We just finished up a two-week lesson on guineas! Guineas, as obnxious as they may be, do serve many purposes on the farm. They work as a great alarm system, screaming and pitching a fit anytime an intruder animal sets foot on the property. It's wonderful when they alert us that there is a fox or predator on the prowl! Guineas will also gang up on predators, and even kill snakes! Another main benefit of owning guineas is that 90% of their diet is made up on BUGS. This makes them cheap to free-range! Guineas especially love to eat ticks, which here is Georgia is a great thing!The students not only learned all about the origins, characteristics, behavior, and benefits of guineas, but played guinea-themed games, read stories about guineas, made beautiful guinea and fall related crafts, and wrote our own guinea stories!
In typical Farm "Fusion" style, we ended up discussing all kinds of topics. They learned that guineas originated in Africa and read African folktales that explained how the guinea got her spots. We talked about fables, folktales, and how stories were passed down from one generation to the next. The students learned a little about bird embryology & genetics (they were learn MUCH more in the spring!), and even got to see a guinea keet in mid-hatch. We talked about the elements of writing a good story and began brainstorming their newest stories. The younger class also worked on beginning each sentence with a capital letter and ending with the proper punctuation. As always, the classes learned all sorts of new words, such as keet, omnivore, incubation, and more!
Next week we will begin learning all about turkeys! For next week, the kids should bring in their Guinea Saves The Farm/Day stories to share with the class!
