Community
Primary School Farm Visits
Every June we host up to eighty local primary school children a day over 2 days to experience life on an arable farm. In the past this activity has been run under the umbrella of The Country Trust.
We work hard to give them a fun and activity-filled day. We are pleased if they go home exhausted but with a better understanding of the connection between their everyday lives, the food they eat and the importance of the countryside around them.
Activities include:
-
Ride on a tractor and trailer around the farm to see the crops growing
-
Touch, feel and smell wheat, barley and oilseed rape, and identify different parts of the plant.
-
Learn about healthy soil, dig for worms, look for birds, insects, bees and butterflies on the field margins and in the hedgerows and understand why these are important for healthy crops
-
Look into a section of a bee hive, learn how bees work and the importance of the queen bee
-
Explore the big farm machinery that stands in the farm yard which is used to plant, grow and harvest the crops
-
Compare the new machinery with a real old steam engine and see how things have changed
-
Help mill some wheat grains and learn about different types of flour
-
Look at a range of everyday supermarket foods, study the labels and identify crops grown on the farm
-
Discuss food miles and eating food that is in season
-
Each child makes their own mini loaf of bread to take home at the end of the day, learning about each stage of the process as we go along. Volunteers run a busy proving and baking kitchen in the farm house
The children always enjoy the activities and write lovely letters of thanks.
Wheatsheaf Farming Folly Farm North Waltham Basingstoke Hampshire RG25 2BS