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 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.

First Fruits of Spring

The strawberries are back!  They remained dormant under all that snow this winter and are now finding their way up through the mulch. 

We are taking on the finicky process of putting down landscape cloth - cutting holes for each emerging plant - to keep the weeds down.



Two 9th year students wanted to find out how many of the plants survived the winter.  They took a random sampling of 2 foot square plots, counted the number of strawberries in each plot, then measured the area of the total bed and used a ratio to estimate the number of strawberry plants.  Good news!  The strawberries not only survived, they have multiplied. 

Strawberry jam and sticky red fingers are just around the corner.

Looking at Algebra Geometrically

The Farm School teaches Algebra using manipulative materials that represent the dimensions X and Y. Rather than memorizing abstract equations without any reference, the materials help the students to develop a concrete image of what the equations mean.

This is a natural extension from the Montessori

Elementary materials that lay the groundwork for advanced algebra and geometry. Here the students are using the Algebra materials both individually and in collaborative groups.