Mead trips strengthen bonds, instill values, and forge leadership.
Every autumn, students in Grades 4 and 5 travel to a farm where classmates spend three days and two nights learning the activities of farming. Work includes tending to the chickens, gathering the eggs in the morning, milking the cows, feeding the animals, harvesting in the garden, cooking meals, and more.
The trip is both a meaningful bonding experience for the students, and an important education in agricultural and livestock activities and sustainability.
In the fall, students in Grades 6-8 travel to upstate Connecticut to enjoy an overnight camping adventure. The students study the native trees in all of their fall splendor, canoe down the Connecticut River with an expert guide, prepare meals together, and enjoy an important bonding experience.
In the late spring, the 6th Grade go on a 4-day trip to Cape Cod to reinforce the ecology concepts covered throughout the year, and go on a whale watch. This is the culmination of a 6th grade science curriculum focusing on marine mammals, hurricanes, climate change, and coastal resilience, and a unit voted on by the students, either sharks, coral reefs, sea turtles, or the deep ocean.
In early Spring, students in Grades 4-8 take a 4-day, 3-night trip to a major city or rural destination. The trip builds community, strengthens and establishes friendships, allows older students to step forward as leaders, and allows students and faculty to explore together, outside the confines of the classroom. Trips alternate yearly between city tours and outdoor environmental education, with students either visiting a major metropolitan areas (recent years have included Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Boston) or going to the Berkshire mountains.
