Warning: I apologize ahead of time for some of the crazy faces I'm making in these pictures. You should see some of the ones I didn't post... I make the funniest faces! That's just part of it, because the more animated you are and the more into it you get, the more the kids love you. Go ahead, laugh it up!
The pictures above and below show Jane giving the introduction to about 50 first graders.
Introduction
Time to meet my kids!
I finally got my group! I told the kids I had forgotten my name. What IS my name? I think the name tag helped them figure it out. Also, do you like my pants? I got them at Goodwill for $4 and am quite proud!
Do you notice the boy with the awesome raccoon hat? He told me his name, but from then on I called him Johnny Appleseed. When he asked who that was, I said "Ask your mom when you get home!"
The art of name learning.
The Garden
How many of you have gardens at your house?
Here I am showing them a small orange tomato and asking who wants to eat one!
This tomato is shaped funny, but it's still a tomato!
They loved the tomatoes so much they asked for seconds!
Me showing them the break in the skin on the tomato, or the "wrinkle" it has before talking about putting it into the compost pile.
Here we are standing in front of the compost pile talking about the whole process and that the tomatoes they JUST ate came from soil made from other rotten fruits and vegetables! Eeew!
Me breaking fresh green beans into pieces for the kids to try.
Welcome to the canning area!
What are these weird looking things?
The Granary
Time to line up so we can have some fun!
Watch what happens down here when the corn is placed into the hole at the top. It grinds the corn to where all the kernels come off and leaves us with just a cob!
Time to take turns putting in corn cobs!
Here I am using the corn sifter to talk about separating big pieces and small pieces of corn in order to use them for different things.
The red machine grinds the corn into a fine powder so it can be used for corn meal, or to feed the chickens!
You can't see it in this picture, but at this station everyone gets to try some homemade corn cob jelly. I'm talking about how people in the olden days used every part of what they could, and how Paul told me that his grandpa used corn cobs for toilet paper!
Summer Kitchen
Time to mix the ingredients for our Magic Muffins!
Each student gets a turn to measure and mix some of the ingredients.
Mixing the batter and putting it into the muffin tin, all the while counting to twelve because that makes a dozen!
Here I am showing the kids the ashes that come from the wood that is burning in the stove and talking about how they made ashes into soap. Look at that face!
Animals
The kids stand with their toes touching the gravel just in case the turkeys get brave enough to try and peck them through the fence. Here we talk about why people had animals on their farm and what they were used for. One of my kids told me that they kept animals on their farms to keep them company. How cute!
Where do you think chicken nuggets come from? Haha!
The turkeys were not as loud today as they were on Monday, thank goodness! I didn't have to yell over them.
"Well, my brother, one time, had a horse, and he rode the horse down in some grass, and then he..."
Here I am pointing at George, talking about how people use the wool from these goats for many different things. Then I began to sweet talk him hoping he would let me take him out...
When I saw this picture on my camera, I literally laughed out loud because this defines my relationship with George. He made me drag him again, even though he didn't run like he did last time.
You kids better pet this goat if I went through all this trouble to get him out...
I snatched up a chicken again and let the kids pet it before it started freaking out! I'm becoming a pro at chicken snatching.
Off to see the pigs! Their names for the day were Pinkie and Blinkie.
Toys
Here we show the kids what they would have to play with 100 years ago. No computers? No Internet? NO PLAYSTATION???
I'm playing with the ring toss and telling the kids that all the toys would have been made here on the farm with things from the garden, corn, wood, or feathers.
The kids LOVED this game! They took a corn cob with a feather stuck in it and tried to make it into the basket. If I had let them play this game the entire time, I guarantee they all would've kept playing. I moved the basket to the side, then closer, then further away...
Ready, set, go!
The Cider Press
Here is your challenge! I need two lines with an even amount of kids in each line. Time for a math lesson!
The cider press! Apples go into the top, and juice comes out of the bottom. Here I am showing the kids the gears and instructing them not to put their fingers near them.
The line to crank the lever started out as all boys! Good, I needed their muscles to help turn the apples into mush.
Drop your two apples into the top, put your hands behind your back, and let's crank them into apple mush!!
Crank, crank, crank! My group did such an excellent job following instructions.
Here I am squeezing a whole apple as hard as I can asking the kids if they think I can make apple juice from doing this. I don't think so!
Here I am squeezing some apple mush from our grinding and you can actually see the juice coming out in this picture.
I put the lid down as far as it would go in order to get the most apple juice for the kids. Woah! Look at all that cider!
They helped me pour the liquid through a strainer and a funnel in order to get the big pieces out. Yummy!
Hot Dog Roast For Lunch!
The kids roasted hot dogs over a flame during lunch and I was there to supervise and wash dirt and ashes off of unlucky dogs.
I had to include this picture of Paul working on the tom turkey's alternate cage. It's not done yet, but soon there will be an electric fence and we will no longer have to worry about the killer turkey!
After Teaching: Our Journey to Massasauga Island
After we were done teaching, we went on an adventure to scope out the area where a program will be taking place next week. We got all the stuff ready for the pontoon boat, and then couldn't get it to work. Instead, we grabbed our two tiny paddles and hopped into the rowboat. As you can see, I was providing weight to the middle of the boat to make sure we didn't capsize....
There's Jane in the back who kept saying "I really don't think this is a good idea..."
There have been many times at Merry Lea when I've regretted not having a video camera on me when something hilarious happened. This time was one of them. We pulled up to the 'shore' of the island and Paul said he'd jump out and see how muddy it was. He stood up on the front of the boat, jumped, and sank up to his knees in thick, black mud. Everyone was laughing so hard at how deeply stuck he was that we could barely breathe. It was absolutely hilarious. Once he finally unstuck himself, he found some wood to put down so the ladies could get out without sinking.
I had a long and eventful day, and was so hungry when I got home that I could barely stand it. Once we got back from this trip, I was shown how to put the animals up for the night. Having farm animals is a LOT of hard work and it makes me have an appreciation for farmers who keep animals. I wouldn't have the patience to maintain them for much longer than the Farmcraft program!
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