SPRING EDUCATION FIELD TRIP
FOCUS GROUP:
Preschool, Kindergarten to Grade 2:
Strawberry Harvest – Read a story, learn about bees and the importance of insects as pollinators, pick a pint of strawberries, and meet some of our resident farm animals. When you arrive, Patty will meet you. She is our Environmental Education Specialist. We will cozy up together to read a story called, “Bees Like Flowers“. During this time we will give the teacher pint containers (one per child) and a marker. The teacher will need to print each child’s name a pint. Then we will examine a piece of honey comb, explaining how the bees take the nectar and pollen and put it in the wax comb to make honey. The children will learn that honey is the bee’s food and the beekeeper always leaves enough honey for the bees. Then we hike to the berry patch. There will be a designated area for your class to pick strawberries. Once shown how to correctly pick strawberries, children may fill their pint and place it in a cart. Adults may pick and purchase at this time too. A chaperone or teacher will bring the cart back to our meeting place to prevent spills. It is strongly suggested the teacher bring one plastic bag per child to put the pints in to avoid spillover. Back at the meeting place, each child will get a honey candy as a snack. Chaperones will be helpful here. There is a water tap beside the farm stand to wash off the sticky fingers, and a trash can for the garbage. Next we will go visit the goats. We will then walk to the chicken coop and finish the trip by letting the children feed the chickens and meet the peacock. (The order activities may change).
SUMMER EDUCATION FIELD TRIP
FOCUS GROUP:
Preschool, Kindergarten to Grade 2:
Blueberry Harvest – Read a story, learn about bees and the importance of insects as pollinators, pick a pint of blueberries, and meet some of our resident farm animals. When you arrive, Patty will meet you. She is our Environmental Education Specialist. We will cozy up together to read a story called, “Bees Like Flowers“. During this time we will give the teacher pint containers (one per child) and a marker. The teacher will need to print each child’s name a pint. Then we will examine a piece of honey comb, explaining how the bees take the nectar and pollen and put it in the wax comb to make honey. The children will learn that honey is the bee’s food and the bee keeper always leaves enough honey for the bees. Then we hike to the berry patch. There will be a designated area for your class to pick blueberries. Once shown how to correctly pick the ripest blueberries, children may fill their pint and place it in a cart. Adults may pick and purchase at this time too. A chaperone or teacher will bring the cart back to our meeting place to prevent spills. It is strongly suggested the teacher bring one plastic bag per child to put the pints in to avoid spillover. Back at the meeting place, each child will get a honey candy as a snack. Chaperones will be helpful here. There is a water tap beside the farm stand to wash off the sticky fingers, and a trash can for the garbage. Next we will go visit the goats. We will then walk to the chicken coop and finish the trip by letting the children feed the chickens and meet the peacock. (The order activities may change).
AUTUMN EDUCATION FIELD TRIP
FOCUS GROUP:
Preschool, Kindergarten to Grade 1:
Apple Harvest – Read a story, learn how to pick apples, visit our 100+ year old apple tree and meet some of our resident farm animals. Upon arrival you will be greeted by Patty, our Environmental Education Specialist. We will cozy up together to read a story called, “What’s So Terrible about Swallowing an Apple Seed?“. During this time we will give the teacher 1⁄4 peck bags (one per child) and a marker. The teacher will need to print each child’s name on a bag. (as a time saver bring pre-printed name stickers). Then it is off to the apple orchard. There will be a designated area for your class to pick apples. Once shown how to correctly pick an apple, children may fill their bag and place it in a cart. Adults may pick and purchase at this time too. A chaperone or teacher will bring the cart back to our meeting place to prevent spills. Each child may pick one more apple for a snack on the walk out. After a short snack break beside the goat pen (do goats like apple cores?), we will hike to visit the mystical 100+ year old apple tree to give it a hug. (because hugging is healthy☺). We will then walk to the chicken coop and finish the trip by letting the children feed the chickens and meet the peacock. (The order activities may change).
BUTTERNUT FARM AUTUMN EDUCATION FIELD TRIP
FOCUS GROUP:
Kindergarten to Grade 2:
Autumn is Awesome - Learn how plants prepare for winter hike to the pumpkin patch & pick a pie-pumpkin to take home identify trees, and visit our resident farm animals. Upon arrival you will be greeted by Patty, our Environmental Education Specialist. Children will meet “Herman” and asked to estimate how big the biggest pumpkin on record is. We will discuss how people get ready for winter. Then it’s off to the pumpkin patch. Along the way we will pass fruit trees. There will be a discussion on how the plants grow, and how different plants prepare for winter. At the pumpkin patch the teacher will be given a marker. Each child will be allowed to pick one small pie- pumpkin. Adults may pick and purchase at this time too. The teacher/chaperone will print the name of each child on the bottom of the pumpkin. The pumpkins will be placed in a cart and brought back to our meeting place by a chaperone. At the tree line, we will continue our discussion on how the plants will get ready for winter. The children will be given a crayon and a tree sheet. Each chaperone will need to print their children’s names on the papers. With the help of their group chaperone, students will match the leaf shape on the square to the tree. Then using a crayon the children will make a bark rubbing of that tree. The crayons will be collected, but each child will take their bark rubbing sheet home with them. (We suggest the teacher collect them for safe keeping). We will visit the goat pen and finish off the day with a chance to meet and feed the chickens and peacock.
