ONE More Farm Post!

This is our Farm Fact Book. I found these animal tracers in a Mailbox Magazine 20+ years ago. I still like them and will probably NEVER change! I'm very sentimental.

This is the cover. I let the kiddos draw and cut out their own animals this year. CUTE!

Kristi and I made this ourselves.

I believe this is a TLC hen....

This is our symmetrical cow with our addition facts. It's not part of the book, but somehow hers was added! Oh well - it's all together!

We used our charts to choose our fact. I found a post here  that used this type of chart for Goldilocks  that I loved. So I made a few...

On another note...

Our ducks FINALLY decided to  HATCH Thursday...the day I got terribly sick and had to go home to pull up to dying!!!!  Friday, they were STILL hatching - with me still at home. Thank goodness for good friends and a driving son who could pick up my slack! My Phillip brought everything home for the weekend in a terrible rain storm. Only my luck... Anyway, two are here and 6 are pipping. I guess nothing worth doing is easy?! 

With a chick, chick here...!

Each year we incubate chick eggs in time to have baby chicks for Farm Day. This year we hatched both chicks and ducks! The chicks were right on time, but I set the duck eggs too late. Oh well, we'll enjoy them when they get here! 

We covered lots of math and science objectives with this activity.

This was our tally chart. The kiddos added a tally mark each time they added a link. This was great counting by 5's practice, more/less comparisons, quantity to number, etc.!

We had a "chick" side and a "duck" side.

These are our duck eggs. As of today it's day 26...  we're still waiting!  We candled today and the kiddos decided it is close because the shadow fills almost the entire shell! Thursday should be an exciting day - #28 is the magic number for ducks!

The big day! On day 21 (right on time) the chicks started to pip!

Our wonderful Tech guys set up a live broadcast account for us so all 23 classes of K could watch the egg hatch on their projector screens in real-time! It was great.

Allllmmmoosssttt....

FINALLY!

Hello!

Messy, but FUN!

We also candled every few days, then wrote about it in our Science Journals.

"The duck in the egg was getting bigger."

"The chick was hatching."

Here is a free download of our "countdown to chicks" sheet. I wish I had included the ducks, but it was already made and copied. Oh well, maybe next year!

A happy brood! Bring on the ducks!

Farm Day 2011!

Welcome to Farm Day 2011!

It's hard to believe this is our 10th Farm Day! Where does the time go? I started Farm Day in my classroom years ago. The fun was contagious...the whole school has joined in for 10 years and counting! It is a BOAT LOAD of work, but worth every headache, muscle cramp and conflict to see the kiddos faces! Look at the pictures of our stations below. I've "tweaked" a lot of the problems over the years so I might be able to help you get started if you would like to plan an event like this for your school.

Farm Life - my personal fav.

Milk the Cow - this was 2009.

These are our NEW and IMPROVED cows! No more filling and tying rubber gloves!

Plant the field

Gather the eggs!

Shear the Sheep

We have catfish farms in Alabama. This is our tribute to them.

Mend the Fence

Haul the Hay

Ride the Horse!

Paint the Barn

My sweet and wonderful husband, aka Old McDonald! He tells his OWN version of McD's  day, while singing the traditional song. He's MY treasure!

This picture is from our 2011 Farm Day. Our ELL teacher was a station all by herself. The other lady is my favorite Aunt Helen with her granddaughter. The lady with the beautiful Arabian horse is our ELL teacher. 

Our treasure of an ELL teacher - who brings hay, horses, demos, helps clean up....she deserves an award! This picture was taken in 2009.

Our wonderful Alfa Young Farmers bring their animals each year!

The Alfa Farmers brought baby chicks, too!

Baby chicks!

This sheep called out to us all day - BAAAAAA! The kids would answer back - too cute!

The Alfa Farmers showing off the old-time corn sheller!

Snead Ag supplied the John Deere tractor and trailer this year. I combined our snack station with the hayride this year - AG in a Bag. The snack had a representation of the 5 top commodities for Alabama. We sang a version of Old McD's Farm using the 5 commodities. Here is a copy of how this station worked.

These are OUR babies we incubated and hatched! We put these into a station so the kiddos could FINALLY  hold the babies we've waited for!

This was a new station, too. It was Roll-a-Cow! Each team rolled a set die and added the matching cow part to their friend. She's adding the sand paper tongue. Can you see the four stomaches?
Here is a copy of directions to play this game.

He's adding the four hooves! There was also a flyswatter tail and butter lid/baby nipple udder. TOO CUTE!

From Farm to Table Relay! This was our first year to try this station. This pic shows two farmers milking the cows!
Here is a copy of directions for this station.

Next, two new farmers had to pour the milk into the milk cartons.

They loaded the milk into the wagon.

These two took the milk wagon to the market.

Once the milk was delivered two grocers sold the milk to two customers.

The two customers took the milk home and poured it into glasses! From FARM TO TABLE!

More kids getting their turn.

Barrel Racing in the gym!

Barrel Racing in the gym!

Our WONDERFUL media specialist had the children paint the characters to the story The Very Busy Spider. Now, think about that...400+ kiddos between 8:20 and 12:20 - YIKES she's brave!

 There was also a Planting Station - with a Flower in a Cup and a "Beanie Baby" necklace! My camera battery died! BOO!

 After lunch, we meet back for the Grand Finale. This year our ELL Teacher rode her horse, Flash, for us. She demonstrated how the gait of the horse is counted.

Next...our wonderful Media Specialist and brave teachers acted out the old favorite, Mrs. Wishy-Washy!

While we were in the gym, our ELL teacher changed into her Arabian costume - this picture does not do it justice.

Y'all come back now,

Ya' hear!