This week all three Reception classes from Bengeworth CE Academy came out to the farm. The children all did very well with the extremely muddy conditions. I have washed a lot of wellies this week. 

Their topic of the term is fairy tales and we had fun remembering as many fairy tales as we could. I did put out props along the kitchen worktop to give the children ideas. Sadly one of my seven dwarfs appears to have gone on holiday, as I was down on numbers. 

The children were asked to find a partner and in their pairs each given a toy pig. We went out to the large cow shed and used straw to make a home for the first pig. The children saw how farmers use straw for calf bedding. They also experienced being sucked by calves and how the wind blows straw about. After seeing the one year old calves eating their breakfast we then headed off into the woods. 

The children then made a house of sticks for their pig. There were some great ideas and many children remembered a chimney for the house. Then for the third house made of bricks, the children used my wooden shapes collection. I was very impressed how the children used the shapes. 

After lunch the play wood was a great hit. One group invented a new game for me which I now call the walking see-saw and will use with other groups. 

All the wonderful Year 2 children from Bengeworth Academy came out to me over three days. I had the pleasure of meeting them in their Year 1 last year. It was amazing to see how much they had remembered about their previous trip. They were very excited getting off the coach, which I took as a compliment! 

The children are studying the story ‘Into the Forest’ by Anthony Browne. With my wood, the play house, the tree house, a very long piece of string and lots of props we recreated the story. The children were put into small groups and asked to concentrate on a particular page of the book. They have clearly loved working on the book in class. 

After seeing various levels of acting ability (!) we headed down to the pond to see if we could spot any signs of Spring. After the previous cold weeks the pond is still looking very winter like. I feel the pond is at least two if not three weeks behind where it usually is. I haven’t even got the pond dipping nets out yet!

After lunch the children had lots of exploration time in the play wood. 

 

A fabulous group of children came out to the farm this week from Swan Lane First School. The group consisted of a mix of Year 1 – 4 children. Visiting the farm was an opportunity for these children to have a special shared experience. 

We started the day discussing dangers on a real farm. We then moved outside to see the one year old calves in their winter housing. The children learnt about ear tags and that the calves would be out in the Spring fields the next day. We then had a lovely walk over the ridge and furrow, through the traditional Vale of Evesham orchard, along the Saxon Saltway and into the little wood. 

In the wood I asked the children to go into pairs and I gave each pair a letter. The children then had to think of something on the farm that began with that letter. Once they had thought of it, they had to make a picture of it using natural materials. I loved a Ladybird a boy had made but sadly the photo didn’t sure it clearly. The two photos attached to the blog are B – butterfly and C – conker. 

After lunch the children had a long and very contented time quietly exploring the play wood.  

The largest group of children in the visitor room to date…..57 children! 

Today was a visit with a difference. The Reception and Year 1 children from Bredon Hancocks school came out at the same time. I decided that I would change the structure of the day to accommodate so many children. We split the children into groups and they did a round robin of activities in and around the farm yard. The morning activities were; meet the big calves, make a cows face with an ear tag, make a bird feeder, make a squishy robin, make a feathery book mark and make a pine cone chicken. The children took all their craft activities home with them.  

After lunch 57 very, very muddy children came out of the play wood with big smiles on their face. Although some of the adults had managed to keep clean in the wood, by the time they had helped the children change they were just as muddy. A proper experience of a farm in a wet January. 

  

The very lovely Year 1 children from St Richards school Evesham, came out to me for my first visit of the year. Although not fantastic weather, the children were well dressed and were quite happy exploring the farm in the mud! 

Our topic was ‘field to fork’ and I told the children all about milking our cows and what happens to our milk. We also saw some large calves which will be calving this time next year and part of the dairy herd. 

We then had a walk to the small wood. I explained to the children the five things that a farmer checks his/her animals for; available food, available drink, a comfy bed, can they ‘play’ and do they have friends? Each child was given a toy farm animal and asked to build a suitable living space for the animal. The children had to think about creating food, water trough, a bed, friends and a play area for their animal. 

After lunch the children did a taste test of dairy products which including hard cheese, crumbly cheese, full fat milk, semi skimmed milk and skimmed milk, natural skyr yoghurt, honey skyr yoghurt and custard. The honey skyr yoghurt was by far the most popular. 

A really lovely couple of days with two great classes.