Declaration of Unity

Mountain Laurel Montessori Jr. High students are studying US Government this term.  In this Spring's Humanities Project they are forming a new nation.  They are in the process of developing their system of government.  Today they delivered their opening speeches and formally declared their intention to form a union.  Here are some photos of the official signing.

The Declaration



a little pomp and circumstance for the signing

A delegate signs

Getting Dirty in the Pursuit of HIstory

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School Students excavated clay from the farm pond for a recent humanities project on Mayan pottery.  Can't wait to see the finished project!

Alumni off to Colleges Near and Far!

How time flies...

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School graduates from 2009

are off to colleges and universities near and far.

Congratulations to you all!

Schools include:

University of Virginia

Virginia Tech

Mary Washington University

New Mexico State University

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

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

Farm School Always a Home to Alumni

Some schools in our area were closed for President's Day.  Students could have stayed home.  But not our alumni - they came to spend the day with us at the Farm School! It was wonderful to see four of our alumni (current High School Sophomores and Juniors) joyfully jump right back into the routines of the day (and give us a challenge on the soccer field!).

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School alumni visit during the Winter Coffeehouse

Five Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School alumni also spoke to a full house at our parent night last week.  Here is a sampling of their reflections on their Montessori experience:

Clayton (high school Junior): "The best thing I learned at the Farm School was the ability to learn and to make sure you really know the material.  You can ask your teachers anything and no one will make fun of you."

Rory (high school Junior): "Getting to interact with people, to be really good friends. That was one of the best things about Mountain Laurel."

Jimi (college Freshman): "The best thing about the Farm School is the relationships you build with your teachers.  There is no reason to be scared about telling them your weaknesses.  You just go ahead and get help."

Phillip (high school Junior): "The maturity and responsibility you get at the end of the Farm School were the best parts for me.  My teachers now see that I am someone who can be trusted with responsibility, so they give me more freedom."

Ursula (high school Sophomore): "I found out who I really was.  That helped my develop confidence in myself.  I learned to accept who I was and that has helped me."

Students create artifacts inspired by study of Ancient Greece

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students have been studying Ancient Greece. Each student has developed expertise of a particular Greece city-state.  The students will demonstrate their knowledge through research papers, persuasive essays, and a "meeting of the minds" in which they will try to convince a council why their city-state is fit to rule all of the Greek world.

   

Creating a mosaic inspired by mosaics from Ancient Greece

In addition, each student is creating an original artifact inspired by their research.  Here are photos of the students hard at work on their artifacts and research.

Students collaborate on research and creation of artifacts

Creating a map of the Delphic League - mixed media

Students learn to extract DNA

Thanks to microbiologist and Farm School parent Dr. Lilburn for leading a DNA extraction lab this week!

The 9th year Biology students have been studying genetics and heredity. The lab was such a great opportunity that all of the students in grades 7-9 participated.  We extracted the DNA from dried peas (a nod to Gregor Mendel).

Biology students preparing for the DNA protocol

Students pour smashed pea mixture into a test tube

Students add rubbing alcohol

The white strands are the pea DNA!

Writing Across the Curriculum - Language is Everywhere!

Study of the English language is woven throughout the curriculum at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School.  Students read and write in every aspect of their studies.  Here is an example of creative writing as part of a Geometry exam. This story was written by an 8th year student.

The Story of the Points

Once upon a time there was a point named Will.  He occupied no space and had no dimension.  He was very lonely and set out on a journey to find a family  He came to the line family.  He joined the line family which had an infinite amount of points.  This line extended infinitely in opposite directions, but had no length or depth.  All of the line family points were mean so he went to find another family. 

The family he came to was called the plane family.  The plane family was made up of a flat expanse of points extending in every direction.  The plane family, like the line family, had length and no depth, but unlike the line family it had width. Will thought that the plane familty was very nice, and he loved that it had width, so he joined the family.

One morning, Will woke up to see that the plane family was playing collinear / noncolinear.  Collinear / noncollinear is a game like musical chairs.  A point will call out a name such as collinear which means that the points must form a single straight line.  Whomever is the last to get in the collinear line will have to sit out. It is the same for non-collinear.  When the point calls out noncollinear, you must make sure that you are not lining up with any other points, and whoever is lining up will have to sit out. 

During the game, the points got ino a big fight.  Half of the poinst thought that Will was out of the game, and the other half thought he was in.  All of the points were so mad that they split up into different planes: one called Plane 1 and the other called Plane Elephant.  Points would refer to Plane 1 and Plane Elephant as the noncoplaner crazys. 

One day, Plane Elephant wanted to spy on Plane 1.  They sent 5 of their points out in an infinite straight line in the direction where they thought Plane 1 was.  They called this mission (which failed) Mission Ray.  Points were sad that this mission failed, so they sent 5 more points out infinitely in the opposite direction. They called this Mission Opposite Ray. 

The Opposite Ray mission succeeded and they saw that Plane 1 was soing horribly.  There were angles everywhere.  Angles are hated by points.  Young teen points put them up kind of like graffiti.  They are like a bad version of rays, because like rays, they share an end point and extended infintely in opposite directions.  But, unlike rays, they are not straight (plane family points like to be straight). 

The Mission Opposite Ray points came back to Plane Elephant and reported the horror they found.  They sent the 5 points back to talk to Plane 1 about becoming one plane family again.  Plane 1 agreed to come back and they vowed never to leave again, extend infinitely, and to always be straight, creating a line segment. 

The End

Northern Virginia Daily prints story about the Farm School

Home on the farm

Student-run school combines studies with agriculture

By J.R. Williams --jrwilliams@nvdaily.com

Printed in the The Northern Virginia Daily Newspaper on November 12, 2010. Click here to read the story and see the photos: http://www.nvdaily.com/lifestyle/2010/11/home-on-the-farm.php

Students Study Simple Machines

The Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students pictured here are getting deep into applied mathematics through their study of Simple Machines. 

The students have been studying various levers, the wheel and axel, the Archimedes screw, and inclined planes. They have been designing and building machines to make life easier around the Farm, and at the same time working out the mathematical equations that explain how the machines work.

The students recently took a field trip to an operating mill to see how a simple machine enables humans to life thousands of pounds to turn a grind stone.

This study of simple machines is an example of an Occupation Project.  Occupations are project-based science classes.  The term Occupations comes from the idea that young adolescents are exploring their identities, testing out what it means to function in the social and economic world of adults - what might I be when I enter this society?  How might I contribute?  What might my occupation be? The projects are based on the real needs of the Farm School Community and on real occupations (beekeper, engineer, botanist, etc.) and change each term.

Open House! Visit the Montessori Farm School Friday and Saturday (5/7-5/8)

OPEN HOUSE

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School

7th - 9th grades

Friday, May 7th, 9 am - Noon

Saturday, May 8th, 10 am - Noon

23 Sunny Slope Ln, Flint Hill, VA

(on 522 / Zachary Taylor Hwy, just North of Flint Hill)

You are invited to visit Mountian Laurel Montessori Farm School; Find out for yourself why students love going to school here!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School is:

• 
  
  An academically rigorous, college preparatory curriculum
• 
  
  A strong community that fosters mutual respect among students and adults
• 
  
  A safe place to explore self-expression through the arts & sports
• 
  
  An environment that encourages a balance of freedom and responsibility
• 
  
  A great place to grow into a confident, capable, young adult

Education for a Sustainable Future

(540) 675-1011

Harnessing the Sun's Energy

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students made solar ovens from simple materials: cardboard, aluminum foil, plastic, and black paper.  They applied their knowledge of the properties of heat and light in their designs.  We hope to really get cooking by June!

The solar ovens were part of the Solar Energy Occupation Project (project-based science class focused on the physics of energy).  This project helped us to prepare for the installation and use of the new greenhouse.

Students prepare for Folger Shakespeare Festival

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School 
presents William Shakespeare's

Much Ado About Nothing 

On March 3rd, 2010, Farm School students will perform on the world famous Folger stage in Washington, DC.  They have condensed Much Ado About Nothing into a 25 minute performance. Middle and High Schools from around the region will perform during the festival. 

Students sewed all their own costumes, staged the play, and practiced to an audience of appreciative sheep in the hoop barn.

Farm School students take on New York City

"Above all it is the education of adolescents that is important, because adolescence is the time when the child enters on the state of manhood and becomes a member of society...the adolescent needs an understanding of the society which he is about to enter to play his part." - Maria Montessori

As part of their study of the Industrial Revolution, Farm School students spent a week in New York City. Their Odyssey included visits to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, a tour guided by staff of the Tenement Museum, and a visit to the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

In a Word: Synonym for Whine

Each Wednesday afternoon, the Farm School students are given a word as they leave school. They go home and write a creative composition using that word. Thursday morning at tea / snack time, they read their composition to the group. The exercise has very few boundaries. It might be poetry, prose, a story, a fable, a dialogue, etc. The given word may be a common word, such as "fire," or it may be a new vocabulary word requiring research before use. This week, the challenge was to use a synonym for the word "whine." Every so often we will share one example of the "In a Word" series.

Synonym for Whine:

Sit by the trees, where the leaves have blown.

Sit by the trees, and listen to them moan.

Sit by the trees, and enjoy a plum.

Sit by the trees, like a lazy bum.

Sit by the trees, and watch the stars.

Sit by the trees, and ignore the cars.

Sit by the trees, and sleep, sleep away.

Michael, 8th year student

In a Word: Humble

Each Wednesday afternoon, the Farm School students are given a word as they leave school. They go home and write a creative composition using that word. Thursday morning at tea / snack time, they read their composition to the group. The exercise has very few boundaries. It might be poetry, prose, a story, a fable, a dialogue, etc. The given word may be a common word, such as "fire," or it may be a new vocabulary word requiring research before use. Often the words are an extension of something happening in the school community. Every so often we will share one example of the "In a Word" series.

HUMBLE

Out in the dips and tips of many valleys, there was a mountain, covered in a wonderful blanket of snow. It shone past all the other mountains and had out-grown them by far. And below this blue mountain was a large valley, breathing in the cold snow that was covering it. It shone past all the other valleys and had out-grown them by far. And tucked beneath this valley was a humble cottage, smoke billowing out from its little brick chimney. It's old wood grain; deterioriating from the harsh winds that blow down from the mountain and clean-sweep the valley. And tucked under a blanket next to the fire, sitting in a little chair, sits an old man, breathing in the winter air.

-Ursula, 9th year student

Students Give Presentations

Students deliver final presentations at the end of each Occupation and Humanities Project.

It is, in Montessori terms, the 3rd period of a 3-period lesson.

It is a time when the students share their newly developed expertise with the rest of the Farm School Community, and are recognized as true experts in that particular area.

Montessori students have many opportunities such as these to develop their public speaking skills.

Here, students from the Sheep Occupation talk about pregnancy and lambing, including DNA (the Sheep Occupation).

The Wind Energy Occupation is demonstrating their first successful anemometer

Students Portray Ancient Mayans in Washington, DC

As the culmination of our Humanities study of the Ancient Mayan Civilization, Farm School students wrote Dramatis Peronae (short monologues) of individuals from the Ancient Mayan Culture. On Monday, we went into Washington, DC, and each student found a place to perform that best suited their character. Here are some examples:

Left: Maya King building temple (steps of the sculpture garden)

Right: Maya girl prepares to be sacrificed to the gods to give her people a good harvest (benches along Constitution Avenue)

Left: Jaguar hunter (natural history museum under a jaguar in the mammal room)

Right: Maya Weaver (in front of Southwestern Native American weaving in Native American Museum)

Left: Maya Scribe (using the stone in front of the Natural History Museum)

Right: Heir to Maya Throne describes plan for peace (sculpture garden)

Left: Spanish Conquistador (riding a horse on the carousel)