Innovate Today | K-G5 Field Trip: Exploring the Wonders of the Natural World

CIS welcomed its Field Trip Week, with learning experiences carefully designed to match students’ developmental stages and curriculum goals.

From career exploration for younger kindergarten students, to inquiry-based field trips to the Insect Museum for five-year-olds and Grades 1–2; from hands-on learning at a farm for Grades 3–5, to karst landform field trips for secondary students—each field trip was planned to support meaningful learning beyond the classroom.

During CIS Field Trip Week, learning experiences were designed at different levels to match students’ development. This article focuses on the K–primary years field trips, highlighting nature inquiry and showing how students grow as active learners within the IB PYP framework.

With the support and guidance of their homeroom teachers and Learning Partners, students were able to meet reptiles such as lizards and snakes in a safe and supportive environment. Some children touched them carefully, while others tried bravely. Through these real interactions, students observed different animal features, learned to respect living things, manage their emotions, and build confidence when facing the unknown.

Students also learned about the complete life cycle of a butterfly, from egg to adult, helping them understand how living things change and grow.

At the end of the field trip, students made their own butterfly display frames, turning their observations and experiences into learning they could keep and share.

For students in Grades 3 to 5, the farm provided a real and complete learning setting, where they could turn what they learned in the classroom into hands-on experiences and thoughtful practice in a natural environment.

On the farm, students learned how crops grow and explored organic farming. Through planting, harvesting, and feeding animals, they learned responsibility and teamwork through real work.

While each field trip looked different, they all shared the same learning approach. Students learned as active inquirers, with teachers guiding and supporting them—just as encouraged in the IB PYP.

Placing K–G2 students at the Insect Museum and G3–G5 students at the farm was a learning design based on students’ developmental stages.

Younger studentsbenefit from learning experiences that are close, hands-on, and sensory, where curiosity and respect for life can grow in a safe and supportive environment. Older students, on the other hand, develop deeper understanding through real work and ongoing practice—learning about systems, shared responsibility, and more structured ways of thinking.

If you’re looking for a school where children are understood, guided, and prepared for a wider world, welcome to CIS.

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