A Morning At The Apple Orchard

In September, the children, parents and teachers at our little yellow school took a trip to the apple orchard. We couldn't have asked for better weather.  The day was sunny and hot.  We boarded the school bus and we were off!

At the orchard, we met our leaders and began our adventure!

Off we go!

Walking Across the Bridge

We spent some time in the barn where our instructors taught us so much about apples!  We learned about the different varieties of apples, how an apple tree is grafted and the many different foods that are made with apples.

Different Varieties of Apples

Products That Are Made With Apples

We learned about life inside a beehive.  The children acted out the roles of the bees.  A hive has a Queen Bee.  Her role is to stay inside the hive, mate and lay eggs.

A Queen Bee

A beehive also consists of worker bees.  Worker bees are female.  They have many jobs.  They tend to the Queen, keep the beehive cool, gather nectar and pollen, supply food for the Queen and the babies and make and produce beeswax.  That is a lot of work!  The hive also has drones.  Drones are males.  Their job is to mate with the Queen.  They don't collect pollen or nectar.  They can't defend the hive as they do not have stingers.  Here are some pictures of a beehive in action.

We even pretended to be beekeepers.

A Beekeeper

Outside the barn, we played some games.

We boarded a wagon for a ride to the apple orchard.

A Pumpkin Patch

At The Apple Orchard

A Yummy Apple

At The Apple Orchard

We picked one apple to bring back to school and one to eat at the orchard.  They were yummy!

Our morning at the orchard had come to an end.  Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who joined us.  It was wonderful spending this perfect morning together. 

Our Vegetable Harvest 2017

At the beginning of June, the children did some planting in our vegetable garden.  This year, we decided to plant our usual seed potatoes along with some carrot and pumpkin seeds.

Some children planted seed potatoes.

Some children planted carrot seeds.  The carrot seeds were very tiny!

The seed potatoes, carrots and pumpkins grew all summer.  Unfortunately, the squirrels and rabbits ran away with the pumpkins as soon as they began to grow.  The potatoes and carrot plants did very well.  When school began in September, the vegetables were ready to harvest.

The Potato Plants

The Carrot Plants

The children were eager to get back into the garden!

We are ready to harvest our crops!

Both potatoes and carrots are vegetables that grow underground.  The children were amazed when their digging and pulling revealed the vegetables!

We had a good crop this year!  Each child took some potatoes home to share with their families.  Well done, everyone!

  

New Beginnings

In August, we held our annual Summer Get Together.  Our get together is a chance for our new and returning students to come in with their families to meet the teachers and get to know some of their fellow classmates.  This helps to ease the first day of school stress felt by students, parents and teachers.  With summer vacation schedules, it is not always possible for everyone to make it out, but we had a huge turnout this year.

3 Year old M. with his sister, June 2017 graduate I.

New Student, 3 Year Old A.

 

While we had some crying, it was not what we expected.  Instead of crying because they didn’t want to stay, we had crying because they didn’t want to leave!  Not a bad problem to have.

New Student - Almost 3 year old C.

New Student - Almost 3 year old R. enjoying a snack.

New Student - Almost 3 year old K. looking forward to being at school with her sister.

As their parents place their precious little ones into our hands, we look forward to the marvels of the Montessori journey that lies ahead.  Here’s to a new school year!