Schools Program

Bring your class to the High Line!

Click here to request a school group visit.

Learn about Nature, History, or Design with three program options:

How's It Growing?—Native Plants on the High Line
What do plants on the High Line teach us about biodiversity, native species, and New York City’s ecosystem? Students will make their own High Line Field Guide to take home.

Trains, Shipping, and Cargo Zipping—History on the High Line
How do buildings tell stories? Students will go on an interactive scavenger hunt, using historic photos and buildings along the High Line to uncover the history of Manhattan’s shipping industry. A scavenger hunt booklet will be taken home.

Abandoned to Embraced—Designing a Park on the High Line
Discover how the self-seeded landscape of the High Line inspired the park’s design. Students will become landscape architects, working in teams to hunt the park for elements from its abandoned past. After learning the principles that guided the redesign of this park, they will develop their own ideas for the High Line!

• Interactive programs on a unique open space YEAR ROUND
• Hands-on activities that support NYS Learning Standards
• Available for grades 2 through 7
• Cost is $3.00 per child, no charge for adults

• A 90-minute, educator-led program on the High Line
• A hands-on, art-based project for students to take home
• A packet of pre-visit materials including activity suggestions and a resource list for teachers and students
• A packet of post-visit materials with activity suggestions for reports, further research, and model building to extend the learning opportunities beyond the High Line
• All activities are multi-disciplinary and cite NYS Learning Standards in SS, MST, ELA, and the ARTS

Click here to request a school group visit.

For more information, please contact High Line Schools Educator Emily Pinkowitz at emily.pinkowitz@thehighline.org.

Curriculum Guides Available for Download

PS 11 Summer Field Trip

Friends of the High Line also offers five new curricula in different subject areas related to the High Line, for grades two through seven.

• A social studies curriculum guide: What can the High Line teach us about community activism?
• An English language arts curriculum guide: What can the author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" teach us about Chelsea?
• A science curriculum guide: What can the High Line teach us about forces?
• A math and arts curriculum guide: What can the High Line teach us about park design?
• An arts curriculum guide: What can the High Line teach us about the Machine Aesthetic?

These curriculum guides are available for download by grade level by clicking the links below (each link contains the above 5 curriculum guides for the corresponding grade levels).

Grades 2 & 3

Grades 4 & 5

Grades 6 & 7

All Grades

These lessons are meant to be used as a guide to help you and your students begin to explore different aspects of the High Line. Each individual teacher is the best judge of what is appropriate for his or her students and we encourage you to alter the material to best suit your needs and the needs of your students.

Education program at the Hudson Guild

About the Schools Program

The High Line Schools Program has long been an important part of our community outreach. It started in 2001 and has been utilized by the New York City Laboratory School for Collaborative Studies since 2005. The Schools Program also includes an ongoing partnership with an after-school program at the Hudson Guild, a community center in the neighborhood serving lower-income residents.

Friends of the High Line's curriculum guides were developed in collaboration with Jane Cowan, a specialist in built-environment education. This curriculum guide follows New York State's education learning standards and feature 28 lesson plans that use the High Line to explore social studies, science, English language arts, math, and art. Using the High Line curriculum guide, we have been able to bring the High Line into the academic lives of many of our neighborhood schools' seventh- and eighth-grade classes beginning in 2006, and this year, we are expanding it to grades two through seven.

Friends of the High Line periodically offers training sessions for educators to learn how the High Line can support and enhance their students' classroom learning.

If you would like to receive more information about upcoming opportunities for educators and schools, please contact Danya Sherman, Program and Outreach Manager, at (212) 206-9922 or danya@thehighline.org

Friends of the High Line's Schools Program is presented with support from the NYMEX Foundation.



Additional support comes from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation and Johnson Family Foundation.