Each year during the first weeks of school, our Upper Elementary students venture 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 is 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.
Elementary 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.
