An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

Auntie Gill Says

“Let’s look at……… the farm”

Below is a word search of different creatures you may find

at a farm.

Can you find?

CHICKEN

COW

DONKEY

DUCK

GOAT

HORSE

PIG

SHEEP

TURKEY

Can you all write a story

which has all of these 9

creatures mentioned?

Can you include

the collective

noun for each creature

in your story?

E.g. Herd of cows.

On paper, you can draw and colour each creature and then stick them onto

used cardboard and then cut round them? An adult may need to help you.

This might take a few days on and off to do.

Then, draw a picture of a farm and then stick your creatures on the

picture where you think they would live. You could make one big picture

and then all the farm animals and birds would be together on the farm.

By sticking a small amount of cardboard on the back of some your cut

out creatures you can make them overlap.

An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

So why don’t we look at different types of farming in the UK?

“So let’s look at……… Arable farming”

Arable farms grow crops such as wheat and barley or grow fruit and vegetables.

The most often grown crops in the UK are:

Cereals such as wheat, oats and barley

Root vegetables mainly potatoes and sugar beet

Pulse crops such as beans or peas

Forage crops such as cabbages, vetches, rape and kale

Fruit, mostly apples and pears

Hay for animal feed.

Find a picture and draw each of the 3 main Cereal crops grown in the UK

Wheat

Oats

Barley

Draw a picture of what each cereal is mainly grown for that we eat.

Wheat =

Oats =

Barley =

Cereal or grain farms are mainly found in eastern England, including Norfolk and

Lincolnshire. This is because the farmers use machinery to plough the land, sew

the seeds, and harvest the crops so the land needs to be flat.

Ask an adult to find a map of the UK so you can see where Norfolk and

Lincolnshire are.

Using the word WHEAT can you find any words made with those letters?

An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

The Combine Harvester

One farm machine is called a Combine Harvester which is used for the

harvesting of the cereal grains wheat, oats and barley as it can cut (reap),

separate the grain from the rest of the plant (thresh) and then separate the

grain from its outside coat (chaff).

So now you know why farmers grow wheat, oats and barley.

Draw a picture of a wheat field with a farmer driving a combine

harvester.

If you find an object which has a rough surface (I have used a ball of

string) and place it under your paper and colour using a felt tip pen you

can create lines to represent the wheat in the field.

If you want to be very adventurous make a combine harvester out of a

paper towel cardboard roll and a card board box. Think what you can use

to make the window for the farmer to see out of?

An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

“So let’s look at……… Dairy farming”

Dairy farms produce milk so we can drink milk and eat butter, cheese, yogurt, cream and ice

cream.

The cow is the animal normally bred to produce milk.

It is interesting to find that:

 Milk is 90% water and helps to rehydrate the body.

 Cows lie down for 14 hours a day.

 Cows can't sleep standing up.

 Cows eat up to 50kg of food a day.

 Cows can drink up to a bath tub of water a day or 60 litres.

Dairy farming is mainly found in south-western England, the lowland areas of Wales and in

Lancashire as the land needs to be lush, with well-drained soil so that high quality grass can

be grown to feed the cows.

Ask an adult to find a map of the UK so you can see where south-western

England, the lowland areas of Wales and Lancashire are.

Find the words from these jumbled letters which talk about dairy

farming

owc

terbut

gotruy

irday

marf

heeces

limk

marecice

Draw and colour the face of a cow

who is very happy.

Use the 3 primary colours (red,

yellow and blue) to make her bright

and colourful.

Can you write a poem or limerick

about your happy, colourful cow?

An example!

I had a cow called Daisy

Who ran around like crazy

Her eyes were blue

Which made her moo

But she produced no milk as she was lazy

An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

“So let’s look at……… Apple farming”

Apples are grown in orchards and the UK is one of the only countries

that grow apples for cooking with. They are called the Bramley apple.

Most apples are grown to be eaten as eating apples or for juice and cider.

In the UK apple farms are mostly found in Kent, Worcestershire and

Herefordshire, where there is the best soil and sunlight combination

for growing fruit trees.

Ask an adult to find a map of the UK so you can see where Kent,

Worcestershire and Herefordshire are.

As it takes so long to grow an apple tree from seed, most apple trees are not

grown on their own roots. The top of the tree is grafted onto different roots

(called a rootstock), and the roots control the size of the tree. Which is why

apple farms grow short trees so it easier to reach and pick the apples.

A tree has to be at least 2 years old before it can produce apples.

Once the tree is mature enough, it will produce flowers in the Spring.

Bees pollinate the flowers by rubbing against the pollen of an apple flower

which attaches to the bee’s body whilst the bee is looking for nectar.

The bee then flies to a different apple tree flower and as it collects the nectar

from the base of the flower the pollen on the bee’s body sticks to the female

part of the flower. This is called pollination.

Gradually the petals of the apple flower fall off as the pollen grains each

produce a tube which grows down and enters into the female part of the flower

(ovary) where the male part of the pollen grain and female part join together to

produce seeds which are surrounded by what we eat as the apple.

The apple gets bigger over the summer and is picked (harvested) in the Autumn.

Draw an apple tree with people having a picnic under the tree.

In the picture draw some of the food and drinks we can make from the

apple.

To make the hair of the people find some wool, string or fluffy material to

add a different texture to your picture.

An idea from Auntie Gill gill@gillmcgregor.com

Draw the life cycle of an Apple tree.

tree

seed

flower

Apple- draw one cut in half to show the seeds

If you are lucky to have an apple- after you have eaten it why not put the seeds in a

pot and see if they grow?

So we have looked at different farms and the animals and birds that live

on a farm.

Why not pretend you visited a farm and write a letter to someone special

and say what you saw and what you did on the farm?