What's the Buzz on Campus?

Please join us in warmly welcoming our new campus residents! We are delighted to share that last week, grades handwork teacher Isabel Dow and her father, Duncan, installed a new hive of honeybees in the 3rd grade garden.

You may not see the bees right away, Ms. Dow tells us. As they get used to their new surroundings, bees stick close to the hive, learning to watch the sun so they can find their way home after foraging (wow!)—but we hope they will soon be a visible and well-nurtured part of our school community. 

Our new beehive is an important part of our plans to expand and strengthen the gardening program at MWS as part of our 2023-2025 strategic plan, as well as to our long-term commitment to campus stewardship and reforestation.

A Green Future at Marin Waldorf School
Our school’s gardens are among the most beloved spaces on campus and an essential part of our hands-on life sciences curriculum. Through activities like planting seed starts, preparing compost, pruning and weeding, and harvesting crops, students gain a practical understanding of the carbon cycle, botany, basic organic chemistry, nutrition, and more.

Expanding our school’s gardening program and upgrading our teaching gardens has been a priority for our faculty and administration over several years. Our site committee, led by 6th grade teacher Gail Weger, has been busy planning a renovation and expansion of the current gardens, with the specific aim to upgrade and expand the school’s main biodynamic teaching garden, just behind the library. 

Last year, we completed the first phase of this project, installing new garden beds from recycled wood and planting “three sister” crops. This year, the site committee’s vision included the installation of a beehive to support pollination in the garden and across campus, as well as to teach basic beekeeping skills as part of our garden curriculum. In tandem, as their parting gift to the school, the Class of 2024 chipped in to clean the pond and trim back the lilies, remove worn flower beds, build six new benches, and donate a new cedar picnic table to the garden.

What Is the 3rd Grade Garden?
Did you know that Marin Waldorf School has three teaching gardens? There's the kindergarten vegetable garden, the all-school biodynamic garden behind the library, and the 3rd grade garden near the music room, where the bees are now getting comfortable with their new Lucas Valley lifestyle.

Why does 3rd grade have its own garden? Because 3rd graders study gardening and agriculture as part of the wonderful practical arts curriculum, which also includes topics like cooking, carpentry, shelter-building, and time and measurements in math. Over the course of the school year, students tend to the vegetable beds and grape vines in the garden, and they learn to cook meals from scratch using food they've harvested with their own hands. (A beloved tradition for 3rd graders is stomping grapes for grape juice every fall!) They also take several farm trips, including a day trip to Slide Ranch and their first overnight field trip to Three Springs Farm, a beautiful biodynamic farm in Bodega, California.

Gardening also plays an important role in the 5th grade year, when students take up the study of botany. 5th graders spend a lot of time in our biodynamic garden, in addition to foraging and identifying plants around campus and across Marin County! Here’s some pictures from a recent 5th grade botany trip to Point Reyes.

Stewards of the Future

In addition to our active gardening program, Marin Waldorf School is committed to the responsible stewardship of our beautiful 10-acre campus and its magnificent oak grove. This spring, Marin Waldorf School partnered with STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed) and Point Blue, a Marin-based conservation nonprofit that promotes and funds science-backed solutions to climate change.

Working alongside the Blue Point team, students and teachers from kindergarten to 8th grade will participate in the replanting work, which also includes educational sessions with Blue Point staff. Students and teachers kindergarten to 8th grade will assist in the work of planting perennial pollinators in several large patches, as well as a number of native pollinator "islands" to provide stepping stones for the insects and birds.

We held our first all-school event with Point Blue in the spring of 2025, and look forward to continuing our collaboration into the future.

Help Our Gardens Thrive!

Would you like to support the bee hive, the grape vines, and all the hands-on learning that takes place as part of our wonderful gardening programs? Please make a contribution below.