Hart Adventure Program: Crossing the Peanut Butter River

At , the first week of school isn't about quizzes, homework, school lunches or back-to-school blues.

It's about adventure.

In the first few days of the new school year, students in sixth and seventh grade participate in the Hart Adventure Program – a team-building experience that involves a variety of activities designed to help the students grow as a person, work within a team of students and learn valuable problem-solving skills.

Seventh-grade students will participate in the program on Tuesday, and eighth-grade students will participate in a more in-depth version of the program later in the school year.

"Students are given different problems," Hart Middle School eighth-grade science teacher Nate Childers said. "The problem may be a mental problem, or the problem could be more of a physical problem, like they're trying to get over an object or through an object, or across a make-believe river."

On Friday, Childers spent part of Friday afternoon with a group of sixth-grade students who were trying to find a way across the treacherous Peanut Butter River – an imaginary river roughly 15 feet wide that traps any student who sets foot in it.

"The only way across the Peanut Butter River is to use some magic jelly," Childers explained. "They only have a limited amount, and they only have enough for three applications, so they have to figure out how to get the entire group across the river using the jelly that they have."

HAP activities like Peanut Butter River are designed to not only provide an opportunity for new students to get to know each other, but to also reinforce the basic skills of creative thinking, expression, concentration, listening, memory, and conflict resolution.

"The whole point of this isn't a win or lose thing," Childers said. "It's more of looking at growth."

After several failed attempts, the students worked together to figure out a way to get the entire team across the river.

"They learn so many different skills they can utilize," Childers said. "It's just fun."