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.  

The visitor room had a touch of Christmas about it, as a group visited to experience Christmas on the farm and take home their Christmas crafts. 

 

The wonderful children and staff from Badsey First Holiday Club came to the farm today and had the most glorious Autumn weather. An improvement on their very wet summer holiday visit! 

After the health and safety talk I split the group into teams. Each team was given a bucket and asked to fill it with items from nature during our farm walk. They took the instruction literally and the buckets were overflowing, infact half way through the walk we left them on the side of a field to be picked up later, as they were too heavy. 

We went into the orchard to pick up fallen cooking apples and acorns. Whilst looking at the cows water trough an apple was ‘accidentally’ dropped into the water. The children were quick to realise that throwing apples into water is good fun, as they quickly float back to the surface. 

At the end of the farm walk we went into the play wood and used the items in the bucket to create an Autumnal tree. Then after lunch the children used the collected cooking apples and acorns plus some conkers to make Halloween spiders. As the sun was shining still we headed out into the play wood for a long play with lots of mud.