By: Sarah Baszto, 5th Grade Teacher
Despite
the cold, winter weather that typifies February in Massachusetts, there
is much going on at local farms. The fifth graders at Cambridgeport
Elementary experienced this first hand as they traveled for an overnight
trip to The Farm School in Athol, MA. While at the farm, students were
transformed into farmers and took ownership of responsibilities
necessary for running the farm.
Students worked with horses,
chickens, goats, sheep and calves, making sure they were fed and cared
for. Students also learned how to cook meals while working alongside the
Farm’s chef to meal plan, prep and serve healthy meals and snacks,
often using ingredients grown at the farm, harvested from the
greenhouses by other students that day! Other groups went on hikes to
learn about animal tracks and native plants. Getting to use the
hydraulic wood splitter was a big favorite on this trip! After chores
were done, farmers offered classes for students to take ranging from
survival skills to horse grooming. These classes were big favorites!
Evenings were spent playing games together, writing about our day,
telling stories together around a fireplace and sharing meaningful
experiences of the day with one another.
In
addition to taking on challenges of physical farm care, students
learned about themselves and what it means to work together in a kind
way; going beyond one’s own needs and proactively looking for
opportunities to help others. This beautiful farm setting helped
students learn a lot about nature and themselves. They worked hard in a
way they hadn’t experienced before, tried new things and many students
found they were capable of more than they expected. It was amazing to
see students working as an interdependent community and made the trip a
very valuable, worthwhile experience. One student said, “At Farm School I
learned that teamwork is really important because you get your work
done faster and it will also make people think more of you. They’ll see
you really care.” This really sums up the great experience we had!