9/24/19

It was a great day on the farm!  The kids filed in and worked together to complete their animal care chores.  They will continue to get the hang of these assignments before we rotate.  By the end of the year, they will be experts at all of the animals!

The kids shared their flower assignments from home.  I loved hearing about their hobbies, favorite foods, sports, and more!

The kids learned different goat related terms today.  They learned to say "doe" instead of "nanny" and "buck" instead of "billy".  We talked about kids, wethers, doelings, bucklings, and more!  Then, the class broke up into two groups.  One group headed inside to finish their art projects, while the other made their way to the goat stand to help me trim the goat's hooves.  The class was able to see how the goats jump up on the stand and love to pig out of grain during their pedicures.  At home, the kids will be writing a little story about hoof trimming... from the goat's point of view!

9/17/19

The kids enjoyed sharing their writing assignments this week!  Keep up the good work!

Our projects are coming along nicely!  They'll go home next week.

9/10/19

What a day!

The kids were able to see the newest baby goat, work in the garden with Ms. Miranda, and split up into chore groups to feed all of the animals!  Our lesson today was an overview of general health.  We talked about how people, just like animals, need to be healthy.  The class gave examples of things they do to stay healthy: eat right, exercise, take vitamins, etc.  I explained that each of those things helps keep us physically healthy, but that we should also include our emotional, mental, and social health.  I gave examples of how different animals need different things physically, but they also need to be with their herd or flock and not isolated, have attention and love, have things to keep them from being bored, etc.

Children love taking care of animals, and I use this as a bridge to help them understand our own needs.  At home, they will be choosing one of the animals on the farm and writing ideas of how to care for its physical, mental, emotional, and social health.  We'll share these in class.

In art, the students continued to work on their layered farm scene.  We will be finishing up the painting portion of this project soon and will be adding paper scraps and pieces of paint chips to create the details.



I love the enthusiasm and excitement in this group!  We try our best to keep things hopping.  We hop from indoors to outdoors, from listening time to "doing" time, from slower paced to fast paced.  This is intentional!  I will do my best to help these little ones learn to "change their channel" and switch modes, as needed.  It takes time to learn how to learn in a group, and I'm happy to lead them through this journey!

Beautiful, Sunny Day 1!

What a beautiful first day for the 1st-3rd grade class!





The students met all of the animals, getting an overview of the farm. They learned that billy goats are actually called bucks, that angora rabbits are super fluffy, and that there are huge differences between breeds of livestock! The class was also able to meet some 3 day old goat kids and spent the day checking on the other two pregnant does.








Whether it’s planting, breeding, hatching, or expanding, many aspects of farming involve making plans well in advance. We talked about the importance of setting goals on and off the farm. I asked a few students to help me with a demonstration. The kids each threw a ball into the air and caught it 3 times each. The class took note of how few drops were made. Then, I asked each kid to throw their ball up three more times, but this time they had to try to catch someone else's ball. Of course, they missed almost every time. The class discussed reasons for this difference. Then, I explained that this is a lot like setting goals for ourselves versus when other people set goals for us. If we take an active role in setting goals for ourselves, we are more likely to reach them!









After some fun animal time and a read-aloud, reach student came up with a personal goal for the year, which they drew on paper. In the next few weeks, we will be incorporating the concept of goals into our art project. We began our project by painting the backgrounds, but the class will see it really take shape next week!