Online Farm Education Videos
From Farm to Tablet: Virtual Learning for Children, Pre-School to Grade 4
Lessons from our Farm encompasses the sights and sounds of our farm. Filmed here in Durham Region, they are a series of 5-7 minute videos taking the children on a virtual field trip . We visit our farm animals, explore our farm and fields, and investigate their food’s journey from the farm to their fork.
Extend your farm visit into your classroom with free access to our Lessons from the Farm when you book a tour!
Before you visit, preview our videos as an introduction to our farm, the plants we grow, and the animals we care for. The children’s comfort level increases while on tour because of their familiarity with the farm and the concepts we cover.
After your visit, reviewing the videos and using the accompanying resource sheets helps strengthen their understanding of the concepts learned.
Farming Foundations for all Ages
See, Listen, and Learn –
- Investigate the basic needs and characteristics of living things while focusing on farm animals and plants.
- Develop an understanding of their general characteristics by observing their similarities and differences.
- See the growth and changes in animals and plants.
Children will come to appreciate the importance of living things in our environment and the need to treat them with care and respect.
Digging Deeper into Sustainability
See, Listen, and Learn
- Build on the earlier lessons, and deepen your understanding that living things rely on other living things for energy and the resources they need to live.
- Encompass a broader knowledge of nature – what sustains life and the environment around us.
- Investigate the concepts of soils and habitats.
Meet our Educators
Has a passion for the land
Farmer Jim
Born in the city, Farmer Jim grew up with a passion to farm. Working on a variety of farms throughout his youth he managed to start his own in 1972. With over 40 years of working on leased land he was able to fulfill his dream of owning his own farm in 1997 when we acquired a 50 acre farm here in Greenbank.
Since that time our Greenbank farm has been developed into a beautiful location for school children and families to visit. Farmer Jim’s passion for growing food is seen in our fields of fruits and vegetables to supply our market and for pick your own. He is happy to share his passion with others by offering fun family activities and educational on farm tour programs.
Has a passion for connecting people with the farm
Farmer Leslie
A small town girl with a family history in farming, Farmer Leslie loves science and people. It took marrying Farmer Jim to get her onto a farm and the passion to share it was born. Always willing to learn herself, she connected with teachers wanting to bring their students for an on farm tour experience. With over 30 years of presenting our farm’s educational program along with the help of our creative and engaged staff she is now learning to go digital.
A passion for bees and honey
Beekeeper James
We first met James selling his honey at the East Gwilliambury Farmers Market. He has a passion for bees and honey while ensuring quality was number one. Three years ago James agreed to put beehives on our farm so we could benefit from their pollination services as well as sell the raw honey in our market that the bees produced. He has always been approachable when tending to his hives and willing to answer questions from our staff and student visitors. Being so knowledgeable in beekeeping and eager to teach made him our go to beekeeper for our video.
Meet those who helped make our online program a reality
Bruce Sargent – Farmboy Productions
Bruce, an award winning photographer, expressed a passion for farm education when first approached to help produce our videos. Growing up on a dairy farm his knowledge of agriculture and his skill in photography and film helped make our videos as great as they are. His tagline – bringing people, farmers, food and technology together through the lens of digital media is clearly evident in the work he has done on this project.
You can find him at farmboypro.ca
Julia Morch
Julia joined us in early April to help guide this project through its many phases. She has her Masters degree in Education along with an extensive background in outdoor education. Julia lead our team of farm instructors through the development of our lessons keeping us focused on the main concepts to highlight in the short time the videos allowed us. Condensing and editing the information into 5 minute episodes was a challenge she steered us through as we were all used to hosting 3 hour farm tours.
Mary Sullivan
Website designer extraordinaire. Mary and I go way back, too many years to mention. Her creativity, willingness to investigate options and learn new skills has made our online education video program accessible digitally. Find her website at germars.com
Our Farm Tour Instructors
Much appreciation goes out to our team of farm tour instructors who, because of the pandemic, were unable to conduct tours on our farm this year. Many have been teaching with us for years. This video project gave us a reason to connect and we all learned to Zoom. Thanks to their support and hard work in documenting their favorite activities we were able to present to you Lessons from the Farm.
This project was made possible with the partnership of Central Counties Tourism.
We thank them for their assistance in the funding of this project.