Eco-literacy

Oak Farm’s vision of a model Montessori school, that provides a world class education, includes developing an eco-literate community. The goal of the Eco-Literacy Program is to expand learning beyond the classroom into the greater campus settings of the farm, gardens, forest, wetlands, and prairies. By integrating lessons on environmental processes and human impact, healthy living, stewardship, and personal and community accountability, the Eco-literacy Program enhances the awareness of every student.

With Maria Montessori’s Chart of Interdependency as a guide, the Eco-literacy Program brings the outdoor classroom to life at Oak Farm Montessori School through programs and activities like: harvesting seeds of native plants, planting trees, cleaning up trash on campus, charting biodiversity in a specific habitat, life sciences studies, and micro-economy opportunities in the greenhouse, farm areas, and wood shop. It includes special programs like Kinderforest, where students in our Primary classrooms spend time in the forest developing gross motor skills, socialization, and cultivating a love for wild Indiana.

The eco-literacy project also involves administrative issues such as building maintenance and construction, rainwater runoff and pollution control, recycling and composting, as well as the everyday work of providing school lunches and purchasing office supplies. By focusing throughout on sustainability, the program aims to prepare students for a world of shrinking natural resources while establishing the school as a long term member of the greater community.