Friendship Public Charter School Online Students Take to the Ice

Story by Casey and Cydnee Hart, Keola Campbell, Elon Wilson and Maryam Moore.

MARCH 16, 2017: Have you ever wanted to learn how to ice skate?  We did, and now we do!  At Friendship Online Academy, we love doing school in a virtual environment because we can plan to participate in really cool activities like learning to ice skate during the school day while still getting our lessons completed! That is only one of the great benefits of being a student at Friendship Public Charter School Online, better known to us as the OLS (Online School).  

So, here is how our field trip happened. Ms. Ryder, our parent liason, coordinated a series of weekly ice skating lessons with Fort DuPont Ice Skating Rink for our students during the month of January. There was a total of twenty students from second grade to eighth grade.  We were all a little nervous in the beginning, but that didn’t last very long.  The first day included a great demonstration given by the instructors.  They showed us the steps to skating—how to stand, stop, move, spin, and (most importantly) how to keep from falling down. Then, we put our skates and helmets on and took to the ice.  It was a blast! We learned how to skate backwards, forwards, turn and spin.  Our skills improved with each new session.

We had hot cocoa after our sessions and on the last day of skating, we celebrated what we learned as well as Casey Hart’s birthday.  We all took turns sharing what we had learned.  We admitted to being a bit nervous at the beginning, but now felt much more confident about skating.  Everyone enjoyed Casey’s party, too.  “My mom made the cake. It was a vegan vanilla cake. The frosting was blue with sprinkles all over.  It was the best birthday, ever!” Casey exclaimed.  

It was a great experience, and I hope we can do it again,” Elon said.  Ke’ola echoed her words and she looks forward to next year’s sessions.

Everyone also gave Mrs. Ryder a great big thank you for coordinating this amazing event for the students in our school. Due to popular demand, Mrs. Ryder has been able to schedule another set of skating sessions starting at the end of February! As students in OLS, we are able to do these great activities and get all of our lessons completed in the same day. We don’t have to miss out on learning in our courses while learning new physical activity skills. The OLS ROCKS!  

Ke’ola Campbell is an 8th grade scholar, Elon Wilson is a 6th grade scholar, Cydnee Hart is a 5th grade scholar, Maryam Moore is a 4th grade scholar, and Casey Hart is 3rd grade scholar at Friendship Online Academy.