Cherry class had a brilliant and informative day out at Hodore Farm and Sawpit Wood on Tuesday. They enjoyed a gloriously sunny walk from school where they met Em, Gavin and Elizabeth.
Gavin and Elizabeth look after the sheep on the farm and the children had the opportunity to ask them questions about sheep farming.
On the farm there are currently around 85 ewes and 140 lambs. The children learnt that the ewes eat grass to get their nutrients, but they are also fed nutrient rich foods before lambing to make sure they have enough goodness in their milk to help the new lambs grow.
When the sheep on the farm get to around 40kg in weight, they are sold to a local company who turn them into lamb or mutton for shops to sell.
As Cherry Class continued their journey into the woods, they summarised that farming is about growing food and looking after animals like lambs and sheep. This led us on to think about what other places animals like to live….This links in with the with our current science learning and we were able to talk about the need for a habitat to be a shady, damp shelter with food for woodland creatures.
The children played a fun game where they were shown a creature and had to decide whether its’ habitat was a meadow, a pond or a woodland. At times they had to think very carefully. For example a dragonfly begins its life as a nymph living in a pond habitat, but when it changes into a dragonfly it might live in a meadow habitat.
Later they paired up to go on a creature hunt, remembering to be respectful of all habitats and to return the creatures where we found them.
When we gathered back together, we counted up the range of creatures we found as a whole class and tried to identify the creatures using picture cards and descriptions.
Here is what we found:
| Creature | Number found |
|---|---|
| beetles | 6 |
| millipede | 4 |
| spider | 2 |
| woodlice | 4 |
| worm | 12 |
| snail | 4 |
| caterpillar | 1 |
| Grub/larvae | 2 |
After lunch around the fire pit, they discussed the importance of soil.
Did you know that there are more living things in a tablespoon of soil than there are people on earth?
To help understand the amount of living things in soil, they planned an experiment with a pair of cotton pants and asked: What is going to happen to the cotton pants if we bury them?
These were some of the predictions:
Lois: ‘They might break.’
Isaac: ‘The insects might make a hole.’
Tuppence: ‘They might disintegrate.’
To find out they decided to bury some cotton pants in the woodland and also in an open field and will dig them up later in the year to find out what happens.
As we walked around the crop fields, we learned about two types of crop that was growing on the farm. The first to be planted in September, was the wheat. This would be used in foods such as bread, pasta and cereals. The second crop that was just beginning to grow was the spring bean. These are planted in spring and when harvested they are fed to animals to give them protein.
At the end of the visit the children got to look at, and sit in three types of farm machinery and met two of the farmers Bill and Charlie who were kind enough to answer some questions about the tractors.
Cherry class had a wonderful visit to Hodore Farm and Sawpit Woods. They enjoyed a hands on day of learning all about life on the farm and in the woods and they look forward to applying this knowledge to their classroom learning.
