The Pumpkin Patch

The following was my Facebook post this morning as Lil' Man and I prepared for the adventure of the day:

(to the tune of "On a Jet Plane")

Our lunches are packed.
We're ready to go.
Awfully glad there is no snow!
We are so excited - my, oh my!

The Pumpkin Patch
Until after 1.
Stories and hayrides -
Gonna have some fun

With the Class of 2025!

We're leavin' on a big bus -
Sure hope they're ready for us!

We're leavin' on a big bus -
Sure hope they're ready for us! :)

Well, they were!  They were ready for all forty-six kids plus parents, too.  The first big field trip of this school year for our Kindergarten class was a success, and we had sleepy little nappers on the bus ride home to prove it! 

Before I share a bit about our day, I feel that it is more important to share how this trip came to fruition.  As I learned from speaking with one of the kindergarten teachers this morning, this trip has been a long standing tradition for our elementary building.  Yet, like in many school districts across the country, trips such as this have been cut from school programs due to budget issues.  At a time when teachers jobs are being lost and schools are being closed, it's difficult to justify the expense that extras like field trips incur.  It was because of the generosity of a family very close to our school community - a man whose legacy was to create a fund to provide the necessary monies for this trip, in particular, as an experience to be given to each incoming kindergarten class - that my child and his new friends were able to enjoy what is sure to become a treasured memory.  This gift is truly appreciated!

So, with everything paid for and attendance taken, a school bus filled with 4 and 5 year old kiddos made the forty-five minute trip to The Pumpkin Patch.  Once there, the children were able to explore around the farm a bit while we waited for story time.  The kids had fun playing with water pumps and looking at pumpkins and scarecrows that were decorated in nursery rhyme themes.  Then, everyone was eventually called together to hear about the Iroquois, who were native to our area of New York.  The children learned about the roles of women and men in the tribes, how food was hunted and harvested, and how families lived long ago on the very land on which we were walking.
      

One of my favorite parts of the day was during this story time when our presenter was explaining how the Iroquois women would plant and work the fields.  She then shared that the men also had an important role  in providing food for their tribe and showed the kids a photograph of wolves and deer.  She asked, "Can anyone tell us what the men had to do?"  One little voice confidently answered, "Take the pictures."  I love Kindergarten!

After stories, it was time to walk through the barn (That's my guy being a rooster.), check out a hay maze and then go on a wagon ride through the fields.

(View from the wagon as we traveled down to the pumpkin fields to explore and do some gathering of our own.  Each child was able to take a pumpkin, an ear of field corn and an ear of Indian corn home as souvenirs.)

Just before lunch and heading back to school, the kids witnessed what was perhaps the best part of the day, or at least the most attention-grabbing...

THE PUMPKIN CANNON!

With that, and a little playtime in the farm's tree house/club house, the day ended with a bang!

It was so much fun to tag along on this adventure and learn along with my son.  He and his friends enjoyed every second, and though our fingers and noses may have been a little cold, our hearts were warm and happy today!