Petting Farm Visit

                
             This morning we visited a farm that Mireille owns. 
          It is a petting farm with a wonderful variety of animals.
 
We were able to feed many of them by hand; like the chickens and roosters.
        
 
                                The goats and sheep. 
      They were very eager to eat from the children’s hands. 
                   They lick the food rather than bite.
 
                 The Shetland Pony and donkey were a little shy.
  
        The miniature horse was willing to come close and be poked.
         
                    The big duck taking a bath was entertaining.
 
                                 Are these llamas or alpacas? 
                         Alpacas, we learned from the farmer. 
        The children were fascinated with pulling the hair off the fence.
           
                                We saw four peacocks.
 
                                    And one baby chick.
 
         Two potbelly pigs with deep snorts rather than an oink.
 
                     A cat that loved all the attention and petting.
 
                       And a 12 year old rabbit named Charlie.
                    Thank you Mirielle for sharing your farm.
       
We enjoyed our own snack and a story under an apple tree in Mirielle’s yard. 
        
Tomorrow, back at school, we will work on building a barn from these
                                    cardboard boxes.

How to Make Waxed Leaves

            
                      Grate wax crayons into tiny pieces.
                     
                 Place a paper leaf on your warming tray.
                    
              Sprinkle your crayon bits on your paper leaf.
                
                              Watch and wait.
           
                   Spread the wax to cover your leaf.
        
                                 Make some more.
 
                      They look great hanging in the window.

Fizzy Chalk Painting

Over at Learn Play Imagine they have a recipe for making your own erupting
                chalk paint.  I decided to give it a try.
      
 
             The children loved painting on the pavement. 
The colours are bright when they are wet and fade some when they dry.
  
 
           
As much as they loved painting they enjoyed squirting the vinegar on their
                                       paint more.
 

Autumn Sensory Bins

                    
Week #1 the tub was filled with bird seed.  Little birds and small grapevine wreaths were matched up like birds in a nest.
  
Little egg cups and matching spoons for filling, scooping, pouring the bird seed and watching it slide through their fingers.

              
Week #2 was based on the book Dot & Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery.
     
It was one of rare times that I put a book in the sensory table.  I was pleased to see many parents read it while their child played with the acorns, tongs and squirrels.

Investigating Farms

What is a farm?  What or who lives on a farm?  What does a barn look like?  Those are a few questions that have been going around the classroom the past week and a half.
   
These questions were prompted over several years of hearing parents ask me to arrange a field trip to a farm.  I’ve heard from the parents and seen the children play with the barn and farm animals and have finally found a farm that has a variety of animals and willing to let us come for a visit.
       
To begin our investigation I set up this invitation to play with farm animals
                                          in a barn.
         
I wanted to see where their interests really lie.  Is it in the building or the
                                       animals or both.

It is definitely the animals.  We started singing ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm” and the toddlers’ faces light up when you make animal sounds.  Even the older children
                                     enjoy that song.
          
If we are going to focus on farm animals we will need a home for them so I
                      asked the children to design a barn. 
         
      The books were available for research and inspiration.
     
The question prompts were for the grown ups to ask, which I did as
                                    I sat with a few.
 
     Next week we’ll build our barn and focus more on animals.
          We also have our field trip to the farm on Tuesday.