The Outdoor Education Program is a critical component of the Riverstone International School curriculum and is intended to give all students the opportunity to develop self-confidence, teamwork and leadership skills, and an environmental ethic. The environments experienced through the outdoor program are invaluable classrooms for real-world, and context-driven learning.

The program is also intended to unify and strengthen the school community and it plays a significant role in the school’s character education program. Students learn to depend on each other for support in challenging situations and to resolve conflicts effectively. Group situations also make students confront their personal strengths and weaknesses and students learn how they can work best as members of a group. The camaraderie and trust that develops between students and teachers working together in a real world classroom transfers into academic classrooms and hallways and helps students see their classmates and teachers alike as peers in a process of discovery.

Riverstone is in a unique position as a Preschool – Grade 12 school with an articulated Outdoor Program that starts in Preschool. The program has been designed to ensure that skills are introduced at appropriate ages and that those skills are reinforced as students progress through the program. Time spent away from home and parents increases as students move through the Elementary School and then enter the Middle and High School Programs.

Environments and activities become increasingly challenging and emphasis gradually shifts from developing positive attitudes and comfort in the outdoors to teaching specific, environment-appropriate skills. Character education takes place throughout the Outdoor Program curriculum and service learning is incorporated into as many trips as possible.

• Preschool – Grade 5: Back to School Rafting Trips
• Grade 4: McCall Outdoor Science School - Geology Rocks! and Erosion
• Grade 5: McCall Outdoor Science School - Ecosystems and Adaptations
• Grade 6: Yellowstone Ecosystem
• Grades 7 – 12: Back to School Fall Backpacking Trips (Sawtooth, Whitecloud and Salmon River Mountains)

• Kindergarten and Grade 1: Learn to Skate Program at IceWorld
• Grade 2 -3: Nordic Lessons at Bogus Basin Nordic Center
• Grade 4 -5: Snow School at Bogus Basin Nordic Center
• Grade 8: Idaho City Yurt Trip (with Colombian Exchange students)
• Grade 9: Winter Camping Trip (in snow caves built by students at Bogus Basin Nordic Center)
• Grade 12: Senior Winter Yurt Trip (Sawtooth Mountains)

• Kindergarten: Montour National Wildlife Preserve
• Grade 1: Zoo Boise Overnight Stay
• Grade 2: Hagerman Geology and Planetary Exploration
• Grade 3: Horsethief Reservoir studying Water and the Water Cycle
• Grade 7: Deschutes River Trip (OR)
• Grade 8: Hell's Canyon Backpacking Trip (ID)
• Grade 9: Grand Gulch Backpacking Trip (UT)
• Grade 10: Sheep Creek Off-trail Backpacking Trip (ID)
• Although not part of the Outdoor Education Program, Grade 11 students travel to colleges in the Pacific Northwest during February as part of their college counseling program.