Not only does the strawberry farm offer up some delicious snacks and fun outdoors, but it’s a great opportunity to learn a bit of science and talk about pollination. Here’s how.
There’s nothing more yummy than a fresh, warm strawberry straight from the farmer’s field. Taking a trip to the farm during strawberry season is always a fun (and educational!) trip for kids. The berries are low for easy picking, there’s instant satisfaction for youngsters who frustrate easily and it can be darn delicious!
5 top reasons to visit a farm with your children:
1. Fantastic opportunity to visit a working farm to see tractors move in real life!
2. Real understanding of how much work it takes to pick a berry and to gain respect for our local growers.
3. Chance to learn about the plant cycle and how things grow. A trip to a farm is a huge conversation starter for young and old with infinite teachable moments.
4. Play time! Usually pick-your-own farms have fun play areas like hay bales or a sand pit for mini farmers to burn off energy playing.
5. Fresh produce! A full fridge without having to wrangle kids to the grocery store – divine!
Recently my son’s kindergarten class went on a berry picking field trip and I went on for the fun which included a little lesson about the growth cycle of the strawberry. I learned a TON about how the strawberry comes to be and I was impressed with a little science experiment about bees and pollen. Such an easy way to explain the pollination and how the pollen is carried by bees from one plant to the next.
To demonstrate this to children (or anyone) all you need is yellow cornstarch (it’s grainy) and a black fuzzy pipe cleaners (bent in half to form two ‘legs’ of the bee).
Bees need to visit the white strawberry flower when in bloom to get the pollen and carry it to the next flower to fertilize it (official pollination details here!). The question most kids have is HOW? How does the bee move the pollen?
This experiment shows them HOW.
Imagine the pipe cleaners are legs and the cornstarch is pollen. Dip the ‘legs’ into the yellow ‘pollen’ and watch how the pollen sticks to the ridges and fuzz of the pipe cleaner. Then the bee flies to the next flower and the pollen shakes off and is deposited.
Easy way to how pollination works and science is FUN!
Thanks so much to Stonehaven Farms for the fabulous tour and great science idea that I simply had to share!
