Featured Programs: Class Trips

Lower school teachers find a variety of ways to supplement classroom themes and lessons with off-campus opportunities.  A few examples include:  First grade students who study their community visit local farms, civic offices, bakeries, and stores…Fourth grade students who study Colonial America visit Historic Deerfield homes…Fifth grade students who study geology visit local caves and the Amherst College Pratt Natural History Museum.

Bement’s upper school curriculum includes numerous opportunities for learning experiences beyond the four classroom walls. Field trips that connect to each grade levels curricular focus take place throughout the academic year. Among these, our 6^th grade has visited the Quabbin Reservoir and to the Montshire Museum, the 7^th grade has traveled to the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire and The Billings Farm Museum in Woodstock, Vermont. In late fall, our 8^th grade takes a three day trip to Gettysburg. While there, students are engaged in reading and writing activities that supplement and enrich their history curriculum.

The 9^th grade typically kicks off the year with an overnight camping experience that has included canoeing on the Battenkill River, rafting on the Deerfield River, and learning to zip-line at Berkshire East. During the school year, 9^th grade students have traveled to The Williams College Museum of Art, attended poetry readings at Smith College, and visited Washington D.C.  Since 2007, the 9^th grade year has culminated in a week long community service trip to La Suiza Orphanage in the Dominican Republic.