Highland Forest, October 2014

In many schools children are taken on camping field trips to celebrate the end of the year, as a reward you might say. At the New School we visit Highland Forest twice a year. The first time is scheduled near the start of school, and the second trip is within weeks of the end of the school. Without question, the most important field trip is the first one because we continue to reap its rewards all year.

Giving children two days of outdoor activities where they can explore nature in a picturesque setting helps them get to know each other. It is amazing to watch children spontaneously gather and work together to build fairy houses, shelters, or to simply play games filled with imagination in the woods. These shared experiences help children build relationships that carry over and benefit their school experiences for the rest of the year. We expect each child at The New School to be able to work with every other child in the school. This is a huge expectation, which the children meet time and time again.

This year’s Highland Forest adventure provided hands-on opportunities to examine tree leaves. We looked at pinnate, palmate, parallel veined, and lobed leaves. We classified leaves and painted them. Children in groups of four or five built shelters from available resources in the forest after being told they only had 30 minutes to accomplish the task. They enjoyed this so much they want to return in the spring to spend two hours perfecting their architectural designs. The younger children looked for birds nests and other signs of birds in the forest. We all sang and danced around the campfire and listened to great books during the day and at night after snuggling in our beds after the lights were turned off. The greatest reward was that the children loved their time in the woods and getting to know each other.