Vermont Farm and Forest Day School is a 5 day a week Vermont independent school serving grades K – 5.
Students weave their days between the forest, the farm, and inside and outside classrooms. Fridays are our community Farm and Forest day where we embrace traditional learning skills with a full outside day.
Vermont Farm and Forest Day School Course Descriptions 2024-2025
Be a Creative Change Maker – School Year Theme
Creative change can be simple, beautiful, and yet very complex. We will explore how one person can influence our culture, and our community both here in Vermont, in nature, and beyond. We will also dive deep into how creative change can shape us today and tomorrow. How does the power of change bring us together and compel communities to create, care and grow in resilient ways? What influence does change have on the Pillars of Sustainability? Students will make connections across academic disciplines while learning to be global thinkers and stewards of the earth.
Course Descriptions
Sustainability – Weaving in the native concept of the Seven Generations is such a vital component when thinking of the future. We can’t plan for the future without listening to the stories of the past and present. VFFS focuses on the Big Idea of Sustainability where we weave them into every learning opportunity we can.
English Language Arts: Literature is an important tool we use about the world around us. We can use literature to seek new information and learn from others, expand our views, make connections and tell our own stories. Literacy at VFFS is rooted in a strong understanding of how language works, beginning with a strong foundation in phonemic and phonological awareness and growing into the ability to pull meaning from words (morphology). This strong foundation opens up so many opportunities for our students to connect to each other and the world around them.
Science: Through project-based studies, students will embark on the stories that people and place can tell us.
Math: Singapore Math is the framework that students learn from so that they can progress at their own individual levels.
Living Earth Art: Humans have used art as an expression of our inner beings and as a form of communication since the beginning of time. Using nature’s resources students will learn how to express their stories through textiles, wood carving, weaving, fiber arts, storytelling, and theatre.
Hands-on the Land: From water, animals, and insects, to trees, elements, globalization, oh my! In this class, the farm and forest are our classroom and eye to the world! Students will engage in land-based learning, cooking, and hands-on projects to learn about how the Earth lives and what are humans’ roles in stewarding the environment and our communities. Our access to outdoor educational areas includes a riverbed, vibrant gardens, a working farm, and more to support engagement in authentic, place-based work as we investigate the story of Vermont and beyond. And just because we are in Vermont does not mean we can’t learn about people around the world! The course will not only bring environmental diversity to the class but also human diversity! Understanding who we are and that we are all different will bring a fun cultural emphasis to our global thinkers.
Projects: Does your child want to build a bridge, create a water system, start a business, write a play, plant a garden, or build a cardboard creation? Students will embark on teacher and student lead projects that will teach them the skills that will bring an idea to reality. Students will go through the process of brainstorming ideas, organizing materials, and tinkering to make the idea come to.
Sample Schedule
8:30-8:45/drop off/free play in the forest playground
8:45-9:00 community meeting & snack
9:00-9:45 Academic Block 1
9:45-10:00 outdoor movement break
10:00-10:45 Academic Block 2
10:45-11:00am Game
11:00–11:45 Academic Block 3
11:45- 12:00 lunch
12:00- 12:45 free play
12:45-12:55 sit spots
1:00- 1:45 Academic Block 4
1:45- 2:30 Academic Block 5
2:30- 2:45 Closing Community Circle and free play
“It’s a great feeling to know that your child is safe and is living his best life during the school day…I wish other children had the ability to access something so remarkable.” – Sam Davis, VFFS parent
“It brings us so much solace to never have to worry about our child being content and safe while at VFFDS. It brings us so much joy to see our child’s smile at the end of the day and to see him light up as he recounts stories from his learning day.” –VFFS Parent
