All School Assembly
Once a week, the entire school joins together for all school assembly and student shares! Our seventh and eighth graders lead assembly each week, and lower school students sit with their Birch Buddy. Each week, a different class presents something they have been working on (families are always invited to attend). This could be a play, an oral presentation, a new school initiative (i.e. compost buckets), a musical performance, or a read aloud. Often our Head of School presents the students with a puzzle or riddle to solve over the course of the week. Once a month at All School Assembly, everyone who has a birthday is invited up to receive a “Birches birthday flower” and the entire school sings the Birches birthday song to them.
Lantern Festival
Each winter our entire school community comes together to celebrate the darkness of winter with our annual Lantern Festival and night trail walk! Birches students spend time in the weeks leading up to the festival creating lanterns that shine the path for a night walk featuring Birches student performers. The evening culminates with snacks and warm drinks around the campfire.
Birches Buddies
Birches values opportunities for cross-classroom collaboration as well as opportunities for older students to practice mentorship. To that end, Middle School students are partnered with elementary students as “Birches Buddies.” Each week “buddies'“ spend time together engaging in a variety of activities from art to field games to traditional “reading buddies".
This is one of many examples of our students working together across grade bands. Everyone looks forward to these weekly sessions to connect with their friends in different ways.
Birches Bioblast
Each fall and spring, every Birches classroom competes in the Birches Bioblast to identify as many species as possible on our campus and out on the trails over a four-week challenge. Our citizen scientists share their discoveries, learn about new flora and fauna, and celebrate the biodiversity of the Birches campus. Our students are immersed in nature and committed to caring for and protecting the natural world around us.
Wilderness Trips and Overnights
Every gradeband at Birches has a special culminating wilderness experience based on their learning throughout the school year. The youngest students host a Harvest Supper for their families, growing, harvesting, and preparing a special evening meal over the campfire to celebrate together. The 2-3 class has a campout on campus with their family, while the 4-5 class camps with their teachers.
Middle school students take a weekly wilderness skills class that culminates in their capstone 7th and 8th-grade wilderness skills trip. This is a multi-year developmental process that begins with introductory nature skills in 6th grade and culminates with the opportunity to test their skills in a real wilderness setting during the multi-day camping trip that they design. Each student identifies wilderness skill goals related to shelter, water, fire, and food that they put into practice during the trip.
