Ben's class took a field trip the 577 Foundation in October to learn about making apple cider. I was a little disappointed at first that they weren't going to go to the pumpkin farm or apple orchard, but after this field trip, I know I was wrong. This was a great field trip! The kids started off learning about apples and how bees pollinate the apple blossom and then it turns into an apple. The woman putting on the field trip was great! She had an apple blossom puppet and a bee. The apple blossom was even anatomically correct, which I found very interesting for kindergartners, but hey, nature is nature and the kids learned the truth. The bee picks up the pollen from the boy part of the flower and takes it to the sticky girl part of the flower and boom, in a few months, you have an apple.
Then the kids split into two groups - one group went to make apple cider and the other went hunting for things in the gardens. We did the cider press first. This is a 100 year old press, original to the house. Each kid got to pick three apples, place them in the press and then (with help) grind them up. Watching some of the smaller kids in the class try to turn the crank was hilarous! And I have to say, watching Ben's teacher and the lady from 577 was also highly entertaining.
After we finished pressing out our cider, we got to sample it! The kids had a few powdered doughnuts with their cider. It was yummy!
Then we switched with the other group and went in search of color matches to a fabric swatch, measured the lengths of things with yarn and looked through Bee scopes to see how bees see the world. It was a very fun field trip!
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