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. 

Linking in with the topic of fairy tales, the children thought about the story of the ugly duckling. The first activity was for each group of three children to make a raft for their ugly duckling from sticks and string. They then launched the rafts out on to pond with great success.

After that the groups each took turns to pond dip, to see if they could find an ugly dragon fly nymph, which develops into a beautiful dragon fly in the summer. Whilst we were all very happy to be looking at water boatmen, whirlygig beetles, water spiders and pond snails, it wasn’t until the very last dip that we found a dragon fly nymph. The pond water is at its coldest this time of year, as it takes a long time to heat up from the winter. The dragon fly nymphs are staying warm in the mud at the bottom of the pond. 

After lunch the children reenacted the story they are reading at school ‘Into the Forest’, then a quick play before heading back to school. 

Tags: Fairy Tales