefly at an inviting playground area before finishing the eastward stretch. We then headed north toward the Franklin Bridge, taking the big downhill challenge. It was a good ride for many, although we still have some challenges with staying to the right… Great job by everyone and many thanks to Nate!

April 27, 2009: True North Adventure Races

cityoflakes — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:40:43 +0000

Today we were led by local orienteering expert, Jerritt Johnston from True North Adventures. We started with some games and then moved into the basics of using a compass to find our way around the park area. Finally, students split up into teams of 2-3 to race around one of two challenge courses, trying to beat the clock (and each other) to finding the marked locations in the correct order. Some of the best times for Course 1 and Course 2 were around 6 minutes. Great job!

We are off next Monday due to a No School day on May 4th. We’ll meet up again on Monday, May 11th for another ride with the Greenway Coalition, this time longer and a little more challenging.

April 20: Greenway Coalition Bike Trip

cityoflakes — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:56:17 +0000

Andersen TRI students hiked to the Midtown Greenway Coalition just a few blocks from school and met with Greenway’s Nate K. who gave us the rules of the road and some great sets of wheels and helmets. Once everyone was set, we biked down to Lake Calhoun, had a quick snack, and then headed back. We had some sun, a little rain, plenty of wind, and even a little sleet, but we still had a great time.

In a few weeks, we’ll take a trip on Greenway’s bikes once again and will check out some more of the trail system which provides a great connection between the eastern and western parkway systems of Minneapolis.

Thanks for Nate Kerr and Jo Jo Winters for their assistance on our first ride! Thanks, also, to the students for doing a great job on turning in waivers. Please turn in any remaining waivers to Community Education or Coach Caitlin.

Next week we’ll be having an “Adventure Race” with True North Adventures. Check the weather and plan to be outside for a great afternoon!

April 13, 2009: Andersen TRI Program

cityoflakes — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:11:20 +0000

The Andersen TRI’s Program began today in collaboration with Andersen Community Education. We had a great turnout and even recruited some new folks to our group by the end of the day.

We will meet every Monday after school until 4:30, with various fun outdoor activities planned to get us ready for the (optional) Tri-Loppet race in late June. These will include running, games, canoe paddling, mountain biking, and adventure races, just to name a few.

Our first day, we challenged the kids to a team pullup contest (Coach Caitlin had the record of 16–the number to beat) and played a round of ultimate frisbee. After a quick snack, we headed back for a great game of soccer. There are some quick feet in this group and some great moves!

Next Monday we will be hiking to the Greenway Coalition for our first bike outing. It should be a treat time. Check the weather for the day and come dressed for a great bike ride. Please return your signed waivers as they are required for the ride.

–Margaret

Hello world!

Ben — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:52:47 +0000

Welcome to The Anderson School blog, check back for news and updates!