Fiber Fun!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Students 

visit Central Virginia Fiber Mill

Our 9th year Sheep Manager organized a visit to the Central Virginia Fiber Mill to deliver the fleeces from our sheep.  The fleece will become lovely roving and yarn.  We will have new yarn for sale soon!

THANK YOU to Mary Kearny for teaching us about the process from raw fleece to yarn, roving, and batting.

As a bonus, we got to meet some very curious alpaca.

From Farm to Folger Theater!

The Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students put on an excellent performance at the Folger Shakespeare Secondary Festival yesterday. We are all very proud of them all!

Their play was entitled "Shakespeare Mashup" and included scenes woven together from Hamlet, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The whole cast received a recognition award called "The Well-Oiled Machine Award" for working together as an ensemble, listening and responding to one another, and clearly presenting the meaning of Shakespeare's texts. 

Three individual Mountain Laurel Montessori students received awards as well.

Many thanks to our guest drama teacher and director, Katie Long.

Congratulations!!

Rosalind and Sylvius with trees in As You Like It

Romeo and Juliet

The cast with the narrator setting the scene

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!

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

Coffeehouse Showcases Talents of all Students

 Our first Coffeehouse of the year was a great success!  Students performed a wide variety of music, and were joined by teachers, Farm School alumnae, and even a Mountain Laurel Montessori School Board member.

Coffeehouses are a creative collaboration resulting from the Creative Expression curriculum.  

Sisters

Student stage managers

Farm School alumnae

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

Students Perform Music and Drama at Coffeehouse

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students perform at the final coffeehouse of the year. The evening included original songs, drama, guitar, drums, duets, solos, group songs, and more.  The beautiful early summer night was perfect for the outdoor concert.

Creative Expression is an important part of life as a Mountain Laurel student. Students choose from among classes such as guitar, voice, watercolor painting, drawing, drama, drums, pottery, and dance. 

Farm School Students Perform at the Folger Theater

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School

presents:

William Shakespeare's

Much Ado About Nothing

The Farm School students performed as part of the Folger Theater's Secondary Shakespeare Festival.

They received a critique from professional actors and directors after the performance.

Three students received individual awards, and the entire cast received an award for their ability to work as a cohesive ensemble.

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.

Montessori on self-confidence and adaptation

"For success in life depends in every case on self-confidence and the knowledge of one's own capacity and many-sided powers of adaptation"

- Maria Montessori

Students and Sheep Star in Shepherd's Play

Two Farm School students acted in The Shepherd's Play in December. The Shepherd's Play is a local tradition in Washington, Virginia ("Little Washington"). One of the sheep had a surprise cameo as well!

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