All of Year 2 from St Andrews CE School came out to the farm this week. Our topic was fur, feathers and fins with Autumn and habitats mixed in. After the health and safety talk, the children told me about their topic and were very animated when they told me about salmon. I became even more animated, as I have been fortunate enough to see salmon and bears in Alaska which I told the children about. 

I showed the children a selection of feathers I have found on the farm and later on the farm walk the children collected their own feathers. I also showed the children a stuffed buzzard which most (!) of the children were fascinated by. 

After snack the children went on a nature collection walk and at the end of the walk the children used their nature items to make habitats for some rubber ducks. The diversity of leaves, feathers, seeds and flowers was amazing. Autumn is a great time for a farm trip. As the weather was so good, one group even managed to do some pond dipping. 

Later on in the play wood, a couple of children carried on with the topic, picking up feathers and birds feet (!) left from the buzzards kill. 

The lovely ‘Cats’ class from Cropthorne-with-Charlton CE First school came to the farm today. Our topic today was about ‘harvest’ from the farm. We started the morning discussing the different foods which are sourced from dairy cows and at lunchtime the children were offered samples of red, green and blue topped milk. Green was the most preferred. Our discussion moved on from dairy cows to Autumn and the children told me the things they expected to see on the farm in September. 

At the start of our farm walk, we looked at the wheat grains in the farm shed, ready to feed the calves in the morning. We thought about why we didn’t see any yellow wheat plants out in the fields and why the yellow straw is so useful. 

We then split into five teams. Each team had a bucket and were challenged to fill the bucket with lots of items from nature. The children were fantastic at finding interesting leaf shapes, grass heads, hedgerow berries and acorns. In the orchard we looked at the fruit trees and found different sized and varying colours of apples and pears. The children enjoyed picking the almost black ‘Worcester Black’ pears.

After lunch the five teams were challenged to use the materials in the play wood and the contents of their buckets to make a picture of a tree. The results were fantastic and a really good activity for the children and the competitive adults! 

 

 

 

Today Year 2 from Sedgeberrow C of E First School came out to the farm and their topic was Islands. I started the morning asking the children to tell me about Islands, they described blue seas, yellow sand and coconut trees. I then asked them to name a food they eat. We then discussed whether the food they had named could be produced on our island. We discovered that many of the foods we eat can be sourced from the UK.

I then showed them a world map and pointed out the island of Iceland. We could see that it was surrounded by sea and close to the largest island Greenland and the North Pole. In groups, the children looked at an annotated map of Iceland. They learnt that in olden times the people living on Iceland had to largely rely on the food the island provided, which included beef and dairy cows, sheep, fish, whales, sharks, reindeer and even puffins. These foods are still consumed today as it is very expensive to transport food to Iceland. 

We then talked about the seasons and we went on an Autumnal nature hunt. The children, each with a bag, collected an amazing array of flowers, seeds, feathers, berries and leaves. At the end of the farm walk we went into the cow shed and the children were asked to use the collected items to create a picture of something to do with Iceland. The children showed great imagination as they made pictures of waterfalls, artic foxes, volcanoes, seals and a hot water outdoor swimming pool.

Over lunch the children tried Skyr yoghurt, an Icelandic staple. 

During the time in the play wood, a few of the children enjoyed finding cones which had fallen off the tree and those cones which had been nibbled by squirrels and other small mammals. 

 

A waterfall 

 

A slightly different use for the classroom this weekend. A group of teenagers came to the farm for training for their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. My friend James taught them how to set up their tents, read a map, plan a route and rounded off the session with team work activities. 

Year 5 from Sedgeberrow C of E First School came out today and their topic was crime and punishment. We started the morning with the children telling me what they had learnt about their topic so far. They gave me a list of rather horrible punishments such at the witches dunking chair, the rack and the village stocks. Their teacher found it interesting to listen to the children telling me about their topic. 

I then gave examples of pieces of legislation that I have to adhere to which include; staff safety, food safety and animal traceability. The children looked at the chainsaw safety equipment, a milk tanker pick up ticket and a cattle passport. I then told the children various stories about rural crime that we have suffered over the last eighteen months. They had some good ideas about how I could prevent my quad bike from being stolen. 

We then went for a farm walk and looked at where the wire had been cut by hare coursers and the drain dug by German prisoners of war in the Second World War. 

The children went into the den building wood and built things connected to their topic. One group created a witches pool, another a rack, two groups built stocks and another group built a prison. 

After lunch they enjoyed the Autumn feel of the play wood