We Brought Our 2nd Graders On A Virtual Trip To Bloomsbury Farm In Iowa! You Can Too!

On Friday, we hosted our first virtual field trip with our 2nd graders and their families.  

We go on dozens and dozens of Skype in the Classroom field trips each year at Van Meter, but this time it was different because all of us were at home.  

In fact, as the end of the year comes to end for us in May and that is the time they take a lot of field trips to places like farms, zoos, science centers and other places around Iowa, we are taking all of our students on special virtual field trips throughout the month.  

To organize our ideas and plans for field trips, I put together a Google Document for teachers to add requests and for me to fill in with the details as I got them planned. This worked out really well and it was nice for them to see what the other grades were planning too. 

Our first virtual field trip was to beautiful Bloomsbury Farm about two hours away from Van Meter in Atkins, Iowa. 

As they shared on the Bloomsbury website,

At Bloomsbury Farm, we are taking the classroom to the corn!  

First, they have kicked off a new series of virtual field trip.  On the Bloomsbury Farm YouTube channel, you will find the first video,

Corn Farming #1 Planting the Corn Crop.  It is such a wonderful introduction to the farm and this series that Sammy Peterson hosts and created, along with her family who own and run Bloomsbury.

They are also hosting live virtual field trips right now so I signed up our 2nd graders to be part of one.

As the students and families got ready for our virtual field trip, I brought together lots of special things together on this Let's Learn About Bloomsbury Farm Choice Board where they can learn more about farms, planting, animals and butterflies. 

At the end, they can even go to Buncee to share what they learned and loved about the field trip. 

Check out the one that Mrs. Ferguson, one of our 2nd grade teachers, created as an example.  It is so cute and such a wonderful way to share what they learned through PebbleGo, eBooks and of course, with Sammy on their field trip. 

We had almost 80 students, along with their families, join the virtual trip. Sammy showed us so many amazing things on the farm.  She talked about the grain bins and farm equipment, 

explained how her dad, Farmer David, planted the fields with corn and...

...shared what they planted in the butterfly garden...

...and how to water and care for it. 

As Sammy headed to show us the animals, she stopped to get some feed for them and...

... talked about all of the ways corn is used. 

And the kids loved seeing all of the animals!  

It was definitely one of the best field trips and we are so lucky we all were able to go virtually. 

Thank you Sammy, Karen and David.  Bloomsbury Farm is such a special place and we loved spending time with all of you.  We can't wait to come back soon. 

You can follow them on the new Bloomsbury Farm Virtual Field Trip Adventures Facebook page too.