Fun on the Farm!

What an amazing time Year 2 had last week at Sandfield Farm!  We were busy and active all day and did lots of activities that helped us to explore our topic, 'The Great Outdoors'.

Our first activity was a run around in the orchard.  We were joined by the farm's two dogs, Nellie and Fly, which added to our fun.  In the orchard, we spotted some fat bumble bees: our first mini beasts of the day! 

Once everyone had arrived, we started finding out more about the farm.  We were told that conservation is very important at Sandfield, so our next activity was to search for pictures showing farmers looking after wildlife: that really helped us to think about the difference between ordinary farming and the sort of farming that helps protect mini beasts, birds and other animals. 

We were then reminded about some of the features of the farm; we could remember quite a lot from our past visits, so we quickly decided which places we hoped we would get to see this time round.  Now it was time to get out there and explore!

Because of the recent rain, the farm was rather muddy but that added to the fun.  What was more worrying was the wind: some of us found it hard to walk up one of the fields that was on a hill, but the views were worth it.  We spotted Sedgeberrow's church spire, the village of Hinton on the Green, and, in the distance, Evesham's Bell Tower.  We could see Bredon Hill and Broadway Tower, all places we'd been looking at on maps back in our classroom.  We thought about features we liked in the landscape, and things we would like to change: our ideas were extremely varied! 

Our walk back from the hilly fields took us by the pond.  This had been one of the places we hoped to visit so we were very excited when we were told we could have ten minutes of pond dipping.  We're experts at pond dipping!  We worked in groups, taking it in turns to dip the net into the water which was quite murky because of the rain.  Every group found something: water boatmen, pond snails, funny slugs.  But we were all jealous of one group that found three greater crested newts!  They were not very big but they were very active and we were pleased that we had been able to see them.  Maybe there will be more newts for us to find on our next visit.

After lunch, we went to meet some animals.  We were introduced to a barn full of heifers, who, we discovered, are teenage girl cows.  They were rather puzzled by us, but they were happy when we fed them silage.  In one corner of the barn, there were some lovely calves who no longer need to get milk from their mums.

We then saw the hens, and two small pigs who are new to the farm.  They are rather beautiful as they have different colours and markings.  We had been told how they got their looks from their parents and grandparents, so it made sense that they were so different even though they are sisters.

Our final activity of the day was exploring the play wood.  For many of us, this was the best part of the day!  We split ourselves into groups and went off to find things we wanted to do.  Some of us experimented in the mud kitchen, which really helped us to develop our imaginations.  Some of us played in the mud, seeing how far we could jump without falling over; we had to work together to make sure no-one got stuck in the mud!  Some of us thought about how we could build shelters, and some of us just wanted to run around and chase each other.  We had a fantastic time!