In partnership with our Kindergarten through Fourth Grade Forest Program, the Planting Fields Arboretum hosted Friends Academy Kindergarteners on Monday, Oct. 30, and First graders on Tuesday, Oct. 24 as students participated in their Junior Rangers training program. Joined by Friends Academy Colleagues K-4 Forest Program Educator Alana Kessler and Dean of Innovation Daniel Mendel, students explored the park's famous gardens and grounds, completing five nature-based missions and participating in citizen science projects.
At the end of the visit, each student was awarded an official Junior Rangers badge. "Students will have the opportunity to progress through Planting Fields' Junior Rangers training program throughout their Lower School journey," said Daniel Mendel. "Developing core skills that will support their on-campus research and project work, as well as their stewardship of the Friends Academy Forest Program and local environment."
The Forest Program at Friends Academy:
From age 3 in Play Group to Fourth Grade, our Forest Program interdisciplinary curriculum empowers students to make cross-curricular connections and build skills in literacy, science, mathematics, and the humanities. Students are empowered to become active stewards of the earth whilst applying foundational knowledge and skills to forward the essential relationship between humans and nature. Promoting real-world exploration, experimentation, and innovation in the natural environment, our students use the natural world as a living laboratory. Observing, drawing hypotheses, creating, engineering, and testing their theories through hands-on learning that is student-driven.