Putting the farm to bed for the winter

This was our last trip to Farm School for the fall. It was time to help put the farm to bed for the winter. We were happy to see Farm Teacher Heidi again.

Teacher Heidi taught us about soil. She said soil is made up from rocks.

Big rocks rub together and make small rocks. The big and small rocks rub together and make teeny-tiny rocks, which we call dirt. Many things live in the soil and help make it, too. Plants grow and die and leave parts of themselves in the dirt. Animals and creatures live in the dirt, like earthworms. They leave thier poop in the soil which also makes it healthier for the plants.

We gathered out tools to go and dig in the dirt and find soil treasures. What would we find?

There were lots of plants with roots in the soil. 

We found rocks, and worms, and a spider or two. And, we found lots of potatoes that had been missed when they were harvested from the soil.

We took our buckets of soil treasures into the greenhouse where we got out our science tools, magnifying glasses.

We examined our treasures carefully. We found one thing in our buckets we wanted to share. There were worms, and roots, and potatoes, and different colored rocks. We talked about whether these things were alive or not alive.

We got the two big bags of big leaf maple leaves we had collected from our playground at school. Together we hauled them to the field.

The leaves were going to be a blanket to keep all of the living things warm during the long winter, just like we cover up with a warm blanket on a cold night.

We carefully covered the whole row with leaves.

When we were done we sang the farm a song we had written:

Good night, good night to the farm

Good night, good night to the plants.

Good night, good night to the chickens.

We will see you in the spring.