Program Blocks

Two women chopping butternut squash in a kitchen classroom. One woman is smiling at the camera while the other is focused on chopping.

Hands-On Learning That Sustains Our Community

During weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings, Mountain School students participate in Program Blocks—hands-on, experiential sessions that sustain the daily life of the school.

From the farm to the forest, the kitchen to the classroom, Program Blocks are where students practice real responsibility and gain practical skills that deepen their connection to place and community.

What Are Program Blocks?

Children outdoors in snowy forest, one girl using binoculars, others observing.

Program Blocks rotate students through vital areas of campus life, including:

  • Farm Crew & Sugaring

  • Harvest Kitchen & Dish Crew

  • Woods Crew & Trail Maintenance

  • Campus Operations & Community Engagement

  • Outdoor Program & Science Hike

Each rotation offers a different perspective on what it takes to sustain a self-reliant community—and how labor, leadership, and care intersect in everyday life.

Two young people, a woman and a man, are in a forest tying ropes around trees, likely setting up or inspecting a safety system or marker, with green leaves and multiple trees in the background.

Farm Crew & Sugaring

Group of people planting a tree outdoors on cloudy day.

The rhythm of the farm connects students to the seasons.

  • Fall Semester: Harvesting vegetables, processing food, and caring for animals.

  • Spring Semester: Planting new crops, participating in maple syrup production, and caring for newborn animals.

Students experience the full cycle of food production—from soil to table—while contributing directly to the school’s meals and sustainability efforts. From weeding gardens to planting fields to bottle-feeding lambs, students learn to care for a place, come to understand what it means to have others rely on you and to rely on them in turn, and how individual work can support an entire community.

A woman holding a baby goat at a petting zoo, with alpacas and other animals in the background.

Farm Day

Two women gardening in a field with green plants and blue sky.

Once per semester, the entire community joins together for Farm Day—a full day dedicated to seasonal work like bringing in the harvest or preparing the fields.

Fall Farm Day: Harvest 8,000 pounds of produce, put the gardens to bed, make gallons of apple cider.

Spring Farm Day: Prepare more than three acres for the growing season, plant vegetables, legumes, and fruit, transplant trees, release the animals back to pasture.


It’s one of the most anticipated days of the semester: joyful, challenging, and deeply satisfying.

Check out some photos of Farm Daysrecent and past!

Woman in a turquoise headscarf and dark shirt holding tomatoes in an outdoor garden.

Harvest Kitchen

Three young people preparing food in a kitchen. The person on the left is chopping vegetables on a red cutting board, the person in the middle is shredding cheese or similar ingredient into a bowl, and the person on the right is smiling and holding a spatula.

In Harvest Kitchen, students transform the farm’s bounty into meals for the entire community. Working alongside chefs and farm staff, they learn kitchen skills, food preparation and preservation, and the joy of cooking.

Three women wearing green aprons chopping butternut squash in a kitchen.

Woods Crew & Trail Maintenance

A person wearing a yellow hard hat and black shirt is chopping down a tree with a saw in a wooded area, surrounded by leaves and branches.

With miles of trails, a woodlot, and a fully operational sugarhouse, there’s a lot of work to do in the woods.

Every student learns the fundamentals of sustainable forestry, safety, and fuel production. Time is spent felling trees, splitting and stacking firewood, and managing the sugarbush and campus trails.

This work connects students to the ecosystem that supports the school, fostering a tangible respect for the land.

Two women and one man in a forest, wearing orange safety vests, holding gardening tools, with the women smiling and striking poses, and the man walking in the background.

Campus Operations & Community Engagement

Students support the function of the school and the local Vershire, Vermont community in numerous ways. Some blocks may be spent helping the admissions or alumni offices, while others may find themselves volunteering at the local elementary school or with area nonprofits.

Caring for a place extends beyond the boundaries of campus.

People creating a decorative flyer for a spring ball with colorful gems and glue on a wooden table.
Young person with brown hair taking a photograph with a Canon camera, wearing a red shirt and a large backpack, outdoors with trees in the background.

Program Blocks are where Purpose meets Practice

At The Mountain School, learning isn’t confined to the classroom—it’s lived every day through meaningful work, collaboration, and connection to place. Program Blocks invite students to take part in the essential rhythms that sustain our community—on the farm, in the woods, in the kitchen, and beyond.

This is where students grow into leaders—through action, reflection, and shared effort.

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