On the day of the field trip, all of the second-grade kids were bouncing around. There was lots of chatter, but no one could understand what anyone else was saying.

The teacher said, “OK, boys and girls. We will be leaving in a few minutes. You need to settle down.“

Larry said to Lisa, very quietly, “You are going to bring your drawing stuff, right?“

Lisa responded, very quietly, “Of course.“

The school provided a bus for the children, the teacher and the parents to ride to the farm. Everyone went in an orderly way to the bus, as orderly as second graders can be.

As they were riding on the bus to the farm, Larry looked out the window and saw the donut shop.

Larry said, “I guess we’re not gonna stop at the donut shop.”

Frank said, “I guess not!“

——

When they got to the farm, all of the kids were very excited.

Frieda said, “This is a lot more exciting than I thought it was going to be!”

Lisa said, “How could that possibly be, Frieda? You were so excited this week, I thought you were going to bust.”

The guide said, “My name is Roger, but most of my friends call me Rowdy Roger. That’s because I always want to have a wonderful time. And I know all of you will have a wonderful time with me today!“

Charlie said, “I like this farm already! It looks kinda like my grandparent’s farm. Do you have horses here?“

Roger said, “We certainly do, partner! Have you ever ridden a horse before?”

Charlie said, “Well, just with someone holding the reins for me, but it was a lot of fun.“

Roger said to the whole group, “We do have horses here. Some kids love to ride on horses, even if they’ve never ridden on one before. But others don’t want to. That’s OK. We will have a lot of fun things to do today.“

The first thing that Roger did was have the children walk around the farm and look at the different kinds of trees. Roger explained to the students why some of the trees have leaves that turn color and fall off, but others do not.

Then, Roger talked to the children about seeds.

Roger said, “Can you see this little seed in my hand?“

Mary said, “Well, it is a pretty small seed. I guess most seeds are small.”

Roger responded, “Yes, you’re right about that. Even though the seed is small, God made it so that it can become a big tree. This seed came from an apple. Apple trees are very interesting. If you take an apple seed and plant it, there will be several years before an apple will appear on the tree. But once apples start appearing on the tree, the apple tree is able to produce a lot of apples in each season. From one apple seed, thousands of apples can be produced. And of course, inside each of the apples, are a bunch more seeds.“

Larry asked, “Roger, is that the reason why a lot of farmers like to grow apple trees? Because they get a lot of apples that they can sell with a small number of trees?”

Roger answered, “That could be. An interesting thing about apples is that you get so many different kinds. Some types of apples grow much better in colder climates, while other ones need warmer climates. When you go into the grocery store, you will find lots of different kinds of apples; some red, some yellow, some green.”

Janet said, “This is really cool. I didn’t think I was gonna learn anything fun out here on the farm.”

Roger said, “I’m glad that you’re all interested in nature. God created a lot of different things. I think it’s fascinating to learn about them.”

Roger took the class over to the barn.

Roger said to the class, “We were talking earlier about seeds that you plant in the ground, like apple seeds. There are other kinds of seeds that we think more about eating than planting. We call these grains. We eat the corn seeds as a vegetable. We grind up the wheat seeds and make bread.”

Frank said, “And we eat watermelon and spit the seeds out. That is a lot of fun!”

Roger said, “Yes. Seeds can be fun, as well.”

Roger continued, “When we harvest the crops here on the farm, we put some of them in the barn until we’re ready to sell them. Some are sold to grocery stores. Others become food for farm animals.”

Alice said, “It must be hard to keep track of all these different things you grow, and what you want to do with them.”

Roger said, “It can be. That is why a lot of farmers only have one or two things that they grow at one time. We grow a lot of different things and have a lot of different kind of animals here on this farm, so that you can learn about a lot of different things when you come.”

The teacher said, “Thanks, Roger. We really appreciate all you taught us today.“

The teacher said to the class, “We’re going to have lunch now. After lunch, anyone who wants to ride a horse will be able to.“

All of the kids said thank you to Roger for being their guide.

——

After lunch, while the kids were riding the horses, Lisa decided to sit on a bench and sketch the horses. She also included some of the pretty leaves from the trees in the background.