School Tours
Our farm is the perfect place to introduce your class to the life systems science stream of your curriculum. You will get an overview of the basic needs of plants and animals, the daily and seasonal cycles, how plants grow; you can look at air and water in the environment; even use the opportunity to observe the interaction of soils and water.
For more information on booking your class farm tour, contact Marlene at tours@willowtreefarm.ca or call 905-985-4973 or 905-985-7493.
In the Field
The highlight of the tour is a wagon ride to the field where the pumpkins and corn grow.
PUMPKINS: Your tour instructor will talk about how pumpkins grow, the many ways pumpkins are used for food, and how to choose a good pumpkin. We will cut open a pumpkin to show the inside and talk about the seeds. Each student picks a pumpkin. [The cost of the tour includes one small (pie) pumpkin per student plus one large pumpkin per class.]
CORN: We grow several different varieties every year, including both ornamental and popping corn. Your tour instructor will explain the many uses of corn in the kitchen and industry, as well as on the farm. We will show you how to choose and pick a cob of corn and describe how to store and use it later. Each student picks a cob of corn. [The tour includes one cob of corn for each student plus samples of several varieties to take back to the classroom.]
In the Garden
We grow a demonstration vegetable garden that changes from year to year, but always contains a range of root vegetables, green leafy vegetables and herbs. Your instructor will help the students to identify familiar vegetables and guess the unfamiliar ones based on colour, shape and size, etc. We will talk about the basics of gardening and how plants grow. (We have found that in some classes, almost all the children have had some gardening experience, while other groups have none.) We will choose student volunteers to help dig/pick some vegetables from the garden to take back to the classroom. (Your opportunity for some creative lessons!) We help the children understand that we eat roots, leaves, seeds and fruit from different plants.
In the Spring
If you book a spring tour, we will look at all the newly planted crops that have just begun to grow. Each of the children will plant a strawberry plant which they take home to put in their garden or in a huge pot and watch it grow and produce fruit. We talk about the sun, rain, soil and bees. If we’re lucky we pick early strawberries. The children also learn about cows and their calves.
For more information contact us.