Sunday, September 28, 2008

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Last year when Hailey's Kindergarten class went to the Stuckey Farm Apple Orchard I wasn't able to go with her. This year Hailey begged me to go with her. I was so excited that I was able to go.
Here's a picture of Hailey getting ready to start her tour of the Apple Cider processing plant, the beehive, and the hay ride through the orchard.
Here are the kids all lined up to get going.

Here's our first stop on the tour - We got to watch a video about how apple cider is made. We also got to look through the Apple Cider processing window to watch apples get washed and get rolled up a little conveyor belt to the pressing station.

Here's the Beehive demonstration. In the top right hand of the picture you can see a beehive enclosed in glass. We got to learn all about bees and also watch them do their work in a safe way.


Next stop was the Gourd Lady who taught us all about Gourds, pumpkins, and corn.

Next we went to a little area where the kids sat and heard all about how apples grow, and then we got to taste two different kinds of apples and some apple cider. We also got to try on the bags that the apple pickers wear when harvesting. (But I forgot to take pictures there. Oops.)
Next we went on a hay ride through the 4,000 apple trees in the Stucky Farm orchard. We also toured the little fishing pond, the vegetable patch, the corn maze, and finally the pumpkin patch.
At the pumpkin patch the farmer stopped the tractor and let the teachers get off and find a pumpkin for each classroom. The picture below is the kids looking over the edge of the wagon directing the teacher to the pumpkin they thought looked best. Hailey is in the orange shirt kind of in the middle to the right.

When Mrs. McCulley found the perfect pumpkin she raised it high over her head and all the kids cheered. It was hilarious!

Here's Mrs. McCulley loading it up on the wagon under the direction of about 100 little helpers.

It was a beauty!

At the Corn maze Mr. Herron got a photo with each of his classes. Here he is with the PM Kindergarten class. Hailey is in the orange shirt on the end.

At the end of the day we had a little picnic at the pavilion and the kids got to play on the pirate ship playcenter. I ended the day by buying some popcorn from the gift shop for our Family Fun Night the next evening.

It was a really fun day!

No comments: