Good Morning Gloucester

Good Morning, chickens. One of the things that I love most about my job as part of Harborlight Montessori school’s Admin team is that, along with my normal responsibilities, sometimes I never really know where the day will take me. Lots of times I’m just plugging away in my office, but sometimes it takes me to Wachusett Mountain as our 6th-8th graders ski all day every Friday during the winter, sometimes I find myself hopping on the train at the Montserrat station to accompany a group on a field trip to Boston, sometimes I cover in a classroom, or go skating at Endicott’s rink with the younger elementary students, and….often….I find myself in the chicken coop. Last May we hatched chicks in one classroom and ducklings in another. Unfortunately, the campus isn’t properly equipped to house ducks, but we were super excited to make the decision to have chickens. We raised the chicks for several weeks after they hatched before sending them off to the farmer who gave us the eggs. Once they were old enough and we were back in school after a summer break, we welcomed the chickens back to campus. Having them on campus has been such a wonderful learning experience for all our students. In better weather you’ll always see families or our youngest toddlers/preschoolers visiting the hens on our greenhouse lawn. Older students will often eat lunch outside on the picnic tables near the chickens or open a book on the wooden swing right next to the coop. The Middle School students gather the eggs….and either use them to cook or hand them out to teachers to take home. Good stuff.