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Class Trips
Experiential learning is a vital part of helping students to make connections between their academic studies and the world around them. Meadowbrook is committed to this effort, and provides each class extensive opportunity for meaningful adventures in the world at large. True to Meadowbrook's intentional, developmentally-appropriate progression in learning, trips begin with a five year-olds first trip to the Weston post office, and culminate with a ten-day Cultural Exchange in Costa Rica. From Kindergarten through Grade Four, field trips are typically simple, day-long excursions, including: museums, aquariums, puppet shows and theater productions, apple orchards, organic farms, nursing homes, the post office, and the town fire station. All of these locations serve to reinforce individual class social studies and science curricula and express to even the youngest students that learning is possible anywhere. In Grade Five, the entire class spends three days and nights at a rural camp in Rhode Island. Accompanied by teachers from several different departments, students investigate the science of the wooded environment, and use it as inspiration for workshops in creative writing and graphic art. The trip also creates a guided opportunity for students to establish alternative social ties to their class mates, and the experience greatly enhances the cohesion of the group, still apparent even months after their return. In Grade Six, students begin the year with a trip to a rural Camp in Western Massachusetts, where they discover and develop the stregth of community they will foster in themselves and each other during the year. This is accomplished as students safely support each other on a spelunking expedition, where individuals and groups discover, discuss, and overcome fear, taking new strides and risks to the bottom of several large caves. In Grade Seven, students travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. as an extension of their study in the roots of democracy and the evolution of American history. This week long trip takes them across Civil War battlefields and inside of national monuments, as the world around them brings new life to their readings, lectures, and debates from class. In Grade Eight, the class spends ten days on the Meadowbrook Cultural exchange, living with native families in Costa Rica, exploring a different side of the world and contributing to the local communities. The trip involves aspects of community service, including school visits, farming, and assisting with daily chores, cultural experiences like sharing meals, stories, and games with hosts, and an allows for outdoor adventures like rock climbing, rafting, surfing, and sightseeing. In addition, time is spent on the trip reflecting and writing about the experiences in Costa Rica, at Meadowbrook in general, and in personal preparation for life beyond Middle School. As always, these safe, exciting, eye-opening experiences occur under the careful guidance of Meadowbrook's faculty, and complement the dynamic learning that occurs within our walls as well. Recent Primary Grade Outings Recent Lower Middle School Outings Recent Middle School Outings
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