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arrow’s Earth Action Day Recognized by The American Montessori Society
arrow’s Earth Action Day Recognized by The American Montessori SocietyInvesting in our Planet: How Montessori Schools are Celebrating Earth Day in 2023
by Heather White
Friday,April 21, 2023
Jarrow Montessori School in Boulder, CO, hosts an Earth Action Day every year in celebration of Earth Day. The tradition began in 2017 with a mission “to bring the Jarrow community together through shared skills to facilitate the movement towards sustainable living and building regenerative systems between people and the planet.” Upper Elementary students help run educational stations at the event that includefun, hands-on learning and activities related to topics such as renewable energy, medicinal plants and sustainable gardening, compost ecology, and recycled art.
Amy Ransom, JMS’s outdoor education teacher, reflects on the value of this experience for Upper Elementary students, stating, “Sharing what they have learned during Outdoor Ed and becoming the leaders for the event is a beautiful example and extension of Montessori’s three period lesson of mastery at the teaching level.”
Following the station activities, the school hosts a community potluck with live music and local Earth-focused organizations tabling the event. Ransom was also eager to share that everyday is Earth Day at JMS. As the school’s outdoor education teacher, she works with Primary through Upper Elementary classrooms a few hours each week providing interdisciplinary, hands-on experiences for students focusing on the local ecology that supports their studies in the classroom. Some of their activities include working in the school’s vegetable and herb gardens and with their functional compost system, harvesting and taking care of their fruit trees, and exploring their naturally-enriched neighborhood trails and lakes. Ransom remarks:
Connecting children to the natural world is necessary for them to act as stewards of the Earth. They must learn first hand about how nature works to realize that they are a part of it and play a powerful role in the future of the planet. Everything we do has a direct impact on the world around us as well as the global whole. Our students learn this first hand as they interact with the local ecology. From there, they are able to expand this consciousness to a greater whole.