Trip Descriptions ~ Farm and Wilderness

This program starts with a two-hour classroom orientation by Hidden Villa naturalists a week before the field trip. THe environmental concepts and values your students will learn at Hidden Villa are introduced through a slide show, music, role-plays, and hands-on teaching stations.

During their field trip at Hidden Villa, the children learn the importance of the farm and wilderness to our urban environment. They may take leftover lunches to the compost pile, compost to the garden, and garden plants to the animals who are the source for wool sweaters, milk, eggs, and hairbrushes. Following Adobe Creek up into the wilderness, they explore a variety of plant communities, learn about food webs, predator-prey relationships, animal adaptations, and stewardship of the land.

These field trips last approximately 5 hours, from 9:30am to 2:30 pm. Classes are divided into small groups led by trained docents. This trip can be combined with the Overnight and Farm Chore Programs.

Overnight Program

A Hidden Villa overnight allows students to build cooperation skills while discovering the wonder of the night time world at Hidden Villa. Participants stay in heated cabins at the Hidden Villa Hostel and cook their own meals in the Hostel kitchen. Teachers may schedule a one or two night overnight to extend their farm and Wilderness Exploration Program, into a longer, more intense experience.

All meals are arranged by parents and teachers. We ask that parents serve as chaperones at all times on the overnight.

• Farm Chore Program

  Afternoon farm chores provide a unique opportunity for children to interact with each farm animal. A new understanding of mutual dependency becomes clear as children provide the farm animals with their basic needs.

• Evening Program

Hidden Villa staff encourage children to build confidence as they take on challenges of a guide night hike. Songs and stories around the campfire prepare students for this new, exciting experience.

Hidden Villa Partnership Program

Hidden Villa's partnership with classroom teachers provides students the opportunity for an extended relationship that is integrated into academic work at school. In this program students return to Hidden Villa multiple times in different seasons to continue their hands-on exploration of the environment. Hidden Villa has worked in close collaboration with teachers to create new field trip activities that follow a developmentally appropriate progression of environmental understanding while supporting state academic standards in a variety of subjects. To find out more about this exciting program, click on the "Partnership" tab at the top of this page.