Lifestyle

Spring Valley Hosts Timothy Elementary School

May 15, 2008

90 Thirds graders joined Rachel, Kathleen and Hugo at SVE to see, hear, touch, smell and feel a little nature. The tour was full of delights…we pondered on why horses may stomp their feet when they eat…are they happy? Certainly.

The tour went much like a proper kids story should go:

The kids who followed the chickens, who followed the cows, who ate the grass, that fed the bugs, and woke up the soil, that nourished the plants.

Let’s all stay "kid". And keep asking questions. We were unprepared for the wide variety of questions we received. It gives us hope. The lesson is: Never think you know it all…if you did, what fun would it be in trying? We did explore beautifully the environment, the connections we all may have, roots, food, and the ecosystems we are part of.

"At every point on the farm, the kids had questions that led to more questions."
"The third-graders jumped at the chance to explore budding strawberries, study exotic greenhouse plants, and gaze at cows grazing in the distance." Kathleen Frey, UGA

"Spring Valley Eco-farm creates an outdoor learning-laboratory that allows kids and adults an opportunity to use all their senses in order to understand how farmlife can work with nature to produce food for people while also conserving nature." Rachel Smalls, UGA

Rachel Marie Smalls asks the kids about what they perceive around them.Photo above.

Kids experience the wonderment of the exotic tropical greenhouse.Photo at right.

Spring Valley EcoFarms is excited to announce that it’s hosting tours for school age children in grades K-12.

In the effort to reach out to a wide range of people and support the local community through outreach and education, Spring Valley EcoFarms is widening it’s scope and reaching out to the youth community of the Southeast to support diversification through sparking the imagination of children.

In addition to witnessing the innate beauty of the Spring Valley EcoFarms site, children attending the scheduled tours will focus on defining the basics of sustainability, ecology, environmental awareness, biodiversity and organic agriculture. Tours at the site also allow for understanding concrete scientific experiments and applications, and interactive sightseeing with animals, forest trails, ponds, creeks, insects and much more!

SVE is also pleased to share with it’s younger constituents a web portal made available through the Convention on Biodiversity. The web portal introduces, at an age-appropriate level, the concept of biological diversity and highlights the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be able to feed the world, maintain agricultural livelihoods, and enhance human well being into the 21st century and beyond. At the same time, it encourages students to explore the importance of maintaining the world's biological diversity, upon which future agricultural production and cultural diversity are so dependant.

To access the portal click here!

Information on school tours can be obtained by emailing us with your special request. The tours are fun, free and customized for your group.