The farm visit
Summary: Mr Valdez takes the class on a dairy farm visit.
They meet Mrs Jenkins, the farmer, and learn about how milk is produced.
Suggested age: 7-8 years old.
Key themes:
o Milk is produced by dairy cows.
o The milking process.
o Milk is made into other foods, like yogurt and cheese.
o Milk provides calcium – an important nutrient.
Teacher notes:
o Read The farm visit story with your class. You could print the PowerPoint and read it like a
book, or show it as a PowerPoint on an interactive whiteboard.
o Show The farm visit video – this includes the audio for the book.
o Ask the children the Key questions to help them engage with the story.
o Use all or some of the resources to carry the Key themes into across your curriculum.
o In the story Alisha offers her wrap to Jordan. You may wish to talk about this with your class,
as your schools may not allow children to share foods (for example, due to allergies). (The
story does not show Jordan taking the wrap.)
o Allow children to explore the online interactive activity entitled The farm visit.
Key questions:
Closed
o Where does milk come from?
o How are the cows milked?
o How much milk does a cow produce each day?
o What is Jordan’s favourite food?
o What foods can be made from milk?
o What word beginning with C, which is in milk, helps gives us strong bones?
o What drink, starting with M, can help keep us hydrated?
Open
o What dishes are made from milk and dairy foods?
Own experience
o Has anyone been to a farm before? What did they see?
o Has anyone been to a dairy farm before?
The farm visit activity ideas
To support different aspects of the story, a range of cross curricular resources have been
developed. These are in addition to the PowerPoint presentation and the video of the story. The
resources can be used as stand-alone materials, or combined together to support a longer unit of
work. The choice is yours.
You may wish to download all the materials and upload them to your school VLE.
All the resources below (unless stated) have been provided in Microsoft WORD format, allowing
you the flexibility to adapt the worksheets to better suit the needs of the children you teach. In
addition, all those resources marked with a star * are also available as Interactive Whiteboard
(IWB) files.
Curricula links
Resources
Thank you email
Ask the children
to write a thank
you email to Mrs
Jenkins from
one of the
characters in
The Farm visit.
England
Key stage 2
English – Year 3 and
4
Writing composition
There is opportunity to
cover the majority of
the statutory
requirements in this
curriculum section.
Missing words *
There are
missing words
from a number
of sentences
from the story.
Fill in the missing
words.
English – Year 3 and
4
Reading –
comprehension
Speech marks
A part of the
story has been
reproduced as
speech
bubbles.
Rewrite the
scene as text
with speech
marks.
English– Year 3 and 4
Writing – vocabulary,
grammar and
punctuation
-checking that the text
makes sense to them,
discussing their
understanding and
explaining the
meaning of words in
context
-using and punctuating
direct speech
Northern Ireland
Key stage 1
Language and
literacy
Writing
Write without
prompting, making
their own decisions
about form and
content.
Organise, structure
and present ideas
and information using
traditional and digital
means.
Develop increasing
competence in the
use of grammar and
punctuation.
Language and
literacy
Reading
Begin to locate,
select and use texts
for specific purposes.
Writing
Write without
prompting, making
their own decisions
about form and
content.
Language and
literacy
Reading
Read with some
independence for
enjoyment and
information.
Writing
Organise, structure
and present ideas
and information using
traditional and digital
means.
Use a legible style of
handwriting.
Scotland
First
Literacy and
English
Writing
LIT 1-21-24a, 1-26a,
1-28/29a, 1-30a
Wales
Key stage 2
English
Writing
Skills 1-6, 9
Range 1-4
Literacy and
English
Reading
LIT 1-14a, 1-16a, 117a
Writing
LIT 1-26a
English
Reading
Skills 1-3, 5, 6a
Range 2-4
Writing
Skills 9
Range 4
Literacy and
English
Reading
LIT 1-16a, 1-17a
Writing
LIT 1-21-24a, 1-26a,
1-28/29a
English
Reading
Skills 1-3, 5, 6a
Range 3
Writing
Skills 1-6, 9
Range 1-4
Resources
On the dairy
farm *
Read nonfiction and
answer a series
of questions
based on the
text.
England
Key stage 2
English – Year 3 and
4
Reading comprehension
-reading books that
are structured in
different ways and
reading for a range of
purposes
-retrieve and record
information from nonfiction
Milk production
Based on The
farm visit story,
describe how
milk is
produced.
English – Year 3 and
4
Writing composition
Cheesy maths *
10 cheese
maths
questions,
involving 4
operations are
provided.
Children must
work out each
cheese maths
question.
Mathematics – Year
3
Number – addition
and subtraction
Measuring *
Cows produce
slightly different
amounts of milk
each day.
Write the
measurement
shown.
Mathematics – Year
3
Measurement
There is opportunity to
cover the majority of
the statutory
requirements in this
curriculum section
-solve problems,
including missing
number problems…
Number –
multiplication and
division
-solve problems,
including missing
number problems,
involving multiplication
and division…
-measure, compare,
add, subtract: lengths,
mass,
volume/capacity
Northern Ireland
Key stage 1
Language and
literacy
Reading
Read with some
independence for
enjoyment and
information.
Use a range of
comprehension skills,
both oral and written,
to interpret and
discuss texts.
Language and
literacy
Writing
Begin to show
evidence of
sequence in recount
and instructions.
Scotland
First
Literacy and
English
Reading
LIT 1-12a, 1-14a, 116a, 1-17a
Writing
LIT 1-21-24a, , 128/29a
Wales
Key stage 2
English
Reading
Skills 1-3, 5, 6a
Range 3, 4
Writing
Skills 9
Range 1-4
Literacy and
English
Writing LIT 1-20a
Language, literacy
and
communication
skills
Writing
Organise and
present imaginative
and factual writing
in different ways.
Mathematics and
numeracy
Number
Understand the
operations of
addition, subtraction,
multiplication and
division (without
remainders) and use
them to solve
problems.
Develop strategies
for adding and
subtracting mentally
up to the addition of
two digit numbers
within 100.
Mathematics and
numeracy
Measures
Understand and use
language associated
with length, weight,
capacity, area and
time.
Handling data
Extract information
from a range of
charts, diagrams and
tables.
Numeracy and
mathematics
Number, money
and measure MNU
1-03a
Information
handling
MNU 1-20a
Mathematics
Skills 1
Identify, obtain and
process information
needed to carry
out the work.
Range 2
Use the
relationships
between the four
operations;
including inverses;
recognise situations
to which the
different operations
apply.
Numeracy and
mathematics
Number, money
and measure MNU
1-11a
Information
handling
MNU 1-20a
Mathematics
Skills 1
Appreciate the
continuous nature
of measures, and
that measurement
is approximate,
estimate measures,
and measure to an
approximate
degree of
accuracy in a
range of contexts.
Read information
from charts,
diagrams, graphs
and text.
Resources
England
Key stage 2
Mathematics – Year
3
Measurement
Northern Ireland
Key stage 1
Mathematics and
numeracy
Measures
Recognise times on
the analogue clock
and digital displays.
Scotland
First
Numeracy and
mathematics
Number, money
and measure MNU
1-10a
Information
handling
MNU 1-20a
Milk
consumption
A set of
questions about
the amount of
milk, cheese
and yogurt
Alisha, Ronnie,
Nicola and
Jordan
consume over a
week.
Mathematics – Year
3
Statistics
Numeracy and
mathematics
Number, money
and measure MNU
1-03a
Information
handling
MNU 1-20a
What’s made
from milk? *
Find out the
names of
different types
of milk, cheese
and yogurt.
Design and
technology
Mathematics and
numeracy
Number
Understand the
commutative
property of addition
and the relationship
between addition
and subtraction.
Understand the
operations of
addition,
subtraction,
multiplication and
division (without
remainders) and use
them to solve
problems.
Personal
development and
mutual
understanding
Personal
understanding and
health
Strategies and skills
for keeping
themselves healthy
and safe.
Recognising and
valuing the options
for a healthy
lifestyle, including
the benefits of
exercise, rest,
healthy eating and
hygiene.
Milking time *
Cows like to be
milked 2-3 times
a day. Looking
at a series of
clocks, what
times are the
cows milked? B
- Mrs Jenkins has
many jobs on
her farm, draw
the missing
hands on the
clock.
-tell and write the time
from an analogue
clock…
-solve one-step and
two-step questions
using information
presented in scaled
bar charts and
pictograms and tables
Cooking and
nutrition – Key stage
2
-understand
seasonality, and know
where and how a
variety of ingredients
are grown, reared,
caught and
processed
Technologies
Food and textiles
contexts for
developing
technological skills
and knowledge TCH
1-11a
Health and
wellbeing HWB 130a
Wales
Key stage 2
Mathematics
Skills 1
Read information
from charts,
diagrams, graphs
and text.
Range 1
Read times on
analogue and
digital clocks; use
timetables and
convert between
12- and 24-hour
clocks, calculate
time differences.
Mathematics
Skills 3
Develop a variety of
mental and written
strategies of
computation.
Range 2
Use the relationships
between the four
operations;
including inverses;
recognise situations
to which the
different operations
apply.
Design and
technology
Skills
Designing 2
Making 9
Range
Tasks in which they
explore and
investigate simple
products in order to
acquire
technological
knowledge and
understanding that
can be applied in
their designing and
making.
Resources
Cheese tasting
Set up a tasting
session using 4
different types
of cheese.
England
Key stage 2
Design and
technology
Evaluate
-investigate and
analyse a range of
existing products
Hmmm tasty
List the different
snacks the
friends could
have made
from milk,
cheese and
yogurt.
Design and
technology
Evaluate
The dairy farm
visit *
Write what is
happening in
each picture.
English – Year 3 and
4
Writing –
composition
-organise paragraphs
-investigate and
analyse a range of
existing products
around a theme
Northern Ireland
Key stage 1
Personal
development and
mutual
understanding
Personal
understanding and
health
Strategies and skills
for keeping
themselves healthy
and safe.
Recognising and
valuing the options
for a healthy
lifestyle, including
the benefits of
exercise, rest,
healthy eating and
hygiene.
The world around us
Progression
Understand that
different materials
behave in different
ways, have
different properties
and can be used
for different
purposes.
Scotland
First
Health and
wellbeing
Food and health
HWB 1-30a
Wales
Key stage 2
Design and
technology
Skills
Designing 2
Making 7, 9
Range
Tasks in which they
explore and
investigate simple
products in order to
acquire
technological
knowledge and
understanding that
can be applied in
their designing and
making.
Social studies
People, place and
environment
SOC 1-09a
Language and
literacy
Reading
Read and follow
simple instructions.
Writing
Distinguish between
drawing and
writing.
Write without
prompting and
make decisions
about how and
what they will write.
Literacy and English
Reading LIT 1-17a
Writing LIT 1-21-22a,
1-24a, 1-26a, 128/29a
Personal and social
education
Skills
Developing
communication
Contribute to class
discussions and
take part in
debates.
Range
The features and
physical and
emotional benefits
of a healthy
lifestyle.
Language, literacy
and
communication
Skills
Reading
Experience and
respond to a wide
range of print and
fonts.
Writing
Organise and
present imaginative
and factual writing
in different ways
Write
independently and
collaboratively in
response to a
variety of stimuli, on
subjects that are
interest and
importance to
them, including
stories, poems, class
activities and
Homophones
English – Year 3 and
4
Writing transcription
-spell further
homophones
Language and
Literacy
Writing
Use a variety of skills
to spell words
correctly.
Literacy and English
Writing
LIT 1 – 21a
personal
experiences.
English
Writing
Develop and use a
variety of strategies
to enable them to
spell correctly.
Get cooking!
Why not help your class explore the milk and dairy theme further by cooking some simple recipes?
The following recipes can be found on the Food –a fact of life website in the 5-8 tab:
Go to Cooking then Cool creations, for:
 Fruit smoothie (milk and yogurt)
 Veggie snacks (yogurt)
Go to Food and farming then Cool creations, for:
 Mackerel dip (soft cheese)
 Plum-berry layered dessert (yogurt)
Go to Food and farming then Hot and happening, for:
 Welsh rarebit (cheese and milk)
Acknowledgement
This work has been developed by the British Nutrition Foundation, and is supported by the
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board's (AHDB) milk sector organisation - DairyCo.
www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
© Food – a fact of life 2014