Common Ground – High School, Urban Farm, and Environmental Education Center

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Programs for children and families

This fall, join us for after school programs, school vacation days, birthday parties, weekend programs, and more!

Campus is open every Saturday from 10 AM – 2 PM for you to enjoy!

The gardens and animal yards are open for you to visit and you can explore campus, go for a hike, make a mud pie, build a fort, and enjoy nature.

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commongroundct

common ground is a high school,
urban farm and environmental
education center in a forest,
in the city. new haven, ct.

It's time for Friday 🦝 Fauna & Flora 🌾 with

It's time for Friday 🦝 Fauna & Flora 🌾 with Aurora! Featuring special guest contributors Keilly (Environmental Educator and CG Alum!) & Schandra (Compost Coordinator)! 🎉 Message us YOUR photos 📷 to be featured next week! 💚

It sure feels like winter this week...brrr! 🥶 It may be cold, but there's still lots of fauna to be found around CG! Keilly spotted slug eggs (SO COOL), and animal tracks in the snow - raccoon 🦝 or skunk? Schandra found a happy earthworm 🪱 in our compost pile turning food scraps into fertilizer. And Aurora saw a stink bug that snuck inside the Farmhouse to get warm!

There's plenty of flora too - and fungi! 🍄 Aurora spotted Mountain Laurel looking lovely and evergreen, and a grass seed head 🌾 covered in snow!❄️ Keilly saw beautiful birch bracket fungus, and turkey tail mushrooms tinted green by algae growing on a log across a stream! Tomorrow will a very cold day 🥶, but campus will still be open 10am-2pm. The animals will be out (but yards will not be open for visitors to enter), and you can observe fauna, flora & fungi & hike independently! Bundle up if you do come out and make sure you have a warm beverage lined up for afterwards! 💚

#fauna #flora #friday #winter #slugeggs #earthworm #compost #urbanfarming #mountainlaurel #snow #fungi #mushrooms #bundleup #nature #naturephotography #commongroundct

Want to be a sustainable SUPERHERO? 🦸 Join Comm

Want to be a sustainable SUPERHERO? 🦸 Join Common Ground's CLIMATE JUSTICE LEAGUE! Bike 🚲 or hike 🥾 with us April 29th in New Haven (or from ANYWHERE in the world) for the 15TH ANNUAL 🌏 Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride 🌏 (@rocktorockride). You can't save the world alone...but together we can build a just and sustainable future! Add your super powers to our team and help us raise essential funds - sign up TODAY at the link in our bio! You can also make a gift at bit.ly/cgrocks23 and share this post to spread the word!

#rocktorock2023 #myrocktorock #earthday #commongroundct #climatejustice #climatejusticeleague #superhero

It's time for Friday 🐐 Fauna & Flora 🍂 with

It's time for Friday 🐐 Fauna & Flora 🍂 with Aurora! Featuring special guest contributors Lauren (Grant Writer), Audrey (Director of Development & Communications), Diane (Farm Manager), and our NatureYear students & teachers (follow them @commongroundnatureyear)! 🎉 Message us YOUR photos 📷 to be featured next week! 💚

This week, our NatureYear students & teachers gathered leaves to use as mulch on the farm on Monday. Speaking of leaves, Lauren spotted a translucent beech leaf 🍂 - how lovely! And Farmer Diane spotted environmental educators admiring the green leaves of bok choi, chard and kale growing in our hoophouse! 💚

Audrey saw some beautiful fungi 🍄 growing on an old log, and so did Lauren! 🎉Aurora & Lauren saw a stream near the Old Oak Trail that was very full after the heavy rain 🌧. Our NatureYear students explored streams this week, and also played in the mud kitchen! Plus they helped care for the animals and caught a great portrait of one of our goats smiling! 🐐😊

You'll be smiling too if you visit CG tomorrow 10am-2pm. 😊 The animals will be out in their yards (but the yards will not be open for visitors to enter), and you can observe fauna, flora & fungi, explore streams & hike independently! 💚

#fauna #flora #friday #natureyear #beechleaf #leaves #urbanfarming #fungi #stream #goats #explore #hike #nature #naturephotography

It's time for Friday 🐿 Fauna & Flora 🪵 with

It's time for Friday 🐿 Fauna & Flora 🪵 with Aurora! Featuring special guest contributors Lauren (Grant Writer, @le_ruots ), and our NatureYear students & teachers (follow them @commongroundnatureyear)! 🎉 Message us YOUR photos 📷 to be featured next week! 💚

This week, Aurora spotted raindrops 🌧 on a dried stalk of mugwort. She also saw some blue sky between the bare branches and rain showers, and a decomposing log 🪵 turned almost as blue as the sky by green elfcup fungus! 💙 And, she saw the husks left behind by a squirrel's (or chipmunk's?) 🐿 snack - do you know what seed it was eating?

Lauren saw a raindrop 💧 too on a tree! She took shelter from the rain and saw some happy indoor plants 🌿 in the Springside building. She also saw a twisted needle white pine 🌲 near the Hilltop building - their male cones are yellow and their female cones are red, though none were to be found on this tree.

Our NatureYear students found joy in the rain 💚 - and so much more, including patterns in nature on rocks 🪨 and in moss, and the bone 🦴 of an animal. Cjet (@natureofcjet) thinks it may be a raccoon hip!

Find your own fauna 🐿, flora 🌲, fungi 🍄 & FUN on CG's campus tomorrow 10am-2pm. 🎉 The animal yards are closed and staff aren't available, but you can explore & hike independently! 💚

#fauna #flora #friday #natureyear #bluesky #fungi #squirrel #chipmunk #snack #raindrops #hike #getoutside #fun #familyfun #naturephotography #photography #commongroundct

Last Saturday, about 200 people showed up for our

Last Saturday, about 200 people showed up for our Nature Playdate 🎉 - even though it was one of the coldest 🥶 days of the winter so far! Thank you to everyone who came to help with animal chores, walk the goats and play in the sandpit. 💚

This Saturday we aren't having a Nature Playdate and the Animal Yards will be closed - but you're still invited to come to campus 10am-2pm to explore independently. And on Saturday 1/28/23 10am-12pm is our Felting Workshop - register at bit.ly/feltingatcg, space is limited.

📷 Photos by Keilly Solano & Cjet Raymond, environmental educators extraordinaire!

#natureplaydate #community #chickens #goats #explore #commongroundct

It's time for Friday 🪱 Fauna & Flora 🌲 with

It's time for Friday 🪱 Fauna & Flora 🌲 with Aurora! Featuring special guest contributors our NatureYear students & teachers! 🎉 Check our CG's Fauna & Flora for yourself at our Nature Playdate tomorrow (Saturday 1/14/23) 10am-1pm - and be sure to message us YOUR photos 📷 to be featured next week! 💚

Our NatureYear students find and learn about so many fantastic fauna and flora on our campus! This week, the rain brought out a very large earthworm 🪱 - wow! And, NatureYear students harvested dogbane stems and used them to make their own rope 🪢- something indigenous peoples in North America have been doing for thousands of years! Heads up, dogbane is poisonous to dogs, humans and other animals if eaten.

NatureYear students also found (and climbed) a large pine tree 🌲 this week, and spent some quality time with our chickens 🐔! You too can explore CG and connect with CG's chickens 🐔 at tomorrow's Nature Playdate 10am-1pm! 🎉 Plus you can walk the goats 🐐, play in the mud kitchen, take a self guided hike and MORE! Free & no RSVP needed. Hope to see you there! 💚

#fauna #flora #friday #natureyear #natureplaydate #rain #earthworm #dogbane #pinetree #chickens #goats #mudkitchen #hike #free #familyfun #naturephotography #photography #commongroundct

📽 Check out this POWERFUL new video about Commo

📽 Check out this POWERFUL new video about Common Ground High School, and what makes this such a truly special place for students to learn & lead! 💚 Are you or a young person you know blazing a path to college success, a meaningful career, powerful leadership, and a healthy, happy, sustainable life? Join CGHS' class of 2027 - applications are NOW OPEN, until February 28, 2023 at 5pm! 🎉 For more information, attend our next Open House for prospective students and their families THIS SATURDAY, January 14, 2023, 10am-12pm or visit the link in our bio!

📽 Thank you to filmmaker Jake Wieners and the Connecticut Charter School Association (@ctcharterassoc) for helping us to create this wonderful video! 💚

#highschool #studentleadership #environment #community #outdoorlearning #charterschool #publicschool #openhouse #applytoday #commongroundct

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Upcoming events

Common Ground High School Open House

February 21 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Common Ground High School Open House

February 25 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

See Full Calendar »

Recent Blog Posts

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Common Ground Board Meeting Agenda for Jan. 20, 2023

PLEASE NOTE: In order to comply with adjusted CT Open Meeting laws, this Zoom meeting will be recorded and posted on the Common Ground website New Haven Ecology Project January 30th, 2023 Join

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