I was asked to create a team working activity based around the term topic of Aesops Fables. The class was a mix of Year 4 and 5 and the teacher wished to give the children an opportunity to mix outside of the classroom at the start of the school year.

The children were split into groups of four and given a lump of modelling clay, a long piece of rope and any natural materials they could find in the wood (some nerf gun bullets left over from a party proved very good chimneys for ‘town mouse and the country mouse’). The rope became a ‘story rope’ and the children had to depict a Fable along the length of the rope. The activity worked out far better than I could have imagined. The children were really engaged with the topic and were extremely creative with most teams working well together.  A great day. 

Today has been a busy day with the Year 3 and 4 children from Gretton school. Our topic today was Stoneage. The children told me lots of things they have already learnt in class. We then went outside and discovered how difficult it is to grind wheat to make flour by only using two large stones. Some of the children were very dedicated to this job and made some very fine flour, however, not enough to make a loaf of bread. 

The children then used the large stones to grind up charcoal from my campfire. The charcoal was then put into plastic pots and then mixed into a paste using oil. The children then used either small sticks or their fingers to draw stone age cave paintings on the cow shed walls. 

Then we moved onto chalk drawings and drew hunting story boards on the silage bales. 

The children then became Hunter-Gatherers and whilst on a farm walk the children filled their pots with seeds, flowers and berries. The Autumn hedgerow is an ideal time for this activity. Later the contents of the pots were fed to the chickens which they loved. 

Whilst on the farm walk I explained to the children that stone age man would often eat insects and so we went down to the pond and dipped for creatures. Strangely none of the children liked the idea of eating a water boatman! 

After lunch the children had a lovely time in the ‘play wood’ 

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Today was an unusual day down on the farm, as I had a professional chef and educator from Farming and Countryside Education join me. The wonderful Year 4 came today from St. Barnabas CofE First and Middle School. 

They spent part of the morning learning about the dragon fly lifecycle and pond dipping and the second half was spent preparing lunch for the whole group. Staff took some great photos of minibeasts out on the farm, so that the children can identify them back at school. They were such an enthusiastic group that the morning flew by. For lunch we had vegetable soup and fruit salad which were delicious.

After lunch the children were very creative with the various items in the play wood.  

The photo is the Cinnabar Moth. 

The Year 5 children from Bengeworth Academy came out to the farm today. They were a real pleasure to have on the farm, their listening ears were well and truly turned on and they asked some brilliant questions.  After the Health and Safety talk I explained the system we run within the business. The milking cows are at the home farm, the male calves are at Sandfield Farm and the female calves at Battledene Farm. I explained the difference between beef and dairy cows and that cows have to have a calf in order the produce milk. We had a brief discussion about the use of dairy bulls and beef bulls and over their snack time the children looked at the various ‘daughter’ traits recorded in a bull semen catalogue. The children were telling me the scores for udder placement, feet condition and speed of milking. The dairy genetics industry is huge and an essential part of the dairy industry. 

After snack we went on a farm walk, first stopping to look at the male calves and identifying which calf had a dairy bull father and which had a beef bull father. We then walked along the tramlines in field of wheat. As we went into the wheat field the children thought about the life cycle of a wheat plant. 

Once we were at the pond, the children had a great time pond dipping looking for dragon fly nymphs in particular. We were really lucky that a boy found a recently emerged dragon fly on the reeds, which was drying its wings in the sunshine, before taking its first flight.

On our way back from the pond the children looked at the wild life area, where I explained that some of the plants life cycles would be altered due to plant succession. 

After lunch the children had a great time in the play wood. 

 

 

I have had a really lovely day with Year 3 from St Andrews school, Evesham. The children were very enthusiastic! Their topic today was plants and eating well. After the health and safety talk we looked at a mini wheat field and learnt that the green wheat plant dies, once it has produced its seeds and then turns a golden yellow. 

We started the farm walk looking at the very large pile of silage in the farm yard. Many of the children thought the silage smelt, I explained that as the pickling process continues it will become even smellier! We then looked at the colour of the grass plants in the recently silaged field. We then took a walk along the tram lines in the wheat field. Some of the children said that they felt that they were on an adventure, as they had never walked in a wheat field (along the tramlines!) before. We watched the seed heads blowing in the wind. 

As we made our way through the calf field, the children were very good at standing still and quietly so the calves were confident enough to walk up to the children. Fly Dog kept trying to round the calves up. We then went to the pond area. The children learnt that we dug a large hole in the ground when they were babies and since then we have let nature grow the plants in the pond. The pond dipping was great fun. The children found alot of dragon fly nymphs and baby newts in the water. They also found two insects (see photos) that have yet to be identified. On our way back for lunch we had a brief look at the ‘buffer zone’ which is a great example of natural succession. 

After lunch, the children had the opportunity to look at dragon fly nymphs whose skin had split allowing the dragon fly out. They also ground some wheat to make flour. They loved the play wood and demonstrated lots of imagination.