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After seeing cattle on a livestock farm tour, position one child at the front of the tour group and talk about the parts of an animal. Does the animal have horns? The class votes and, if yes, put horns on the child. Does the animal have a tail? If the vote is yes, then ask what the tail is used for. If the class says the tail is used to swat fies put a tail on the child that is a fyswatter. Continue until all the physical attributes of that animal have been attached to the child. This can be modifed for any domesticated farm animal.

Another popular activity is bottle feeding young animals. One farm distributes milk bottles with nipples then opens a door for several small animals (goats, pigs, etc.) to come running in for the children to feed from their bottles. The animals must be ones that have been handled a lot so they are comfortable around people and not aggressive. They should also be kept very clean.

Hold a scavenger hunt. If you are sending children on a scavenger hunt or to play a game in a corn maze you will need a hand-held school bell or loudhailer to collect them up.

Tour lengths vary from 90 minutes to all-day programs. The length is usually determined by your customer base. As most school tours use school buses to transport students to the farm, the tour group can’t leave for the farm until the bus runs are done in the morning and they must be back at school in time for the afternoon bus run. Factoring in how far the school is from your farm will give you the maximum length a tour can be for any given school. This is less of an issue with home-schooled children and

It is common for farms to offer different packages with different components so each tour may run a different length of time. Tours can include:

• orientation – including any safety rules and policies you have (15 min.)

• walking tour of certain aspects of the farm (20 - 40 min.) • wagon ride around the farm, to see crops/pick a pumpkin (20 - 30 min.)

• demonstration – milking a cow/ goat, spinning wool (15 min.) • dressing a child up like an animal (20 min.)

• activity such as planting a seed or transplant, gathering eggs, or feeding an animal (15 - 20 min.) • explanations of different crops or soils (15 min.) • small maze (20 min.)

• play time (if you have a play area for children) (20 min.)

• washing hands and getting ready to leave (20 min.)

Access to a building extends the tour season. A building or canopy can be used to conduct the orientation, demonstrations, activities, etc. It is nice to be outside, but having indoor facilities where you can do a large portion of the tour means fewer cancellations if the weather is poor.

• Crafts such as paint a pumpkin or ice pumpkin cookies. Some farms have students carve a pumpkin using special childproof knives. • Count the number of seeds from different plants.

• Compare different kinds/sizes/ colours/shapes of seeds.

• Discuss what parts of the plant we eat (root – carrot, tuber – potato, stem – celery, fower – broccoli, fruit – tomato, leaves – lettuce, seeds – sweet corn).

• Dress-up activities such as dress students as a cow.