(updated 9/29)
Workshops
Cock a doodle, Moo!
Help your young learners connect to their food and fiber. Using our new book, Cultivating Joy and Wonder, Educating for Sustainability in Early Childhood through Nature, Food and Community, experience hands on activities you can easily use with your students. Dress up as farm animals, spin a wool bracelet, crush wheat berries into flour are a few of the activities we’ll explore as we connect these experiences to great children’s book. Handouts and resource list will be provided.
Early Sprouts!
This “seed to table” gardening and nutrition curriculum for early child educators was developed by Dr. Karrie Kalich of Keene State College. It successfully encourages preschoolers to eat more vegetables by growing, harvesting, and preparing organically grown foods. Early Sprouts meets NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards and Accreditation Criteria and aligns with early childhood education standards of most states. Come to this session to explore how you can incorporate Early Sprouts into your program!
Gardening Arts
Celebrate gardening with the arts in mind! Join Kathy Lyons, author of popular hands-on teacher resources to create a colorful ABC Garden collage, make vegetable pop-up puppets, learn garden and compost songs and use creative movement to discover how to “garden” with children while still in the classroom.
BeginningSchoolGardens
Would you like your school to have fresh veggies for snacks or even have the kids bring an array of veggies to the lunch ladies? Learn from start to finish how to build raised beds with kids; what you'll need and how much fun it is to help the kids use a drill, haul lumber and wheelbarrow soil to top off their endeavor (no pun intended, of course). Presenter, Kin Schilling runs the Cornucopia Project, which has grown from a tiny, seven family CSA to a non-profit that reaches local schools and communities.
Workshops (continued)
Getting to Know Your Local Farms and Farmers
Whether you are looking to purchase locally grown product for your preschool program, want to visit a farm on a regular basis, or create ongoing relationships between children and farmers, there are many exciting strategies for bringing farm fresh food and farmers to your preschoolers. Learn about successful ways to connect your childcare program to your local farms.Presenters will share resources, answer questions and inspire you with simple and replicable examples.
Kids Cooking and Tasting Together
Want to introduce new foods in your childcare program? Let’s get those kids tasting and cooking! This will be an active session where participants can experience tried and true strategies for involving kids with food preparation, tasting together, and sending recipes home to families. Be prepared to get your hands busy! Attendees will prep a number of dishes which we'll taste test at lunch time.
Successful Farm to Preschool Programs
This panel brings together key players from successful farm to preschool programs. Learn about a preschool that is located on a working farm, hear how one children’s center is adding a greenhouse to their vegetable gardens, and explore local food procurement and the Food Safety from Farm and Garden to Preschool Project. Presenters include, Karyn Ames of the Sandwich Children’s Center in Sandwich, NH, Matthew Roy from Otter Brook Farm in Peterborough, NH, and Violette , of UNH Cooperative Extension.
Financial and Material Resources for your PreSchool Program
Finding appropriate funding can be a hurdle to innovative preschool programming. This workshop session will feature presenters from the USDA/FNS, NH Charitable Foundation and NH Farm to School who will discuss funding opportunities the regional resources that can help you secure capital to bring your ideas to fruition!
Field Trips
Stonewall Farm
A non-profit working farm and education center located in Keene, NH. The farm offers education opportunities for preschool, school, scout and homeschool programs. The State licensed child care program, WildRootsNatureSchool,opened this year. It offers morning sessions for 3-5 year olds with activities around the farms’ landscapes. Another program called Budding Explorers, offered to 3-5 year olds, teaches about the role farms play in our everyday lives. This field trip includes a tour of the farm exploring the different areas and programs available to preschoolers.
Otter Brook Farm/Happy Valley School Field Trip
Explore how a farm and preschool have cultivated a partnership to produce an enriching farm-based environment for preschoolers. You will have the opportunity to view a high tunnel and planting shed along with exploring vegetable, herb and butterfly gardens. See how to incorporate the natural environment into your everyday preschool program.
Touchstone Farm
Come to Touchstone Farm and experience a field trip just as we would do for a class room! We will start with a tour of all our facilities then we will break in to 4 groups. Each group will have a chance at the four learning stations: parts of the horse using our mini horses, pony rides, grooming, and petting and chatting about our other farm animals. We will end withthe group having some time to chat about how we use animals as our co-teachers!
Brooks’ Side Farm
BSF has been a farm since 1780. It has 52-acres of beautiful open land, maple trees, a cranberry bog and rich history. Cornucopia uses about 5 acres for HancockElementary School gardens and sheep and donkey pasture. The farm is owned by the Mathewson family, who have been collaborating with the Cornucopia Project for four years.