Nurturing the Spirit of Our Children
Montessori education is often characterized by what is readily visible to us. This may be happy children using beautiful didactic materials such as the pink tower of cubes or the golden beads used in math curriculum. Or perhaps it’s the aesthetically pleasing child-sized classrooms housing mixed age groups working busily…
December 2019 Class Updates
The Owls and Otters are wrapping up their studies of Africa as we head into the holiday break. Days are spent hard at work, exploring works in more complex ways and paying attention to the seasonal changes happening around us…
MSCS Students Exploring the Natural World
Backpacking trips, bird banding, paddling 28 miles on the French Broad River, learning primitive skills, and spending a night in a tent: these are some of the things Mountain Sun Community School students do throughout the school year…
December Classroom Updates
The two younger classes have had parent and teacher conferences. Both classes are taking opportunities to go out and about with trips to the Library, Care Partners, and Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education…
November Classroom Updates
The Otter class is exploring the theme of autumn. They read a book by Jane Yolen about the change of the seasons. They spend outdoor time collecting colorful leaves, seeds, nuts, lichen, moss, and rocks. The kids enjoy collecting sticks to build pretend campfires…
October 2018 Class Updates
For the International Day of Peace, all of the students made white paper flowers and performed songs of peace for special guests attending Elders Day. The students served snacks and drinks. The Elders were then able to view the classrooms in action…
Boundaries in the Outdoors
One of the places that the children play is an open area of grass, with some large beautiful boulders, and an old hemlock tree. There are boundaries that the children learn and respect. They understand how they are helpers in that they do not venture into the well-manicured flower beds…
The Eldest Mountain Sun Alumni Continue Their Journey
In 2014, Mountain Sun Community School graduated its first eighth-grade class. Four students completed their education with Mountain Sun that year and went on to Brevard High School. Four years later, these students are moving into the next phase of life as the launch into the wider world…
Mountain Sun Community School Raises Trout with Trout Unlimited
Each year the Monarch class (grades 4-6) at Mountain Sun Community School raise trout from eggs in the classroom. The local Trout Unlimited chapter provides the class with all the materials needed to raise trout, and this year the class successfully released 80 trout into the Davidson River on February 6th…
Backpacking with the Coyotes
Plans change and often for the better. On a recent backpacking trip with the Coyote class, we made the decision to delay our departure by a day to avoid a downpour. We managed to miss the storm and maintain the opportunity to exercise our flexibility from staff to students and parents…
Experiential Learning at Mountain Sun Community School
Our journey began with a silent hike down a steep and winding trail, minds full of anticipation and excitement for a different kind of school week. As the trail came to an end, the landscape opened up into the beautiful valley of Buffalo Cove Outdoor Education Center…
Fostering Creativity
Children are all born with an innate need to create: to build, to make, to tinker. Our job as teachers is to foster that creativity and keep that fire burning so that need to create does not get extinguished. Creativity is something we all have within, but it just tends to get used less and less as we grow older…
Mountain Sun Students Work with Birds at Southern Appalachian Raptor
Mountain Sun students trekked to the the Big Bald Banding Station to aid the Southern Appalachian Raptor Research Center (SARR) in their conservation practices. On September 14th and 15th, the Monarch (4th-5th graders) students participated in raptor trapping, owl banding, hawk watching, and songbird migration monitoring…
Mountain Sun Community School’s Pack of Coyotes Embark on First Backpacking Journey
At Mountain Sun Community School, learning about the history of Transylvania County and its natural resources is not confined to the classroom and textbooks. The Middle School students, also known as the Coyote Class, backpacked through Pisgah National Forest to explore the real-life impacts of early Transylvanians on the local land, economy, and culture…
Man, Nature Makes Me Uncomfortable
Albert Einstein said, “Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better.” This quote encompasses my love of outdoor education. Each time I enter the wild places, I learn a lesson I did not anticipate…
6th and 7th Grade Backpacking Trip on The Foothills Trail
I often reflect on how grateful I am to have a job where I get to spend time with kids backpacking in these beautiful mountains that surround us. I love seeing their faces light up when they finally see the wildflower that they have been researching or when they find a cool beetle in the middle of the trail…
Monarchs Journey to Cataloochee
The week before Spring Break, the Monarch Class went camping in Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Remote and picturesque, Cataloochee has an abundance of biodiverse flora and fauna. This is why the valley was the perfect place for us to explore, as our overarching theme this year has been biodiversity…
Mountain Sun Students Learn Life Skills with Eight Owls Farmstead
Digging with pick axes and shovels isn't a common curriculum feature, but for the sixth and seventh grade students of Mountain Sun Community School, it is. Every Friday afternoon, Mountain Sun students get this opportunity. For these students, working up a hard earned sweat affords a multitude of lessons…