Outdoor Education and Gardening

Our students, including the preschoolers, focus on growing vegetables and herbs for their school community. By planting seeds in early spring, caring for their gardens, harvesting, preparing, and eating the produce, students learn about the life cycle of plants and people and the interconnection between them. At the end of each school year, students leave having planted a summer garden, and they return in the fall to harvest it.

Students learn about food preparation and nutrition as they harvest the produce they grow for their school community. Harvest feasts and celebrations include sorrel wrapped apples with local honey, herbal teas, ratatouille, natural popcorn from dried kernels, and sweet potato pie. 

Our Monarch Waystation provides nectar plants and milkweed for Monarchs on their long migration. Students rear, tag and release Monarchs into the garden.

In the Three Sisters Garden, students grow corn, beans and squash the way Native Americans grew them 400 years ago. After planting this garden as second graders, third grade students celebrate the fall harvest as part of their study of early Maryland.

Fourth graders compost garden waste to create healthy soil for our campus gardens and learn about recycling, organic matter, aerobic decomposition, microorganisms, vermiculture, and soil ecosystems.

In 5th grade, students build an understanding of land stewardship practices that have an impact on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Students assess annual gardens and perennial landscapes on campus using the Bay Wise Assessment tool. Students learn about planting wisely, feeding the soil and controlling storm water runoff.