Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom: Kindergarten Farm Day 2012

The Farmer’s cousin and I planned a fun filled day for the Kindergarten kids at our local school. It is one of those things that you get to be in charge of when you are a farmer and you have a Kindergarten student. Here are some pictures from the day. I even made the front page of the local newspaper showing the kids a wheat field!

The Farmer’s cousin did a great job showing the kids his planting equipment. He even started the tractor and drove it a little so the kids could see how it worked! Some of them jumped when the tractor started. LOL

He also showed them his combine and tried to explain to them how it worked as well. For those of you that don’t know. The header cuts off the wheat, then the wheat is ran over rasp bars that breaks the kernals loose, then a fan blows the light chaff out and finally a set a “screens” lets the heavier wheat fall though while the lighter material is sent out the back of the combine. That’s it ….in a nut shell. LOL

My mother-in-law talked to the kids about how wool from sheep is spun into yarn and used to make clothing and blankets. Doesn't she have a great display?

My father-in-law graciously accepted the job of supervising the petting of the sheep. The lambs are our oldest son's 4-H projects. The kids like the feel of a lamb’s wool.

The Farmer talked to the kids about corn and soybeans. He had an awesome backdrop of a corn field. He had soybean plants that had been planted at different intervals so the kids could see how a legume grows. He also had a table full of products that are made from corn or soybeans. These products really intrigued the teachers.

Mr. Responsible, our 4-H member, and my dad talked to the kids about cattle. They showed them the 15 month old heifer and a 3.5 month old bottle calf that are also 4-H projects. They talked about what they feed the calves and how he takes care of them.

Finally, the host and I talked to the kids about wheat. They even had a wheat field close that the kids could look at. I also talked to the kids about the various products that can be made from cattle other than beef…this might be a subject I cover during wheat harvest when I am too busy to write something else.

The funniest response of the day was when I asked what was stored in this big round thing (aka a grain bin). One kid actually said, ”Chicken Nuggets!” I guess my job an ag educator is safe for a little while.

I was even crazy enough to follow the kids back to school to do some ag crafts with them, with the help of some unbelievable friends and my mother in law, that never complained and helped all day! Here the kids are painting with soil. The Farmer’s cousin found this great lesson, but couldn’t get off work. Thanks to our local Farm Bureau rep (also another Kindergartener's mom), the kids still got to paint with soil and modge podge.

The Farm Bureau rep (Wow! She was a lifesaver!) also came up with this cool idea to make grain mosaics. Here, three of the boys work on their mosaics. She and I are ready to do a lot more of these. It was fun, looked cool and was relaxing to do. When we get ours finished I will be sure to post pictures.

I played a game with the kids about how cows find their calves by scent. I had 20 tubes with 10 different scents and they had to go find their calf. Needless to say, after helping 60 kids try to find their calf 2 different times, I am not sure my nose will smell right for a while.

I also talked to them about how everything they eat comes from the farm. We went through the label on their snack and were amazed by the number of commodities we found. There are at least 10 different commodities in a package of Zinger snack cakes and they don’t have any nuts!