Our wonderful Glenn Garden is home to both the Art Studio, the Nature Science Lab, and Tinker Hollow which can be seen just as one ascends the stairs into this magical little paradise.
The Glenn Garden
The Glenn is a very special place that was created after the Condricks explored some really cool nature parks that differed from anything they had seen in the United States. These nature parks allowed children to escape the cities and explore the natural outdoors with lots of different hands-on-activities. The Glenn is named after Glenn Fugleberg, who was one of the first employees at Carmel Mountain Preschool and an amazing man. We miss Glenn’s smiling face but are fortunate that his wife, Delores, and daughter, Carol, still work at Carmel Mountain Preschool.
The Glenn has multiple garden beds where the preschoolers get the opportunity to learn about how to grow their own food. The children learn through planned, hands-on activities and observations. The preschool students have composting bins in each of their classrooms and they get to see the process of how the apple core they had left over from lunch can fertilize the tomatoes they are growing. The children also spend time vermicomposting which means using earthworms to create a compost mixture to fertilize our organic vegetables and fruit.
Because the Glenn’s focus is life science, our time spent there includes gardening. We regularly grow various crops in our six raised vegetable beds, and rotate them after they’ve come to harvest. Organic compost is created and used to enrich the soil. We then plant seeds, water, weed, and watch as our seedlings sprout up into the healthy foods that we all love! We also pick many of the fresh fruit and vegetables to use in cooking projects or to share with our Carmel Mountain Preschool teachers and families.
The children often enjoy having the freedom to explore the Glenn on their own, and share their many discoveries with their friends and teachers. Musical instruments are found throughout the Glenn; as are mighty boulders, butterfly gardens, hummingbird stations, and lots of interesting trees and plants. It’s simply irresistible to our little learners, and a highlight of their day!
We are highly fortunate to have successfully followed our vision, and to have created such a beautiful, nature-based learning environment. We love The Glenn, and so do our kids!