The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity…and some scarce see nature at all. But, to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. ~ William Blake
Wow! It is such a beautiful day to be outside! The younger children enjoyed a trip to the farm. Today our focus was on helping the younger group become acclimated to the animals, sounds and smells of the farm. Additionally, there are more responsibilities to listen and respond to adults and peers in this environment.
Before we exited the Weehicle, we had a short discussion about our expectations so that everyone could stay safe and have an great time at the farm. We talked about 3 rules to follow: 1. We stay with a teacher and our group 2. We ask a teacher before touching equipment and animals. 3. We leave the dogs (if out) alone to do their farm jobs. Our time was spent reinforcing these concepts to build skills for future farm trips.
After getting everyone set up with boots and proper sweatshirts, we took a few minutes to enjoy the small apple and pear trees. Then we walked around and allowed the younger kids to get used to having chickens, geese, duck and turkeys near to them. When you are 3 years old, these are big, noisy creatures!
We laughed as Elliott spent most of his trip in the above position; with his finger pointing at something he found exciting! One of the older farm boys caught a chicken for our friends to pet.
We were able, even with our younger group, to help in some ways. We:
Fed the chickens our WF scraps. They were very happy! (T
his was a great chance to reinforce listening. The chickens are gathered very close to us eating, but a farm rule is that we respectfully allow the chickens to eat without bothering them. This was soooo tempting, but the children did learn to cooperate.)
We helped clean out and replenish with hay the nest boxes for the 2 chicken houses. The kids also worked together to move the large box into the chicken area. Additionally, they fed the chickens by mixing the 2 grains together, putting it in the bowls and putting it in the cages.
The kids were mesmerized by watching the horsed eat their morning hay.
After this, we took a nice long walk to explore the woods and prairie. We stopped to look at bugs, listen to sounds, smell the air and pick flowers.
We only had one child fall asleep on the way back to WF and we had no upsets from overstimulated or overtired kids. All in all, a success!
Back at WF, here are some highlights: The felt board was used as an airport runway, the airplane library books were extremely popular in small group and individually, several children worked on a “thank you” to the South Bend Regional Airport, several children worked together on math activities and crazy eight card game, and Annie initiated a letter path game and other friends joined in on this.
We had two observers in to work through an assessment tool that they will be using in the future with other programs. (It was not about WF, but rather, how well does the assessment tool work in a real environment.) We will have two more observers tomorrow. WF likes to help out the Early Childhood Community when we can
For lunch we had scrambled spinach, ham and eggs , frozen blueberries, corn, and 1/2 of a strawberry cupcake (baked by Marty’s daughter Breania).
Enjoy your day!
Tami