Newberg High School teachers and students wanted to give back — and whet their whittling skills.
So, under the leadership of Career and Technical Education Teachers Bryan Long and Patrick Verdun, NHS students exercised their woodworking abilities and created “wood cookies.” A wood cookie is a classic term for the Outdoor School nametags students wear that are made of a slice of a tree limb and a length of leather. These particular wood cookies were crafted for the Dundee Elementary fifth-graders, chaperones, and educators headed to Outdoor School this spring. (Outdoor School is a hands-on multi-day science lesson out in the forest, usually organized like a summer camp, with overnight cabin stays and songs around the fire.)
Although Outdoor School is great fun, making the wood cookies wasn’t a walk through the woodshop. The CTE students wielded a laser to engrave designs they’d drawn on a computer program to produce sepia-toned images of animals such as a dolphin, hermit crab, seal, and starfish, Long explained.
Principal Tim Wright and Fifth-Grade Teachers Mary Jane Bachmeier and Tori Smyth officially accepted the finely wrought wood cookies Long brought by on April 30 with a formal presentation to each student. At the end of the event, the fifth-graders shouted not only, “thank you,” but also, “Outdoor School.” The NHS CTE team had successfully outfitted the elementary school students with a key piece of equipment for their woodsy adventure from May 1 to 3.