Not Your Typical Field Trip!

All year my students wanted to know more about my life and all the animals in it.  I always answered their questions or made them research the answers, but the only question I didn’t answer or pretended not to hear for a while, was “Can we come to your farm?”  I thought to myself, it’s been done before, but I am not so sure I can pull this one off!  I don’t have a zip-line or a jumpy castle like so many tourist farms.  I thought,  what if they get bored...

I blew the whistle and called their names, but their excitement was so hard to contain.  The first twenty minutes was utter chaos, as they threw their bags down and looked every which way as staff and parent volunteers corralled them in... then, we could finally go over safety and rules.  My heart melted when I heard them yell animal names when we stepped off the bus.  Names that I had not mentioned in a while, but they remembered from chit chat we have had over the course of the year. “There is Matty and her foal Spirit.” “There is Brisk running away from us!”  I thought to myself, they DO listen!

It was so personal for them and for me, which made it that much more special.  We got back to the school after a full day of riding on hay-bales, scavenger hunting, imitating chickens and peacocks, playing in corn and touching and talking to various critters.  With our fun farm loot bags and towering peacock feathers in hand, eighteen filthy children with hay and dust on their clothing stormed through the front doors of the school.  Their clothes could be washed, but I realized the huge smiles on their faces and the memories they made were stuck. 

Agriculture is left out of our curriculum, for the most part, until you reach intermediate/senior grades.  It briefly ties in to health and science and social studies in the primary/junior grades, but not nearly as much as it should.  We eat food everyday and cannot live without it, but children don’t know a thing about what they are eating, the crops that have been grown or the animals that have been raised.  The importance of this spreads so much further than the classroom.  We need agriculture to survive.  If you eat, you need agriculture.  If you wear clothes, live in a house or take medicine, you need agriculture.  My students spent the majority of the bus ride home either sleeping, or looking at the “Where’s Agriculture?” poster I provided to each of them.  Their inquiries and surprises about all the things in our world that have come from agriculture amazed them and led to further questioning.  I am glad to say my little seven year olds are a bit more knowledgeable of the science of agriculture.  If we don’t educate students on agriculture, who will? 
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The following day we shared and wrote in our journals.  The details they remembered were overwhelming; I almost started to tear up.  “Brisk had on a red bandana.” - “I loved collecting eggs for Ms. Bunnik during the scavenger hunt.” -  “I see Ms. Bunnik bring these eggs to school and sell them to other teachers.” - “I was a cowgirl on the saddle” – “Pigs are really beautiful and don’t smell nearly as much as I thought they would.” – “I have never been on a real hay wagon ride before!”  - “I loved touching the different grains and taking my own piece of wool home.”  As soon as the recess bell rang, I quickly made my way to the photocopier and madly copied some of their journals.  Incorrect use of my photocopying privileges, probably, but I needed these keepsakes forever. 
 

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