Our sixth grade class spent 4 days on a dairy farm in Vermont where they got to experience the joy of learning through many hands-on lessons.
The 6:30 a.m. wake-ups felt extra early for our 6th graders, who were warm and cozy in their sleeping bags. After a quick morning snack, they jumped right into the day’s activities, caring for the animals, harvesting vegetables, and turning milk into cheese and apples into cider.
Over four days on the farm, students picked carrots, milked cows, and learned how to measure out the right amount of hay and grain for the heifers and formula for the calves. They even trained heifers to walk on leads. Each pair of students was given a harness and a heifer, then practiced guiding and redirecting their animal during a “parade,” quickly discovering that some heifers were better listeners than others, a valuable lesson for our young middle schoolers.
Students also fed and cared for the chickens, collecting eggs that were used for breakfast. In the maple house, they learned that it takes 40 pints of sap and a lot of boiling to make just one pint of maple syrup. During a cheese tasting, they sampled three varieties made on the farm and were delighted to find out that their favorite, Ashford, is sold right here in Connecticut at Whole Foods Market!
“I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here. This place feels like home.
The animals, my classmates, it’s all amazing!”
-Averie, Class of 2034
Life on the farm takes hard work, but the students loved every minute of it. As Averie shared, “I don’t want to go home. I want to stay here. This place feels like home. The animals, my classmates, it’s all amazing!”
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