An Explosion of Creativity

At Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School this Fall, students and faculty have been painting, dancing, building, making jewelry, learning about electronics and more. Dr. Montessori believed that having opportunities for creative self expression is an integral part of forming identity during adolescence. Here are photos of our recent Creative Expression projects.

Building a computer

Jewelry making for holiday sales

Learning to use the pottery wheel

Colorful oil painting

Mixing paints

Concentration

Notice the studio dog enjoying a nap!

Turnip Time!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students grew turnips from seed and are reaping the fruits of their labor this November.

Farm School students have the option to become managers of an area of the farm in their 9th grade year. The 9th grade Garden Manager and one of her current garden crew members came in from the garden with a basket full of freshly dug turnips this week asking "can we please cook them up for people for lunch?!?" We were happy to oblige.

They used a cookbook recently donated by a parent, "From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce" to learn about preparing and cooking turnips.

They then peeled, chopped, sauteed and baked the white and pink roots and shared them with all of the students and faculty members.  We compared the taste of those sauteed vs. baked and salted vs. unsalted.

The initiative and follow-through demonstrated by these 12 and 14 year old girls is characteristic of the Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School. Such amazing young people!

Rappahannock County Farm Tour Sept 24th & 25th - join us at the Farm School!

Join us for the third annual 

Rappahannock County Farm Tour!  

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School will be open and ready for your visit both Saturday and Sunday from 9-4.

• Farm School students will be waiting to give you a tour, introduce you to the animals, and tell you about their school.
• You'll be able to pet the sheep, hold a chicken, gather eggs, and feed the pigs! 
• We'll be serving a delicious lunch made by our students using our home-grown meats and vegetables.  
• You'll also have the opportunity to hand-dye wool yarn and try your hand at spinning wool into yarn.
• There will be games, face painting, and more for children of all ages.
• Our Farm Market Stand will be open both days.

Tickets are $5 and may be purchased in advance on line:  farmtour.visitrappahannockva.com or at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School on the day of the tour. 

Children under 16 get in free! 

At the Farm Tour website you are also able to get directions, check out the other 17 venues, look for special tracks (family friendly, horticulture, crafts, etc), and learn about the "All Things Rappahannock Market" at The Link in Sperryville.

Welcome Smithsonian Campers!

On Wednesday, 52 campers came down from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) to learn about Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School. These rising 9th and 10th grade students were part of the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) camp.

Thank you 

to Mountain Laurel Montessori students who came out to give tours!!! The campers' favorite part of the tour was reported to be learning to catch chickens!

It is exciting to be right down the road from an institution doing amazing international conservation research and we are very happy to be able to share our school as a model of land-based education.

For more on SCBI: http:nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi

Our eggs join the best in the world!

If you are fortunate enough to dine at the world renowned Inn at Little Washington in the near future, you'll likely be eating food containing Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School eggs.  The Inn has many awards and accolades, including "the best inn restaurant in the world."  Now our eggs will be part of those delicious meals!

Our chickens have been cared for with tender loving care all summer by campers, counselors, and guides at the Mountain Laurel Montessori School elementary camp - thanks everyone! (see mountainlaurelmontessori.org for more information on camps).

Our chickens get to do what chickens love to do: scratch for insects in the pastures, take dust baths, and eat surplus vegetables from our gardens. We rotate the chickens throughout the farm, providing them with fresh pasture, and providing the pastures with nutrient-rich manure.  You should see the color of those yokes! - the way eggs should be.

Toddlers visit the Farm

Farm School student introduces a chicken

The Toddler Program students visited the Farm School for their end-of-year picnic. 

Animals, songs, and watermelon - a great combination!

Farm School students invite toddlers to fill pig water buckets

The pigs provided lots of entertainment

A Farm School student and a toddler look for eggs in the chicken tractor

Toddlers dance to rock and roll

Meet our rooster

Watershed Studies Trip: backpacking, swimming, beachcombing, and more!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students spent a week-long adventure in and around Virginia Beach.  It was the culmination of the students' watershed study.  Having studied our individual water use and tested the water in the Farm School pond and local rivers, we traveled to the end of our watershed where the rivers meet the ocean.

Backpacking False Cape State Park - Day 1 (sun!)

Camping on the ocean

Reading original writing on Back Bay

Finding our watershed address: which way is North?

Backpacking False Cape State Park - Day 2 (pelting rain!)

Wet but doing ok

Watershed studies at the Virginia Aquarium

The marsh walk at the Virginia Aquarium

Watershed studies: identifying marsh grasses

the students found a live horseshoe crab

beach drawing

Ft. Monroe

Community Plant Sale

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students sell homemade food at the Waterpenny Farm Plant Sale

Farm School student spins wool into yarn

5th grade students take a trip to the Farm School

Farm School students have been studying the water quality of the pond and local rivers in the Watershed Occupation Project.  This week, they taught Mountain Laurel Montessori 5th year students how to test for dissolved oxygen, nitrates, and pH.

Farm School pond water testing

testing for nitrates

canoes for deep water sampling

testing for dissolved oxygen

a curious little turtle

Spring produce donated to Plant a Row for the Hungry

Proud of their harvest, Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students bring their produce to the Rappahannock Food Pantry and Plant-A-Row-for-the-Hungry

student grown broccoli, spinach, and kale

Mimi weighs in the broccoli

Thanks to Hal Hunter for getting this all started by donating the hoophouse!

Students harvest...

the broccoli they planted in March...

and bring it to the Food Pantry the same morning - couldn't be fresher!

First Hoophouse harvest!

Our first Hoophouse for the Hungry harvest is in!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students have planted cool season plants, and have already harvested spinach and kale. The garden chore group has taken on seeding, transplanting, and daily watering.  

We took our first harvest to the Rappahannock Food Pantry and helped unload a bread delivery while we were there.

Thanks Mimi for your leadership at the Food Pantry!

Spring Lambs Arrive!

We have 3 new lambs at the Farm School!

We were all able to observe this ram lamb being born

This lambing season was challenging, but provided many opportunities for biology lessons and real life decision making. Many thanks to Brandon, our Farm Manager, for his attention to the sheep; he is going to be happy to get a good night's sleep now!