1.1 Curriculum and Instruction: Environmental Issue Instruction
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Ongoing environmental learning
At St. Margaret's Day School student at all levels receive environmental education and participate in activities that are integrated with learning, play, and environmental education.
All Levels
At all levels, students participate in recycling (and up-cycling), composting, outdoor education, and wildlife. Examples of these are seen throughout our website and in the following objectives.
Twos and Threes
In our Twos and Threes classrooms, students have in-room aquaponics tanks. They have produced several harvests of wheatgrass and radish sprouts and are already planning future harvests, including a basil growing competition with our herb garden. In the spring, our students plant sunflowers and watch them grow. They then take them home and can plant them in their own gardens. Please see pictures of the sunflowers below.
Fours
tree unit
Pre-K
insects
Kindergarten
One of the unique subject our Kindergarten class had studied is erosion. They conducted workshops in class with sand, dirt, clay and gravel on a cookie sheet and used eyedroppers and fans to move the earth materials. Additionally, students were able to see one of the ways we can mitigate erosion with our own campus rain garden. The rocks slow the water flow and collect it while the plants strengthen the soil structures and absorb and retain much of the water.
Our kindergarten class also conducts a full program on pumpkin exploration, including how and where they grow, the components of their structure and their uses, and culminated with an informative pumpkin diagram.
All Levels
At all levels, students participate in recycling (and up-cycling), composting, outdoor education, and wildlife. Examples of these are seen throughout our website and in the following objectives.
Twos and Threes
In our Twos and Threes classrooms, students have in-room aquaponics tanks. They have produced several harvests of wheatgrass and radish sprouts and are already planning future harvests, including a basil growing competition with our herb garden. In the spring, our students plant sunflowers and watch them grow. They then take them home and can plant them in their own gardens. Please see pictures of the sunflowers below.
Fours
tree unit
Pre-K
insects
Kindergarten
One of the unique subject our Kindergarten class had studied is erosion. They conducted workshops in class with sand, dirt, clay and gravel on a cookie sheet and used eyedroppers and fans to move the earth materials. Additionally, students were able to see one of the ways we can mitigate erosion with our own campus rain garden. The rocks slow the water flow and collect it while the plants strengthen the soil structures and absorb and retain much of the water.
Our kindergarten class also conducts a full program on pumpkin exploration, including how and where they grow, the components of their structure and their uses, and culminated with an informative pumpkin diagram.
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One of our Threes sunflowers from Spring of 2015. By July, the flower was almost as tall as 6'2" dad!
Our teachers do whatever it takes to engage the students and encourage understanding, even if that means singing a song!
NAEYC Accreditation
SMDS received accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in 2014, which includes some basic requirements for outdoor learning and play facilities.
