Swiss chard, lettuces, spring onions and cauliflower

Today has seen the return of our much enjoyed Farm School, we´re very excited to see what´s going to happen in the new term and are happy to see our new friends are as well!

The aim of today´s session has been to introduce everyone to the vegetable garden, animals and games, whilst learning as much as possible and having lots of fun along the way. We started by playing some quick and enjoyable games to get everyone warmed up and feeling comfortable. The orders game saw us running around, hoppimg and crawling like the donkeys, everyone was so good a tit we thought it would never end!

Once the whole group had arrived, it was time to start on the vegetables (and fruit!). We worked as a team to each carry out diferent tasks and take it in turns to do so. The tasks included watering, digging holes and planting the autumn vegetables. We had Swiss Chard, lettuce, spring onions, and cauliflower. Each person took time to look at the colours, size and even smell of each vegetable before planting. Then we had to make sure that they were secure in the ground and well watered, along with the other vegetables that were already growing. It´s just as important to look after the older ones as it is the new ones! Sergi was particularly good at making sure absolutely everything was watered, whilst Jordi made plenty of holes for the veg to live in. Afterwards we had a tour of the fruit trees, and used smell to determine what fruit each tree was going to grow. We picked some peppers to take home, and along the way found a treat for some soon to be very happy animals..

Perla and Valentine, the donkeys, as well as Violeta and Estrella, the ponies, loved their grass, fed to them by everyone in the group. We spent lots of time stroking, brushing and feeding them, as well as feeding the chickens and checking for eggs. Afterwards, we took it in turns to ride Perla, who as always was very calm and happy to take people along for a ride. There were lots of cowboys and cowgirls by the end of the day!

After our time with the animals, it was time to make some of our own. We used paper plates, paper, colouring in and cutting to make some fantastic looking ducks, all diferent shapes, sizes and shades of colour. We even got to choose a colour of feather to stick on top to finish off!

Everyone put their ducks somewhere to dry and we had a rest whilst listening to some great stories and joining in to make our own sound effects. We learnt about the wolf and the pigs as well as cindarella, with some great oinks and huffs along the way. Sara was very good at remembering who did what, even after the pages had been turned.

To close the day we played some great active games. Simon says, climbing the castle and what time is it mr wolf were a few. Elsa and Maria were the first up the castle, with Guillem and Aleix not far behind. For one of the first times, everyone climbed the castle first time with no help needed- a real group of professionals we must say! We even had time to have a good bounce on the trampoline after, an old favourite, with Judit soaring high as a kite!

We finish the day with lots of happy farmers. Everyone got along really well and we enjoyed Meeting everyone for the first time as well as seeing some people return from the summer camp. It was especially exciting for our new teacher, Saoirse, who with ten years primary teaching experience in Ireland has joined us for some great fun and learning at Casa Nostra. See you all next time!