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Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Cascade Elementary School enjoyed a fun day of skiing Friday with fresh snow at Showdown Ski Area, 67 miles southeast of Great Falls.

Since Cascade operates a four-day school week, the school offers ski trips to students as an extracurricular field trip. One parent said her daughter was so excited she jumped out of bed at 6 a.m. Friday, ready to go skiing.

The trips are coordinated by PE Teacher Sonja Mazeira. Both fourth-grade teacher Kourtney Holten and third-grade teacher Elizabeth Allen helped out on Friday.

Showdown has offered low-cost ski lessons to area students for more than 30 years. There were five area schools at Showdown Friday. Other schools included Simms, Winifred and Stanford. Several more trips are planned this winter.