This article was originally published in the Winter 2024 issue of the GFS Bulletin.

The late September air brought a colorful bounty to neatly organized rows of herbs, flowers, and vegetables at Henry Got Crops, an urban farm in Roxborough. But it was the first grade students of Germantown Friends teachers Jen Laken-Shirk and Sunnie Park who brought the noise—a cacophony of discovery.

“I’m trying mint!” 
“I love basil!” 
“This one tastes so sour!” 
“I’m bringing these beans home for my mom and dad!” 

Watching over the charges was “Farmer Hannah” (Hannah Holby, the farm’s floral coordinator), who peppered in lessons on community-supported agriculture, compost, soil health, and irrigation, as students peeked into barns housing livestock and explored the farm’s muddy paths.

The excitement reached its zenith when Farmer Hannah invited her young guests to graze from patches of fresh herbs, peppers, cherry tomatoes, and green beans. There, each student raptly awaited their turn to dig up fresh carrots from the soil, each one clutching their dirt-speckled root veggies like a prize.  

The true significance was buried deeper still. This visit to Henry is the outgrowth of a years-long effort by educators in the Lower School to revamp excursions outside the classroom, by adding more meaningful field trips to the calendar and seeking to tie them more closely to the GFS curriculum and GFS values.

The teacher-led initiative grew out of an overhaul of the school’s social studies curriculum that began just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the year, teachers at each grade level now regularly meet to discuss where to go, what to do, and how to connect experiences in the field to those in the classroom. 

But their efforts received an extra boost in 2022 with the arrival of Lower School Director Joe Stanzione, who leaned in by hiring substitute teachers several times a year, giving lead first and second grade teachers a chance to step outside the classroom to think up, scout, and plan new trips.

“The life of a homeroom teacher is busy,” Stanzione said. “So if I can give our teachers a little bit more time to work together, it leads to great new ideas and opportunities for students.”

Educators say the all-hands approach has paid off. While a traditional field trip at many schools would see students visiting a museum or historical site with ready-made programming for children, the prioritization and holistic approach to planning trips at the Lower School enables teachers to think more imaginatively, first in identifying ideal locations and reaching out, and then, if needed, helping to build programming from the ground up.

A road less traveled

The first grade food systems curriculum offers a prime example of this field trip transformation in action. Teaching children at that grade level about food is a national standard and has thus been part of the Germantown Friends School curriculum for many years. 

But as part of the revamped social studies curriculum, first grade teachers at GFS wanted to help students think more deeply about the interconnectedness of the food system. They now use field trips to numerous locations in Northwest Philadelphia to bring the concept closer to home.

First grade teacher Danita Knight-Paulis recalls a spring visit to the Wyck House and Garden, a historic property that operates a small farm less than a mile from GFS. Wyck had existing programming, but after Laken-Shirk and Park paid an independent visit, the four-teacher first grade team sat down together to plan something even better. They then worked with Wyck staff to create a custom educational experience that inspired students to think about how early Americans cultivated their food.

“Taking a closer look at how the [Wyck] family grew food, how they used it,” Knight-Paulis describes, “we got to look at some old recipes, and students got to make their own tea, using some of the herbs that would have been grown on the farm.”

In another demonstration of the dynamism of the new approach to field trips, after learning of Holby’s connections to professionals at Weavers Way Co-op and The Farm at Awbury Arboretum, the first grade team reached out and added them to the list of excursions, each now helping students assemble a piece of the food chain puzzle. Celia Cruz, another first grade teacher, said the results are unmistakable. At the beginning of the school year, teachers ask students where food comes from. Some have a loose idea, others no clue.

But last May, when teachers set up an entire classroom as a market, the concepts visibly clicked for students.

“They really collaborated! Someone said, ‘I’m going to be over here on the farm with beets and an orchard,’ and somebody else said, ‘Can I be the trucker and transport those to the co-op?’” Cruz said. “You could really tell they understood that co-op visit. Kids who are often just a little cautious about sharing said things like, ‘I have an announcement to make. The cheese counter is now open!’”

Growing older, growing bolder

Hal Morra, a third grade teacher at the Lower School, said his grade level takes a different approach to field trips, but to largely the same effect.

As students age and progress through the school, they’re able to comprehend more distant times and places, Morra notes. While first graders consider the food that’s right in front of them, and fifth graders study ancient civilizations, Morra and his team landed on two happy mediums: Colonial Philadelphia and the watershed that courses through the region. But the connective tissue to other grade levels is inspiring “systems-level” thinking.

“The key concept is interdependence. And that’s not something where we say to the kids, ‘Hey, we’re going to study how everything is connected,’” Morra said, adding the teachers’ goal is to build that knowledge organically. “We want the kids to understand that as humans, we are all connected to each other and to nature, which is a very powerful way for them to understand interdependence.”

To highlight these connections, third-grade students take trips to destinations that help them understand how Philadelphians have long interacted with their waterways: the ruins of an old mill in the Wissahickon or a bus tour of Philadelphia’s main bridges. Wherever possible, the teachers emphasize experiential learning.

One trip to Swann Memorial Fountain, the large, round installation in front of the Academy of Natural Sciences on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, showcases the approach. Morra and colleagues tell students very little about why they’re there and instead encourage them to investigate for themselves. Eventually some start to pick up on sculptures representing three key Philadelphia waterways—the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Wisshickon—as well as the region’s indigenous residents. Teachers then solidify the lesson by exploring the fountain’s explanatory signage.

From there, students walk along Race Street to the Schuylkill River Banks. Once again, Morra takes off his lecturing hat. Instead, he passes out art supplies and simply asks students to observe their surroundings and sketch what they see. He encourages this task with a gently directed refrain that sums up the GFS Lower School field trip ethos:

“Notice and wonder.”

- by Kyle Bagenstose