Beyond the Classroom
Stemming from our mission to stimulate and broaden the experiences of city children, Mustard Seed School seeks frequent opportunities for children to learn outside of the classroom setting.
Field trips throughout the metropolitan area offer students a rich layer of learning to supplement classroom studies while field trips out of the urban area offer a connection with nature and a new set of challenges. Another aspect of broadening the experience of city children is bringing experts in to the classrooms. Guest artists and speakers come throughout the year to share their knowledge with students.
Field Trips
Fieldtrips throughout the metropolitan area offer students a rich layer of learning to supplement classroom studies while field trips out of the urban arena offer a connection with nature and a new set of challenges.
Exploring the city:
Teachers guide children through explorations in the urban environment. Some of this work is very local. The youngest children, learning to deliver messages to friends, may walk to the post office. The Third Grade, completing a comprehensive study of Hoboken, stroll weekly through the neighborhood, sketching architecture and interviewing neighbors.
Our location, just across the Hudson River from New York City, affords Mustard Seed School students access to resources that complement their learning with authentic artifacts and hands-on experiences. Learning about transportation may lead a class to a visit to the New York Transit Museum where children observe transit vehicles up close. A unit of study in the Upper School surrounding the Civil Rights Movement is enhanced with an opportunity to sing spirituals with choirs at the Apollo Theater through the Perelman American Roots, an education program at Carnegie Hall. Children regularly visit the collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and a number of other museums in the area.
Connecting to the natural world:
Mustard Seed School desires for children to develop a sense of the natural world and to immerse their senses in the beauty of God’s creation. Preschool students walk to the Hudson River to seek a deeper answer to their question, “What color is water?” Lower School students explore wildlife on the Hudson Hike, an annual trip to the Palisades Interstate Park, where children scamper through the wildlife trails, observing, exploring, and gathering samples of nature to bring back to the classroom for further study in science and art.
Especially for older children, the opportunity to venture beyond the urban setting gives students a chance to see the world with new perspective. These fieldtrips provide safe space for greater risk-taking and growth. Upper School students experience farm life during an overnight trip to a Mennonite community. The oldest students spend three days each year at Spruce Lake, an outdoor school in the Pocono Mountains. Here students learn about ecosystems and orienteering and experience adventures, including a climbing wall, a zipline, and a ropes course.
Each of these field trips, whether out and about in the city or in the midst of wildlife and nature, is designed to expand upon studies in the classroom in meaningful ways. Students embark on each experience with questions designed to guide their learning. Reflection in the classroom afterwards helps students to make connections between their experiences and their prior knowledge, building richer and enduring understanding.
Bringing Experts In
Giving students the ability to learn from experts in their field also helps connect classroom learning to real world experiences. Experts may come for a few hours, a day or as visiting artists who work with students over time. Some of our recent visiting experts have included
Kevin Garcia (drummer)
Julie Hanson Battaglia (Broadway singer/choreographer)
Bruce Morosko (artist/sculptor)
Elliot Levine (composer)
Calvin College Orchestra and Women’s Choir
Ginny Owens (Nashville recording artist)
Roxanne Orgill (author)
Virginia Dooley (author)