Education On and Off the Farm!  Hallowell Elementary School invited PFEC back for their annual Earth Day celebration and we had a great time!  Just over 200 kids participated in a lively Farm Relay race.  WIth up to 60 kids per race, each student selected an item out of a potato bag and decided if the item goes into a farm, comes from a farm, or has nothing at all to do with a farm! Following each race, we talked about how many of our daily activities involve a farm.  Fun day and I'm looking forward to Earth Day 2015!

As much as I enjoy visiting kids at school, I really love it when kids come to the farm.  Over the last few weeks, the second graders from Germantown Academy drove up Sheaff Lane and in less than 5 minutes, found themselves walking the fields.  Many didn't even know we were here!  The theme of the visit was "Eating and Farming Locally" and each student had an opportunity to pose a question about locally grown food.  The students talked about differences between locally grown and transported vegetables, the positive impact of having an organic farm in our community and why fresh food tastes better than well-traveled food.   We walked across the farm to the rows of kale and each student was given a freshly harvested kale leaf.  I think almost every child loved eating fresh kale and many wanted more!  The kids agreed, locally grown veggies taste better and are better for us than veggies shipped miles to the grocery store.

Weather Watchers.  Next time you visit The Highlands, look for the rain gauge at EC (the Horham EC will get its rain gauge this week).  Each EC is participating in a nationwide weather data collection program.  The gauges will be checked daily, precipitation recorded and then entered into the program database.  For more info on the project, check out this link.  

Kids Classes at The Highlands.  Please bring your Pre-K kids to The Highlands on Monday mornings in May!  We have 2 more classes this month - Monday the 10th we'll take a closer look at the lovely earthworm and Monday, May 19th we'll play the Farm Relay race (like we did at Hallowell Elementary School).  Kids will explore all the different ways a farm touches their life.

In June, we'll move the classes back to Tuesdays. You can register for class by visiting our website.

Have a great week and I hope all you moms had aHappy Mother's Day!