A day in the life

We begin each day with an all-school morning circle under the trees. This is our chance to share news and talk about the day ahead, as well as about upcoming events. Students take turns leading the circle. Often, we will sing a song together.

Students (grades 1 to 6) then move through a four-period day, with each class separated by recess time. Kids move to different classrooms for each subject where they are instructed by specialty teachers in math, humanities, science or gardening, and the arts (circus arts, drama, leadership and art). Once a week, each grade is in charge of animal care, and on Fridays, students have electives, choice classes in 8-week sessions.

On a typical day at Orchard, you might see children dropping marshmallows into various liquids as they learn about chemical reactions, visiting the school’s willow forest to practice survival skills after reading in language arts class about what it would be like to be stranded on an island, eating freshly-made waffles divided into different portions while learning about fractions in math class, walking on stilts across the meadow as they practice for a school play, or harvesting, then pounding and grinding acorns, as they learn about local Native American forbears.

At recess, the school grounds are abuzz -- children run barefooted across the grassy fields, they climb the enormous redwood tree with it’s ladder of limbs towering up into the sky, they fly paper airplanes, build stick forts beneath the willow trees, make nature mandalas with flowers and stones, dig trenches in the dirt, build mountains of sand, visit the chickens to collect eggs and truly have their fill of movement, freedom, and play so they are ready and eager to move back to deep focus when the bell rings for class time.

Kindergartners stay with their dedicated teacher in the kinder cottage for most of the day, exploring all of their subjects there (math, language arts, science, cooking, gardening, rest time, and handwork). Kindergartners do not have electives but they do go to the arts teachers for one period each day.