A Wild Time for Children in Park

A group of high school students played teacher Thursday, leading 125 Foothill Ranch Elementary School kindergarten students on a nature hike through Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park to study animal habitats and native foliage.

For some of the youngsters, the field trip was their first experience in the wilderness and an educational one.

“I learned not to touch poison ivy,” said Leah Bloomanstein, 5.

Said classmate Brieann Hood, 5, “I got to see plants, holes and a squirrel.”

The project, planned and carried out by 85 humanities students from Mission Viejo High School, included not only the hike but also a science workshop that touched on such environmental concerns as recycling.

Humanities teacher Jerry Chris helped his students organize the project after they learned in January that they had won a $300 environmental grant.

“They were really excited about it,” Chris said of his students. “We’ve never done anything like this before.”

Besides preparing the science lesson and organizing the hike, the students bought books on nature and the environment that they used, then donated to the elementary school.

“I think the kindergartners learned a lot,” said Katerina Shieh, a senior at Mission Viejo High. “I think the high school students learned a lot too.”