Our Mission
Our mission at Community Farm School is to honor and advocate for childhood and play-based, open-ended education; to celebrate the joy and endless benefits of nature, farm-based learning, and child-led inquiry; and to sustain a community that cares deeply for children’s rights, social-emotional development, sustainable farming, land stewardship, and getting to know and caring for our earth.
We believe children deserve daily, meaningful relationships with the natural world and with the systems that sustain life. As a school located on a working farm, we are committed to helping children understand that food comes from the earth, that the land is alive and interconnected, and that even young children can participate in caring for plants, animals, soil, water, and one another.
Through direct experiences with forests, fields, gardens, animals, weather, seasons, compost, seeds, harvests, and farm life, children develop curiosity, compassion, confidence, resilience, and ecological intelligence. We believe these early experiences help nurture future farmers, environmentalists, thoughtful citizens, and caretakers of the earth.
We believe children deserve daily, meaningful relationships with the natural world and with the systems that sustain life. As a school located on a working farm, we are committed to helping children understand that food comes from the earth, that the land is alive and interconnected, and that even young children can participate in caring for plants, animals, soil, water, and one another.
Through direct experiences with forests, fields, gardens, animals, weather, seasons, compost, seeds, harvests, and farm life, children develop curiosity, compassion, confidence, resilience, and ecological intelligence. We believe these early experiences help nurture future farmers, environmentalists, thoughtful citizens, and caretakers of the earth.
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"A school needs to be a place for all children, not based on the idea that they are all the same, but that they are all different." -Loris Malaguzzi
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Our Philosophy
At CFS, the child IS our curriculum. As a school, we are guided by children, nature, and the working farm in all we do. Our time in nature, our time on the farm, and our time playing provide meaningful opportunities for math, science, literacy, art, music, storytelling, movement, collaboration, problem-solving, and so much more.
We believe there is no one-size-fits-all curriculum. Instead, we are dedicated to sustaining and nurturing a love and passion for learning that sets a foundation for a lifetime of growth. Through an inquiry-based project approach, educators facilitate both group and individual learning while working within children’s interests, questions, theories, and self-guided investigations.
At CFS, the farm is one of our most important teachers. The working farm offers children a living, breathing context for inquiry, wonder, and meaningful work. Farming invites children into long-term relationships with place: watching a seed become food, noticing the needs of soil and plants, understanding the role of insects and weather, caring for compost, harvesting what is ready, and experiencing the patience and reciprocity that sustainable agriculture requires.
Our farming curriculum is not separate from the rest of our learning. It is woven into the daily life of the school. Children may count seeds, measure plant growth, compare leaves, observe worms and pollinators, document changes in the garden, listen to farmers, prepare food together, compost snack scraps, care for animals, tell stories about the land, negotiate shared tools, and ask big questions about how living systems work together. These experiences are rich with academic, social, emotional, physical, and ecological learning.
With the support of our educators and Farm Director, children are invited into developmentally appropriate experiences that help them build a deeper understanding of food, farming, sustainability, and stewardship. We believe that children who know the land are more likely to care for it. By grounding education in farming, food, ecology, and community, we support children in developing the ecological intelligence needed for the future.
Our pedagogy is compelled by a strong understanding of child development, and our role in the classroom is to observe and scaffold children in their authentic learning in the most developmentally appropriate way. As advocates for play-based and child-led education, teachers at CFS see it as their responsibility to make the learning visible to our families and larger communities. Transparency is a key value in our work.
Celebrating the joy of children’s questions and discoveries, singing songs, storytelling, climbing trees, planting seeds and tending to fragile sprouts, harvesting food, caring for animals and each other, sharing interests with farmers, peers, and educators, taking calculated physical risks in our dynamic outdoor classroom, engaging in collaborative projects, playing in the rain, sharing passions with our friends, gaining confidence in ourselves, experiencing freedom of expression, and building the resilience to fall, make mistakes, and try again — these are the makings of meaningful early childhood experiences. We are so honored to be part of this magical time in Community Farm School families’ lives.
We believe there is no one-size-fits-all curriculum. Instead, we are dedicated to sustaining and nurturing a love and passion for learning that sets a foundation for a lifetime of growth. Through an inquiry-based project approach, educators facilitate both group and individual learning while working within children’s interests, questions, theories, and self-guided investigations.
At CFS, the farm is one of our most important teachers. The working farm offers children a living, breathing context for inquiry, wonder, and meaningful work. Farming invites children into long-term relationships with place: watching a seed become food, noticing the needs of soil and plants, understanding the role of insects and weather, caring for compost, harvesting what is ready, and experiencing the patience and reciprocity that sustainable agriculture requires.
Our farming curriculum is not separate from the rest of our learning. It is woven into the daily life of the school. Children may count seeds, measure plant growth, compare leaves, observe worms and pollinators, document changes in the garden, listen to farmers, prepare food together, compost snack scraps, care for animals, tell stories about the land, negotiate shared tools, and ask big questions about how living systems work together. These experiences are rich with academic, social, emotional, physical, and ecological learning.
With the support of our educators and Farm Director, children are invited into developmentally appropriate experiences that help them build a deeper understanding of food, farming, sustainability, and stewardship. We believe that children who know the land are more likely to care for it. By grounding education in farming, food, ecology, and community, we support children in developing the ecological intelligence needed for the future.
Our pedagogy is compelled by a strong understanding of child development, and our role in the classroom is to observe and scaffold children in their authentic learning in the most developmentally appropriate way. As advocates for play-based and child-led education, teachers at CFS see it as their responsibility to make the learning visible to our families and larger communities. Transparency is a key value in our work.
Celebrating the joy of children’s questions and discoveries, singing songs, storytelling, climbing trees, planting seeds and tending to fragile sprouts, harvesting food, caring for animals and each other, sharing interests with farmers, peers, and educators, taking calculated physical risks in our dynamic outdoor classroom, engaging in collaborative projects, playing in the rain, sharing passions with our friends, gaining confidence in ourselves, experiencing freedom of expression, and building the resilience to fall, make mistakes, and try again — these are the makings of meaningful early childhood experiences. We are so honored to be part of this magical time in Community Farm School families’ lives.
