Experiential Learning

Enrichment at Almaden Country School reaches far beyond our classroom walls!

Children bring a mix of learning styles, interests and aptitudes to the classroom, and studies demonstrate that one to the best ways to make learning relevant for students is to provide real-life experiences they connect with new knowledge. This is why ACS provides a multitude of field trips and on- and off-campus adventures for our students. We believe strongly in offering exciting, memorable hands-on learning opportunities through our supervised field trip programs.

Starting in fourth grade, the concept of the field trip rises to a new level as students journey on extended overnight trips that challenge them, strengthen their bonds with classmates, teachers, and parents, and require increasing degrees of independence and growth as they move through our program.

Take a look at the drop-down Experiential Learning menu to review our exciting Field Trip and EDGE Day descriptions.

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

— William Butler Yeats
kayaking 007.jpg
Experiential Learning by Grade Level
Each year students get an opportunity to learn by feeling, touching, seeing and doing. Our field trips vary each year but below is a sampling of some of the outings students have enjoyed in the past.

Begindergarten

  • Battaglia Farms
  • Christmas Tree Ranch
  • Fire Dept (on campus)
  • Mounted Police (on campus)
  • Uesugi Pumpkin Patch

Junior Kindergarten

  • Alum Rock
  • Dentist
  • Market
  • Panera Bakery
  • Pizza Parlor
  • Sanborn
  • YSI Vasona

Kindergarten

  • California Academy of Science
  • Uesegi Farms Pumpkin Patch

1st Grade

  • Tech Museum of Innovation

2nd Grade

  • Almaden Library
  • Campbell Historical Museum
  • Gizdich Apple Farm
  • The Nutcracker
  • San Jose Quilting and Textile Museum (on campus)

3rd Grade

  • Build a Bear
  • The Nutcracker
  • San Francisco Zoo
  • Uvas Canyon

4th Grade

  • Chinatown
  • Chitactac Adams Park
  • Malakoff Diggins
  • Meister's Historical House
  • The Nutcracker
  • Pena Adobe (in conjunction with Malakoff)
  • Peralta Adobe and Fallon House
  • Quicksilver Mining Museum
  • Sutter's Fort (in conjunction with Malakoff)

5th Grade

  • Andy’s Pet Shop
  • Animal Rescue (on campus)
  • Chabot Space and Science Center
  • Christmas in the Park
  • Martin Luther King Main Library/SJSU
  • The Nutcracker
  • Revolutionary War Artifacts (on campus)
  • Walker Creek Science Camp

6th Grade

  • Ancient Egypt Artifacts (on campus)
  • The Nutcracker
  • Yosemite National Park

7th Grade

  • Catalina Island
  • Revolutionary War Artifacts (on campus)

8th Grade

  • French Bakery
  • La Playita restaurant
  • The Tech Museum of Innovation
  • Washington, D.C.