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White Meadows Farm is a maple syrup operation. That’s not likely of much interest to you, but their school tours webpage does a nice concise job of outlining how they tie curriculum into their tours: http://www. whitemeadowsfarms.com/

Farms for Schools in the United Kingdom has a great overview of how to organize school visits to agricultural events. This site includes lots of detail (forms, risk assessment): http://www. farmsforschools.org.uk/

University of California , (Davis campus) has a pretty thorough overview of organizing school tours on the farm: http://www.sarep.ucdavis. edu/Grants/Reports/Kraus/97-36FarmersGuide.htm

Ontario’s Markham Fair has a very complete write-up on how they link their agricultural fair to the provincial core curriculum. Although the curriculum content may vary slightly between provinces, this is a great

resource. Check with your local schools to access their curriculum for different age groups, and then look at the Markham Fair site to see what you can extract. On the Markham fair site, pay special attention to the Curriculum Connections for the different age groups, Educational Scavenger Hunt and the Education Guide. The Education Guide covers most of the critical aspects you need to consider for a well organized school tour, including:

• what students will learn from their visit

• what teachers might cover in class before their visit

• what students should bring on the school tour (proper clothing etc.) • activities the class can do during the bus ride to the farm • what students will see (each activity and its relevance to education)

• follow-up activities teachers can use back in the class room • sample questions based on what the kids will see as well as the answers (many of the questions are designed for older children, but it will stimulate ideas for questions for younger children)

Your focus may be different than that of the Markham Fair, but this website gives you an excellent outline that you can tailor to your farm: http://www. markhamfair.ca/

National Western Stock Show , Denver, CO – Their teacher’s handbook (great resource on all types of domesticated animals) has ideas on how to develop theme activities and education around animals: http://www.nationalwestern.com/

Shelburne Farms is a nonproft state owned education center and historic site near Shelburne in Vermont. Their mission is to teach young people about conservation. They are considered by many farms to be an excellent resource for school tour program ideas. Some farms will take staff to one of Shelburne Farms’ workshop programs to learn content and how to present it to children: http://www.shelburnefarms.org/ educationprograms/index.shtm

Saskatoon Prairieland Corporation , Saskatoon, SK – This site has program outlines for cattle, grains, gardens, pork and dairy: http:// www.saskatoonex.com/ppevents. php?event=782

There are so many resources available and a hundred ways to do it right! Before you develop your tour programs be sure to check out the resources listed below. You may fnd that much of the work of designing the informational content of a tour has already been done.