The Junior Kindergarten (JK) classes are set to attend a field trip to Foster Botanical Garden on Jan. 31.

Students have been learning about living and nonliving things. To advance the students’ understanding, teachers Lori Mishima-Young and Alejandra Zamora-Arnobit have been teaching how to determine whether something is living and understanding what plants need to live and grow.

The JK classes will plant seeds and also conduct experiments to see what happens if plants don’t have sun, air or water to reinforce what has been learned about what plants need to grow. Predictions will be made prior to experiments so that students can reflect to compare predictions with results.

“The field trip will be good for the students because it’s an opportunity for them to have a hands-on experience with everything they’ve been learning. They’ll also get to observe different types of plants,” said Zamora-Arnobit.

Lower school classes frequently go on learning trips which help students understand what is being taught in the classroom.

The JK classes go to Foster Botanical Garden yearly.

Foster Botanical Garden (FBG), 168 years old and on 5.5 acres of land, is home to rare tropical plants from around the world. Some of these plants are endangered in their natural habitats. FBG, with roughly 75,000 visitors yearly, have introduced 10,000 new plants over the past 27 years. They provide guided tours for a small fee to thousands of school students and visitors from around the world, but guests also have the option to go on self-guided tours of the grounds.