The Life Skills & Transition program has been spending its afternoons at Farm Friends in Big Rock. The students participate in several activities while at the farm. They clean the alpaca pen, fill the alpaca pool, feed the alpaca and chickens, pick vegetables, water plants, plant new flowers, and check the water temperature in the pond. Students also have classroom discussions where they learn about corn, soybeans, pumpkins, and farming. They have cooked in the kitchen at the farm and gone on a scavenger hunt.
This week is Halloween, and to celebrate, we carved pumpkins. Each student was given a pumpkin, a marker, and a fork. Students used markers to draw a face on their pumpkin. Once the face was drawn, each student used their fork to scrape the outer shell off the pumpkin. They continued to scrape the outer shell until the flesh of the pumpkin was revealed. Students scraped the face of the pumpkin inside the areas they drew with the marker. Once the areas were completely scraped, students placed their pumpkins inside the chicken pen. The pumpkins were left for a couple of days in the chicken pen, and the chickens pecked through the pumpkin to reveal the face. By the end of the week, students took home a pumpkin that was carved without the use of knives or other cutting tools. The students were all happy with their pumpkins and learned that pumpkins are a treat for chickens. It was a great experience for our students!
