Escaping to the farm is one of our favorite ways to get outside and learn. If you don’t grow up on a farm, the animals, crops, environment of a farm are fascinating learning experiences for children.

Our family recently went to an apple farm in New Jersey and spent the whole day enjoying the sunshine and open spaces and the variety of crops for picking and eating.

Every Spring and Fall since our kids were toddlers experiencing farm life, if even for a day, has been part of how this city family gets outside and learns through adventure.

Today I’m working with some awesome bloggers to not only share our farm field trip tips, but also tons of farm themed unit ideas for your homeschool or classroom.

Farm Field Trip Tips

Field Trips bring a topic to life. They make an abstract concept meaningful, real and alive for young kids. On a field trip kids will be able to touch things, ask questions of experts, and more.

read more: how to learn through adventure

The best farms for kids are the ones where you can get actively involved. Let you pet some animals, pick some fruits or vegetables, and more. It is helpful to call ahead of time to get a full picture of what you will be able to do on your visit.

Experiencing the textures and colors and weight make the words and images in book come alive.

When you go to the farm here are a few things to remember:

1. Dress everyone in weather appropriate clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty.
2. Read some books and have a conversation with your kids beforehand about what to expect and what your behavior expectations are for the trip.
3. Bring cash (or check with your farm beforehand). A lot of farms don’t accept credit cards.
4. Bring hand sanitizer to use after petting animals and before you eat lunch or snacks.

Farm Unit Activity Ideas

Below are fun learning ideas to use before and after your field trip. They are divided into developmental or curriculum areas.

Literacy Activities

• We loved reading The Apple Orchard Riddle by Margaret McNamara before our apple farm trip.
• 10 Farm Books to Make You Quack, Cluck and Moo
• Down on the Farm Story Time
• Write in your journals about what they found most interesting at the apple farm.

Art Activities

• Dabber Pumpkin Art to go with the popular Halloween poem.

STEM Activities

• Read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara. Then practice counting seeds by 2s, 5s and 10s like they did in the book.
• Play & Count Farm Animals

Gross Motor Activities

• Peep! Chick and Egg Story Time with Movement Activity

**Check the Linky below for even more awesome ideas!**

Current Learning Objectives (based on First Grade Common Core)

• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
• Demonstrate the command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• Participate in collaborative conversations.
• Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s
• Observe and describe weather conditions that occur during each season.