The CLC Environmental Education program fosters meaningful connections between children and the natural world.
Students in preschool -5th grade have weekly classes in the garden. The Classroom Gardens provide students with a multitude of hands-on experiences from planting to harvesting to preparing and sharing food.
Students build connections with the local environment, observe and study local flora and fauna and find concrete examples of science concepts. Our garden program supports our ability to serve a diverse population of learners—especially those who learn most effectively in the outdoors and who have high needs for a sense of contribution through meaningful labor.
Growing and preparing food inspires curiosity, bravery, and delight as students tend, observe, and taste the garden’s bounty.
In the garden, students collaborate, problem solve, and persevere as they face authentic and rewarding challenges.
Students learn plant anatomy, development, and life cycles as they engage in the process of growing food from seeds and cuttings through to harvest and see collection.
Students gain a deep understanding of where their food comes from, and the time and effort it takes to grow just one beet, a handful of beans, or a giant turnip!
Longview Farms
The CLC partnership with Longview Farms is a unique educational opportunity. Students from all grades have engaged in regular farm visits led by a farm educator since 2012. The farm program immerses students in nature while serving as a model of sustainable farming and land management.
Longview Farms provides an illustration of the interdependence of economic, environmental, and social systems. The long-term relationship with the farm allows for children to develop skills and understandings over many visits and many years.
At the farm, we take time to mindfully connect to ourselves, to those around us, and do the complex environment of the farm.
Learning at the farm is naturally integrated, engaging our senses, our physical activity, and authentic agricultural and environmental experiences.
The farm serves as a living laboratory that provides opportunities to extend and apply learning to real world context; to observe and engage in scientific and engineering investigations.
