We have had a brilliant day today!

We headed off to Travellers Rest Farm near Blandford for the day. We were greeted off the bus by Farmer George and his team and shown around the enormous grain stores.

George asked the children lots of questions to test their knowledge on farming, some of us knew a little bit and enjoyed sharing our ideas. We were allowed to touch all the grain and learnt what the different grains are used for. We learnt that wheat is used to make flour, oil seed rape is used to make oil, and barley is used to make beer.

We then went up into some of George’s barley fields to see what the crops look like at the moment. George dug up one of the small plants to show the children the root system and the seed the plant was growing from. We also accidently dug up an enormous worm!

We were all very excited about the next part of the morning – the ride in the tractor trailer! We managed to all squidge in (the lucky ones got a hay bale to sit on!) and were taken around the farm to visit the cows. We jumped off the trailer in the cows field, avoiding the cow pats, but the cows were on the opposite side of the hill today so we said hello from a distance. We did see some very cool cobwebs lying across the grass which we thought looked like waves on the sea!

It was then time for a little walk up through some woodland. George explained to the children how the trees and flowers which they plant are food for birds and squirrels. We looked at hazelnuts which had been nibbled and found lots of seeds which the birds will eat.

After our walk, it was time to visit the friendly sheep. These sheep have lived on the farm for many years and know that a group of school children means they are going to be fed! Their favourite snack was toast, so we all got the chance to feed them by hand and feel their warm, woolly coats. The children were all fantastic and very brave considering the sheep were almost as tall as they are! There was a particularly friendly one called Daisy, so we thought was more like a big fluffy labrador than a sheep! Our Daisy and sheep Daisy got on well!

We had our lunch in the farm classroom and then cracked on with a few different activities. We made bread rolls using flour ground in front of us from wheat grown on the farm, chopped up vegetables to make soup, and completed an activity which shows where food comes from. The children showed lovely manners and George and the team commented on the super behaviour – well done Year 2!

While the soup was cooking, we went to see if the chickens had laid any eggs. Some of George’s chickens are very friendly and we were able to give them a stroke. Only one egg today though!

The last part of the day was the tasty bit – eating the soup and bread rolls!

We had a brilliant time and the children all learnt so much about their food, where it comes from, and the importance of farming.

It was a pleasure to take them – Well done Year 2. A huge thank you to our volunteers today – we literally couldn’t do it without you!