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Student Trips
Foothills School extends learning beyond the classroom through class trips - both day experiences and overnight excursions. We believe that the unique experiential opportunities afforded in a new environment are important to develop our students' full potential for learning, hone their skills in adapting to new experiences, and enabling them to integrate classroom concepts into "real world" understandings.
When so many schools are cutting budgets for local and regional classroom outings, Foothills School continues to believe that these experiences are as important to learning as any time spent in the classroom. The entire learning community - from our pre-school students all the way to our Nines Program students - take advantage of our downtown Cultural District location and we visit the Boise Art Museum, Idaho History Museum, Boise Zoo, Anne Frank Memorial and Human Rights Commission, The Cabin, Discovery Center, Public Library, and facilities at Boise State University with great regularity. We also travel a little outside our neighborhood to enjoy the richness afforded by the Boise Foothills, Foothills Learning Center, Botanic Garden, and the Boise Urban Garden School (BUGS).
Trips
Exploration of the world around us is part of the value of student trips at Foothills!
Faculty prepare for months for the international trip to assure that students experience everything possible in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Senior class traveled to Italy in the Spring 2009.
In addition to these field trip experiences, Foothills School has a long tradition of overnight and weeklong trips that allow students to extend the borders of their education and delve deeper into inquiry projects. The intention of these more significant outings is to help students make real connections to what they've been learning in the classroom and generate real field work projects.
Spring Trip is an extended learning experience that every student grades K-9 enjoy. The school believes that students develop mastery from hands-on learning as it relates to their class curriculum, and Spring Trips are the school’s best example of an experiential, hands-on learning opportunity. Primary and Junior students travel together for a curriculum-related adventure for two to four days in the Spring. Intermediate and Senior students travel from two days to two weeks, depending on their learning objectives and the age of the students. Every three years, Seniors go abroad for an intense and rich experience in another culture. The culminating Senior Spring Trip has been to Italy, Spain, Costa Rica and Canada.
Upper school students (4th-9th grade) also participate in an annual Fall Trip. Fall Trip affords students an opportunity to have a hands-on learning experience early in the year and create deeper connections with other students and teachers outside of school. The relationships established in this early travel experience set a strong and effective tone for the classroom learning community for the entire year.
Senior Fall Trip 2009
Foothills School takes full advantage of the incredible environment we enjoy in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West. The school's longest standing trip has been the Fall Trip to the Idaho Bird Observatory by the Intermediate students. Classes travel to the McCall Science School, the Teton Science School in Wyoming, the central mountains of Idaho, the Oregon Coast, the Olympic Peninsula, the San Juan Islands, and other incredible locations throughout our region.
