Went to the farm with the Hawks and Falcons today. We are going to show and tell about potatoes. The Hawks are 4 and 5 year old youngsters and are like a gaggle of geese. Young volunteer Mr. O'Brien is very good with these young people. We had to find potato plants with them and after Mr. Curtis dug the mounds, the children counted and collected the potatoes.
Our goal for the day, according to Mr. Curtis, was to plant a memory in their minds about where and how the food they eat is produced. There is mud, and bugs and weeds and sweat and work involved before food gets to the table. One of the little children was very afraid of dogs. There were four puppies that followed us around. I was surprised that one of the senior staff was very opinionated about how this little girl, blubbery and crying was supposed to "get over it now, or sit on the bus..." Very little compassion, but on the other hand, there are a lot of kids to manage.
For the Falcons, 2nd and 3rd graders, we spent some more talking/lecturing time. We told the children to use the scientific method with potatoes. Observe:, How do potatoes grow? Where is the "seed" potato that we planted earlier? How long does a potato need to grow before we choose to harvest?. How many potatoes were harvested on average from each plant? Why did some plants have more potatoes than other plants in the row?
It was fun to put some fresh onions and green beans with the potatoes and talk about how to make a meal. The objective was to start an internal conversation within each child about where and how food gets to their table. Students get to take some of the produce home. We presented a contest for the best story/paragraph for each student to attempt. The prize will be lunch at McDonald's on Friday. The topic of the story was to relate to our experiences at the farm this day.
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