Experiential Learning

A signature program since the school’s founding in 1982, the ACDS Experiential Learning program is a hallmark of our cultural identity, promoting confidence, joy, and growth in children at every grade level which includes enrichments, electives, fields trips and more.

Enrichment at ACDS includes drama, music, art, foreign language, hands-on science, technology, physical education, athletics, library, service learning, and leadership. Much more than a simple add-on to academic learning, our enrichment program is considered a core discipline alongside traditional academic subjects such as reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. For example, a typical week for a fourth-grade student includes up to 14 enrichment classes. In middle school, it's student-choice. Middle school students can choose from over 40 high-interest electives, taking up to two electives per trimester.

ACDS also provides a variety of exciting, memorable, hands-on learning opportunities through our supervised field trip programs, offering both on- and off-campus adventures for our students throughout the year. In addition, students in grades 6-8 enjoy EDGE Day every year which enriches and challenges them with activities like trapeze flying, making chocolates, surfing, and more.

With talented specialist teachers as well as targeted support resources, the ACDS enrichment program enables students to experience a wide variety of learning opportunities beyond traditional content areas, helping them to foster their existing talents and to discover — sometimes with surprise— their latent gifts. In our experience, early success with these enrichment activities builds a sense of confidence that readily translates into other areas of a child’s life, establishing the basis for future success and fulfillment both inside and outside the classroom.

Field Trips

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

Children in all grades at ACDS participate in supervised field trips, including day-trips to destinations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Spina Farms, the Technology Museum of Innovation, Seymour Marine Discovery Center, and Big Basin Redwood State Park. Starting in the fourth grade, students are also given the opportunity to journey on extended overnight trips that challenge their abilities, strengthen their bonds with classmates, teachers, and parents, and require increasing degrees of independence and growth. 

Chaperoned by ACDS faculty members, our field trips are carefully planned and developed, and have been refined over the years to provide highly stimulating, memorable learning in a safe, supervised environment. Our students take away invaluable lessons about their studies, their world, and themselves, which helps them apply and connect what they have learned at ACDS to the world beyond.

Take a look below to view just a small sampling of the exciting field trips our students take each year.

Edge Day

Middle School students and faculty look forward each year to a very special outing we call EDGE Day.

Expanding a Dynamic and Gifted Education (EDGE)

EDGE Day was developed to expose our older students to a variety of high-interest learning opportunities that are novel, unfamiliar, and often challenging both physically and mentally. Under the supervision of experts in each EDGE area, our students and teachers test their limits and explore new horizons by trying their hand at kayaking, controlled-flight hang gliding, pottery throwing, learning ukulele, fencing, gourmet cooking, trapeze artistry, surfing, and more.

EDGE Day is extremely popular with our sixth through eighth graders, a highlight of their academic year, and a touchstone of the ACDS Middle School experience.

What our students have said about the day …