Here a chick, there a chick…
Students at every level are learning more about gardening and farming as well as the power of growing their own food. On our 9.5 acre campus, we have chickens, ducks, geese, quail, turkey and pheasants. We partner with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County and New York Department of Environmental Conservation to enrich our students.
OUR SOIL GARDENS
Preschooler busily grow potatoes, onions, and carrots for their Stone Soup lesson. With a raised beds in their own classroom, they love to gently water their crops as they wait for harvest time!
Primary students tend to big self-contained pots outside their classrooms, while also collecting eggs and raising baby chicks.
Maria Montessori believed that as children grew into the middle years of education, they should be working with their hands in the enterprise of farming, therefore, MSFL students are the drivers of our Urban Farm program. During weekly gardening classes, students learn about the many aspects of soil-based urban gardening through the lens of math, science, language arts, nutrition, and health. Students also plant, tend and harvest the crops located in our main outdoor beds.
“Children indeed love flowers, but they need to do something more than remain among them and contemplate their colored blossoms. They find their greatest pleasure in acting, in knowing, in exploring, even apart from the attraction of external beauty.” –Dr. Maria Montessori