Nyboer's Farm trip

Grab a cup of coffee and settle in!  This blog entry is going to be a big one!  I took MANY pictures on Friday at the pumpkin patch and in our classroom afterwards.  Not only do I want you to see the excitement on their faces, I want you to know what we LEARNED as well!  So enjoy, and hopefully 'your brain will grow a little smarter' (one of our favorite sayings) after you read this entry!

Ashlynn, Taylor and Bailey

Jacquelin, Do'olo and Aubanie

Reece, Jaden, Tristan and Isaac

We rode the bus to Nyboer's Pumpkin patch with the other two first grade classes.  Luckily it was a short trip because the excitement on that bus was growing every minute!  When we got there, each class was assigned a wagon to climb upon.  Mrs. Nyboer pulled two wagons behind her tractor, so she would be our guide/teacher for both our class and Mrs. Church's group.

Our class at the start of our trip.

Mrs. Nyboer drove us just a short distance, and then stopped to teach us about the farm.  

Mrs. Nyboer showed us how a pumpkin starts with a yellow blossom.  The blossom
eventually falls off and that is where the pumpkin begins to grow. It starts out very small
and green, but grows into an orange pumpkin by fall.

Next, we rode out to the outer portion of the farm and Mrs. Nyboer drove into the corn field.  She showed us the difference between field corn and sweet corn.  The field corn is very hard (she banged it on the edge of the wagon), while sweet corn is much softer.  Most of the time, only one ear grows on each stalk, which is why corn fields are large!  She also showed us some beautiful full sized Indian corn as well as mini Indian corn. 

Mrs. Nyboer showed us some sunflowers.  She said that when sunflowers are growing, their heads follow the sun!  So they start out facing east as the sun rises, but by evening, they are facing west as the sun sets.  This time of year, the heads are heavy with seeds, so they do not move with the sun anymore.

Our next stop was in the gourd field.  Mrs. Nyboer taught us about just a few of the types of gourds.  She said the early pioneers used gourds in different ways. Not only did they eat the insides, they also made them into tools to make life easier. 

This is a warted spoon gourd.  Pioneers would cut a piece of the top off, scoop out the inside,
and use the shell as a spoon to eat with!  Gourds come in the 'warted' (with bumps) and smooth variety.

This is a warted pear gourd.  Pioneers would cut off the small end, scoop out the insides,
and use it as a cup or scoop.

This is a 'crown of thorns' gourd.  

Mrs. Nyboer told the kids they could get off the trailer and choose 2 gourds to take with them!  

Owen D.  chooses a spoon gourd.

Owen L. chooses a warted ball gourd.

William chooses a warted spoon gourd, while Ryleigh chooses a ball gourd.

Aiden chooses the largest warted spoon gourd he could find!

Jacquelin chooses two great looking gourds.

Jacob shows off his choice!

Taylor finds a cute little smooth spoon gourd.

Do'olo holds up her warted ball gourd.

Reece found one of very few crown of thorns gourd, while Bridger shows off
his very large warted spoon gourd.

On our way to the pumpkin field, Mrs. Nyboer stops to show us a pumpkin, which a deer cracked open to eat the insides from.  Mrs. Nyboer said they make many scarecrows for their farm to keep the deer and other animals from eating all the crops.  They move them around and create movable parts to fool the deer into thinking they are real.  They even have a cougar scarecrow which is placed near the woods!

A deer broke this pumpkin open and ate all the seeds inside. 

The kids got a kick out of this scarecrow.  He had golf balls for eyes and
his tongue stuck out.

The first graders gather around the funny scarecrow to get a closer look.

Mrs. Nyboer said her husband really enjoys thinking of new types of scarecrows to make. The kids saw one standing near a tree and named him "Johnny Appleseed".

Our next stop was where the kids were given the opportunity to choose a small pumpkin.  These pumpkins are 'pie' pumpkins, so they are a bit smaller.  Somehow, many children found some pretty large ones to take home!

Mrs. Nyboer tells the children to choose a pumpkin with a nice stem because it will
last longer than one without a stem.

Bridger shows off his choice.

Brayden can hardly hold his pumpkin up for a picture.

Chloe chose a smaller pumpkin.

Ryleigh is proud to show her choice.

Bailey and Jacquelin looked for the perfect size and shape.

Jacob found a great one.

Isaac shows off his pumpkin.

Tristan's pumpkin could hardly fit into his bag!

Ashlynn chose a smaller pumpkin.

Aubanie prefers a smaller pumpkin.

Jaden could hardly lift his pumpkin!

Our final stop was back near the bus.  Mrs. Nyboer taught us that mini Indian corn is actually POPCORN!  She told the kids that if they wait until Halloween or later, when the inside of the kernels are very dry, they can pop it.  She said the kernels could be removed and placed into a popper or pan, but a more fun way to pop it would be to place the entire ear into the microwave and watch it pop right off the cob!  No matter what color the outside kernels are, when it pops, it will be white!

The kids choose their mini Indian corn.

Jaden and Brayden show their choice.

We loaded up the bus and headed back to school!  We hardly fit with all of those farm treasures!

Not only do we learn while we are at the farm, we use our farm treasures for a math lesson when we return to school!  We use each of our treasures in different ways.  We learned the term "circumference" when we estimated the distance around the belly of our pumpkins.  Each child brought their pumpkin up to the front of the classroom and showed me where they thought I should cut a piece of yarn to fit 'just right' around their pumpkin.  Only two children estimated exactly correct.  The picture shows our results:

Next, the children learned how to use a balance scale to weigh one of their gourds against pennies (or another item).  They learned how to add and subtract the amount in the opposite tub in order to balance their gourd.  They then counted how many were required to balance their gourd.

Bailey and Jaden share a balance scale. It looks like Jaden's gourd will require a lot of counting!

Isaac, Owen L. and Do'olo watch Jacquelin works to figure out how many to balance her gourd.

Elijah counts pennies as Tristan starts to balance his gourd. Aubanie, Taylor, Brayden and Aiden also weigh their gourds.

Bridger and William figure out their gourd weight. Ashlynn, Ryleigh, Reece and Owen D. also work on their weight.

Finally, the children learned about measuring the area using their Indian corn.  They traced around their corn on grid paper, then counted how many squares it covered.

Elijah, Aubanie, Brayden, Aiden, Taylor and Tristan measure the area of their corn.

Bridger, Ashlynn, Owen D., Reece, Jacob, Ryleigh and William determine the area of their corn.

Isaac, Do'olo, Owen L. and Jacquelin count how many squares their corn covers.

Clayton, Kylee and Jaden trace around their corn.

Their discoveries about circumference, weight and area were recorded on a 'Pumpkin Patch Math' sheet to show parents what they learned today.  Of course, all the farm treasures went home as well!

We had fantastic weather for our trip to the Pumpkin Patch!  Thank you to Mrs. Nyboer for teaching us so much about your farm.  Thank you to our wonderful Hamilton Elementary PTO, who will help with transportation and bus driver costs.  Thank you to the parents for paying for your child's admission for our trip!

Front row: Bailey, Taylor, Ashlynn, Isaac, Do'olo, Jacquelin, Ryleigh, Owen L., Aubanie, Owen D. (hiding), Kylee, Jacob (behind Kylee), Chloe, and Elijah (behind Chloe)
Back row:  Reece, Jaden, Tristan, Brayden, William, Clayton, Bridger, and Aiden

"The silly one."