Land Programs

Students at GMS will have a deeper understanding of their education because they use it, feel it, and touch it during their experiences at the Land Laboratory. They will form extraordinary bonds with each other and nature as they become self-reliant citizens of the world and stewards of the Earth.

Direct Experience

Maria Montessori observed that children thrive on direct experience and that their hands are their primary teachers. This principle is woven into our classrooms through concrete, hands-on materials. Through direct interaction with the materials, children come to understand a concept using their own senses. They enjoy learning and they are fulfilled by learning. They draw on this primary experience later when they begin to understand and explore concepts abstractly.
The same is true in the natural world. Children, and all people, require direct personal experience to fully understand the world around them. Nature’s materials awaken a child’s senses in ways that even our classroom materials cannot. Nature demands the integration and use of all the senses.

Learning from Others

Maria Montessori also observed that children learn well from other children. Our multi-age classrooms offer opportunities for children to come together and actively share learning.
The natural world provides this as well since completing tasks in often leads to teamwork. Since nothing is scripted, new opportunities for creativity and problem-solving arise spontaneously. Achievement comes through cooperation and effective communication. Succeeding in a challenge encourages self-reliance and builds children who know their potential as well as their limits.

Curiosity is Key

The freedom to make choices and the insight learned from mistakes leads to a greater curiosity about the world. Montessori classrooms offer children a supportive environment in which they can explore their curiosities.

As in the classroom, children must feel secure in the natural world in order to make choices and learn from their triumphs and mistakes. Guidelines and role models are essential to a child’s learning experience at the Land Laboratory and the extent to which they are needed is based on the developmental stage of the child.

Movement is Essential to Learning

A respect for the need for movement is obvious in any Montessori classroom. The same is true in nature. Movement leads to healthy minds and bodies. Movement builds learning pathways by connecting the brain, through sensorial attentiveness, to the body’s physical motions.


The Whole Child

There is an intrinsic enjoyment and satisfaction when a child connects with nature. A sense of calm and peacefulness can overcome someone who is immersed in the natural world. The experience grounds us and brings us down to Earth. Literally.

Stewardship

Nature also benefits from the people who enjoy it. People who learn from the natural world and enjoy their relationship with it, also come to understand the needs of the natural world and their impact on it. They often become stewards of the Earth and ambassadors for it. They become responsible, global citizens.