Beyond the Fencepost

On any given day the Lower School is abuzz with activity. Children’s excited voices fill the rooms and hallways as they discuss their various classroom activities. If you walk down the tunnel, you will hear fourth graders designing Egyptian tombs, while third graders embark on journeys to new frontiers. Meanwhile the second graders learn about our continent’s first human inhabitants and how they adapted to the land. The halls ring with their energy and learning, but occasionally, a quiet settles. What’s happened? What brings about this otherworldly calm in the midst of a habitually lively place? Well, the odds are good that one of these classes have set out to explore how their classroom learning connects with the bigger world around them. Indeed, almost every year as a way to further engage these young learners, teachers lead them beyond the Tunnel. Here is a list of some of the trips our lower schoolers embark on during the school year:

• The Bardavon Theater
• Buttercup Sanctuary
• Daisi Hill Farm
• HeadStart
• Innisfree Gardens
• Institute for American Indian Studies
• Institute of Eco-system Studies
• Locust Grove
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Mills Mansion
• Normal Rockwell Museum
• Norwalk Aquarium
• Rhinebeck Performing Arts Center- Hiawatha
• Secor Farms
• Sharon Audubon
• Sharpe Reservation
• Sprout Creek Farm
• Terhune Orchards