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2023 Harvest Festival at Greenspring

2023 Harvest Festival at Greenspring

Thank you to everyone who attended our Harvest Festival this weekend! We hope you had a wonderful time. Children and families enjoyed a haunted house, bounce house, fire trucks, games, crafts, face painting, music, and more! Enjoy photos from the Harvest Festival below. 

Events such as the Harvest Festival are made possible because of our amazing parent and staff volunteers. Thank you to everyone who donated your time to set up this event, prepare food, and donate to our many events this week!

Fall Adolescent Odyssey to East Hill Farm

Fall Adolescent Odyssey to East Hill Farm

In early October, our Adolescents ventured to East Hill Farm in New Hampshire for an immersive Fall Odyssey trip. The Farm is located at the base of Mount Monadnock on 150 acres where they raise heritage breed cows, goats, and pigs along with horses, sheep, chickens, and other farm animals.

Our students worked with the farm staff to accomplish morning and afternoon chores including goat milking, collecting eggs, cleaning stalls, grooming, and feeding the animals, along with preparing their own meals. They also attended workshops on cheesemaking, mycology, and candle making as well as classes in caring for each of the types of animals. The mycology workshop was a favorite – the students searched the woods to identify, dissect, and explore various types of mushrooms. They learned about the benefits of fungi in our natural environment and how to incorporate them into meals. The Adolescents were eager to learn about animal husbandry, sustainability, and farm-to-table concepts.

Odyssey travel offers many benefits to our students. It invites them to step out of their comfort zones by spending time away from their families and stretching their independence. In a new environment, students learn to care for and rely on each other. They bond through new experiences, such as caring for farm animals and learning how to make cheese. Finally, Odyssey offers lots of unstructured time to be together and build community, which will strengthen our connection for the rest of the year and beyond.

Outdoor Education this September

Outdoor Education this September

Our children and adolescents have been deeply immersed in nature during the first month of school. From our youngest children working and exploring the outdoor environments to our Elementary and Adolescent students venturing off campus for field trips and overnight trips, there is so much happening at Greenspring!

Our focus this year is the Spiritual Nature of the Child and we are supporting our children with beautifully prepared outdoor environments and opportunities to engage with nature. Click through the photo galleries below to see photos and learn more about this big work!

Toddlers

Our Toddlers have been exploring their classrooms and outdoor environments with all of their senses. Guides and Assistants carefully model how to use the materials and the children eagerly soak in new experiences.

 

Children’s House

In Children’s House, our students have been enjoying the gifts of the outdoors. This year, our Children’s House Naturalists introduced sit spots – a place where the child can sit for five minutes away from distractions to observe nature and enjoy time in quiet reflection. Sit spots are a way for our children to try out a new way to enjoy the world around them – observing the sights, sounds, smells, and touch of the natural world. 

In addition, our children have enjoyed the classic activities of the outdoor environments – working with manipulatives, gardening, reading stories, and fine and gross motor play.

Elementary and Adolescents

Our Elementary and Adolescent students have been exploring the natural world of the greater Chesapeake Bay watershed. Along with their work in the outdoor environments, Lower Elementary students recently traveled to Marshy Point Nature Center for a field trip to hike and explore. The children loved seeing and learning more about the creatures who live in the Bay watershed. Seeing the Monarch caterpillars and chrysalis was certainly a highlight!

In Upper Elementary, the students visited Echo Hill Outdoor School for an immersive three day trip. They had the opportunity to explore the Chester River by boat, complete a ropes course, and enjoy many team-building activities. See photos and learn more about their trip here. 

Our Adolescents have been working on campus to prepare the new rain garden and sensory trail for our younger students. They have also been harvesting tomatoes from our gardens to create various dishes before the end of the season. In Art and Physical Education enrichment, they also have ventured off campus to visit Sherwood Gardens to sketch and Oregon Ridge Nature Center to hike.

What’s Next?

We look forward to sharing the many ways that our children and adolescents explore the outdoors this year. Stay tuned for more updates this fall. 

Celebrating the International Day of Peace with our Dual Language Community

Celebrating the International Day of Peace with our Dual Language Community

On September 21, 2023 children and staff at Greenspring Montessori School celebrated the International Day of Peace. Established in 1981 by a unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.

“Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.”

– Dr. Maria Montessori

Together we celebrate the International Day of Peace, or el Día Internacional de la Paz as we refer to it in our Spanish Dual Language classes. Children joined together to celebrate this special day with music and wishes for peace. They sang songs including “Paz Como Río/Peace Like a River” and “Paz y Libertad/Peace and Liberty”. Our Toddler, Children’s House, and Lower Elementary classrooms made peace doves and pinwheels that they displayed on a parade around campus. Lower Elementary students also reflected about the meaning of peace. Enjoy photos of this special day below.

As Dr. Montessori so eloquently wrote, “…an education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking.” Needless to say, this undertaking requires an unwavering commitment to children and their development into their full potential and self-understanding. Thank you to each and every one of you for your deep dedication to our children, our families, each other, and our school community – and to the creation of a better world. YOU are making the world a better place!

Outdoor Learning at Echo Hill Outdoor School

Outdoor Learning at Echo Hill Outdoor School

During the first week of school, our Upper Elementary students ventured to Echo Hill Outdoor School for a three-day outdoor learning experience. Echo Hill is located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with 242 acres of forests, meadows, and freshwater shrub swamp bordering a mile of sandy beach on the Chesapeake Bay. This trip was a great opportunity for the Upper Elementary students to live close to nature and learn about our environment and our place within the natural world. The students enjoyed learning about many interesting topics like swamp biology, how to experience the environment through all our senses, wilderness survival, and bay biology.

The students worked on a small fishing boat and experienced firsthand the living creatures of the Chester River. They discussed the ecological value of an estuary like the bay. Groups collected aquatic animals including freshwater eel, blue crabs, and fish which they had a chance to touch. Students learned the local history of bay communities, the environmental challenges fishermen are now facing, and so much more.

The trip also provided ample opportunities for community building as well. Students and adults learned to depend on one another and live in close quarters without devices. They worked together during the day to complete a ropes course and enjoyed many team-building activities. The students came home tired and happy.

Outdoor learning is an important element of Montessori education and a major focus at Greenspring Montessori School. The students’ retreat at the start of the school year is a key part of their study of nature and the interconnectedness of all living things. This is one of two major outdoor trips for our Upper Elementary students – the second will be a culminating trip in the spring. In alignment with this focus on the natural world, our students will be focusing a portion of their time at school on agriculture and ecology. They go for regular hikes in the local forests, conduct field experiments, and learn from naturalists in the area. On campus, the students will have many exciting projects this year to build vegetable gardens and start a community agriculture program.