Despite the weather forecast, the day turned out to be dry and warm. The Year 1 children from Bredon Hancock’s Endowed First School came well prepared for all weather. Today’s topic was Roots and Shoots, with lots of spring growth this was a great topic to do out on the farm. 

Year Two from Dean Close School came to the farm to think about habitats on the farm. To start the day we thought about which animals live at Sandfield Farm, both wild and farm animals. The children thought of lots of creatures from tiny ants to the big bulls.

 

Year Five from Sedgeberrow C of E First school had their eighteenth and final farm visit with me. A very lively and very lovely class and I will miss them. The topic today was ‘Crime and Punishment’ which is at first not an obvious farm related topic. However, we found plenty to discuss…

The Reception children at Sedgeberrow C of E First School had their first school trip to the farm today. They took the great outdoors and the farm in their stride which was lovely to see. Their topic of the term is Teddy’s and Toys.

We started the morning with a Health and Safety talk and they had lots of great ideas about what may be dangerous on a real farm. Many of them remembered ideas from forest school and their trips to the farm with Sedgeberrow Playgroup. I then went on to explain about what was happening at Sandfield Farm today. We had three vets working with five bulls to ensure the bulls are ready to meet the cows in a couple of weeks time. The children couldn’t believe how the big the bulls were when they saw them later on in the field. I also explained to the children that the vets had come to dehorn the young calves. We had a look at the calf pen and all the calves were in a deep sleep having been knocked out for the horn bud removal. 

In terms of topic work, the children were each given a soft toy of an animal that lives at Sandfield Farm. In groups the children discussed what food the animal eats, I was impressed how accurate the children were especially with the more difficult creatures such as dragon flies and lady birds. We then went on a lovely farm walk, looking out for signs of Spring and collecting items from nature. On our return to the visitor room, the children were each given a meal tray and used the collected items to make a meal for their farm animal. 

Lunch was followed by free play in the wood, many of the children continued the theme of meals and had a lovely time creating mud based picnics.   

 

This week Year 2 from Bengeworth CE Academy has been out on the farm. The children thought about the season of Spring and had a look at our young calves ad-lib feeding in the shed. Some of the children didn’t like the smell of the powdered milk we use. I explained that in order to be able to sell milk, we take the calves from their mothers and milk the cows. The children gave some great examples of how we use the milk at home; in coffee, on cereal, for butter, ice cream, yoghurt, cream, cheese and chocolate. Over lunch we made some butter out of the creamy milk I had collected from a cow. On our farm walk we also had a look at the three large Aberdeen Angus bulls we have on the farm, apparently it didn’t seem possible that the cute calves in the shed could grow into such large animals.