Beyond the Classroom:
Experiential Education
A central part of CWA’s curriculum for more than 50 years, experiential education is an approach to learning that recognizes that human beings, beginning in infancy, learn from concrete experiences. An abundance of opportunities for students to solidify academic concepts through experiences outside the classroom are built into a Charles Wright education. But great experiential education is not just providing field trips. Real learning comes from a curriculum led by expert faculty that provides context to that experience, the structured reflection that happens afterwards, and the intentional design that connects each of these elements.
PRESCHOOL
Outdoor Learning Laboratory
Young learners in CWA’s new Preschool experience intentional time spent outdoors each week including time in the beautiful woods surrounding CWA. Students play in the creek, search for amphibians, identify bird and plant species, build forts, and play. Research shows that students who spend time outdoors show increased competency in managing risk and decision making, as well as experience better sleep and improved moods.
JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN & KINDERGARTEN
Wilderness Wednesday
This weekly tradition gives younger Lower Schoolers more time to experience outdoor play in order to enhance their experience in the classroom. In these two years, the intentional time preschoolers spent outdoors is expanded to include full trail runs. The research on the importance of outdoor play is clear and shows that students who spend time outdoors exhibit increased focus, confidence, memory, environmental awareness, and problem-solving skills.
GRADE 1
Reading and Writing Exercises and Day Trips
First grade experiential education opportunities are focused on becoming a reader and a writer. Research is introduced, and they write fiction and nonfiction books, and then read them out loud to parents, guardians, and classmates to build public speaking skills. First graders are introduced to real-world engagement with day trips to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Children’s Museum of Tacoma, and theater productions at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. These day trips expose students to learning off campus to prepare them for multi-day trips later in the Lower School experience.
GRADE 2
Project Fairs
Students host three project fairs throughout the year to take a deep dive into the process of research and presentation. In order to simulate a real-world application of presentation, parents, guardians, and students from other grades are invited to visit the fair, which gives second graders a captive audience outside of their teacher or second grade peers. Projects include the exploration of world geography, culture, and history. By researching topics about the world outside of the classroom, second graders are set up for success for their first overnight experience when they reach third grade.
GRADE 3
Watershed Experience
Third graders embark on a trip to the Nisqually River Watershed as part of an integrated social studies and homeroom science curriculum extending beyond the classroom and into the larger world. The goal of this curriculum is to encourage critical thinking about our relationship with our surroundings. Students begin the year learning about the geology of mountains, forest ecology, and the history and management of national parks. Third graders are not only capable of learning about the costs and benefits of types of habitat management, they are also eager and avid learners in the field, inquisitive about and attuned to what’s around them.
GRADE 4
NatureBridge Camp
Fourth graders have the opportunity to engage in hands-on learning in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest’s majestic Olympic mountains. Students explore old growth forests, the Elwha River, and Lake Crescent, while challenging themselves physically, building meaningful relationships, and discovering their relationship with the natural world.
GRADE 5
Williamsburg and Washington, D.C.
Williamsburg is the ultimate Lower School field trip. It is the culminating adventure of the fifth grade curriculum, but it is more than a capstone. This trip prepares them for the experiential education opportunities that will be part of their Charles Wright experience in Middle School. After seven months of preparation and study, even the most timid student is ready! Every year, faculty are delighted to watch the students as they see the history they have talked about all year come to life. But it is not just their minds that expand during this week. Each year also sees a growth in their independence and self-confidence. It is during this trip that teachers see fifth graders become ready to move on to Middle School.