The weeks leading up to summer at Ethical Culture Fieldston School are buzzing as our community comes together to celebrate beloved traditions and participate in new experiential learning opportunities. At Fieldston Middle, events like Founder’s Day, all-grade trips like 7th Grade’s upstate ropes course visit and the 6th Graders’ visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and cross-divisional traditions like the ECFS Fashion Show ensure that students have plenty of chances to bond with one another while broadening their horizons, taking risks, and demonstrating leadership.
8th Grade Community Building: Founder’s Day 2025
At Founder’s Day, the 8th Grade joined in the celebrations as they headed downtown to the Ethical Culture campus for their first event as part of the Fieldston Upper community.
Founder’s Day serves as a passing of the torch for 8th Grade. As they cheered for our seniors, sang the Fieldston Lower, Ethical Culture, and Fieldston Middle school songs, and heard from a distinguished alumni speaker, it was a reminder that in four short years, they would cross the stage in the lead up to their own graduation. Joining together as the Class of 2029 to celebrate the Class of 2025 marked the first step in their journey to becoming leaders not just of Fieldston Upper, but of the ECFS community
7th Grade Outdoor Ropes Course: Learning Teamwork and Resilience
ECFS’s commitment to experiential learning extends beyond our core curriculum areas into topics like social emotional learning. Beyond the four walls of a classroom, students tackle real-world problems together, as 7th Grade learned earlier this spring. Where better to practice teamwork, communication, and resilience than an outdoor ropes course?
The 7th Grade class headed upstate to Carmel, New York, to visit Green Chimneys Clearpool Campus, where they learned about the forest ecosystem, tested their teamwork in ropes course challenges like the giant swing, and tackled an outdoor zipline!
6th Grade Ancient Civilizations: Met Museum Tour
Downtown, 6th Graders visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a culmination of their year-long study of ancient civilizations. Students took a guided tour through art and artifacts from Egypt, China, and Rome, three civilizations with which they’ve spent significant time in the classroom. Students had the opportunity to see objects up close, which prompted an imaginative exercise and a writing activity.
As they approach the end of 6th Grade, students are asking big questions about these civilizations, drawing connections to their daily lives, and practicing analytical thinking to compare and contrast — all skills that will aid them throughout the rest of middle school!
Middle School Fashion Show: Channeling Ingenuity and Creativity
Spring wouldn’t be the same at ECFS without the Fashion Show, and Middle Schoolers had the opportunity to demonstrate their ingenuity and creativity! Nine students participated in the show, which challenges them to design and craft outfits made of anything but fabric! Creations included dresses made from caution tape, tissues, crocheted yarn, and more.
At ECFS, we know that middle school is a time of growth and excitement for students. Through experiential learning, decades-long traditions, and community events, students have boundless leadership opportunities — whether it’s leading their team across a ropes course, boldly stepping out among peers in a hand-designed outfit, or even asking a thoughtful question to shape a class discussion.
