Each spring Berkeley Carroll's Fourth Graders trade concrete sidewalks for walking trails, and skyscrapers for Sugar Maples and Red Oak Trees.  Recently, our Fourth Graders embarked on the 3rd annual overnight trip to Frost Valley, an outdoor educational center nestled in the heart of the Catskills, and they made our community proud every step of the way.

BC's Fourth Grade culminating trip to Frost Valley is a capstone not only for the year's place-based science curriculum, which explores New York area freshwater ecology and the watershed, but for students' entire Lower School experience. The trip transforms months of classroom learning into something students can see, touch, and feel, while also offering a rare, technology-free environment in which they can discover new sides of themselves and each other. With a significant Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) component woven throughout, the experience is designed to build the independence, collaboration skills, and meaningful connections students will need as they move into middle school.

The highlight of the trip came early: the release of trout into Lake Cole as part of the Trout in the Classroom program. Over the course of the school year, students had raised these trout from eggs, studying lifecycles, freshwater ecosystems, and the Catskill watershed, the source of New York City's drinking water. Students celebrated as the fish swam free into the lake, bringing this year’s learning into vivid focus.

From there, the adventure only grew. After settling into their lodges and fueling up with lunch in the dining hall, students set out in adventure groups for an afternoon of shelter building, outdoor games, water ecology exploration, and crossing a cable bridge, all under cloudy but cooperative skies.

The excitement carried right through dinner and into the evening, when students were treated to a falconry presentation featuring a turkey vulture, barn owl, Harris's hawk, a great horned owl, and an American kestrel. The night wound down with a beautiful full moon rise over the mountains, a crackling campfire, and the kind of deep, well-earned sleep.

The next morning brought more wonder with an energizing hike and nature-inspired art, giving students a quieter but equally rich way to connect with the landscape around them.

Throughout it all, the Fourth Graders impressed their chaperones with their curiosity, collaboration, and boundless energy. The Frost Valley trip has quickly become a beloved rite of passage for BC's soon-to-be middle schoolers. A hands-on adventure, a science lesson brought to life, and a reminder that some of the best learning happens away from a desk.