Old McDonald’s Farm, Inc.

Adult Orientation

Dear Teacher/Staff/Parent/Volunteer Person:

Welcome to Old McDonald’s Farm, Inc. (OMF). After six years, over $120,000 in cash and in-kind contributions and more than 1,350 people logging in close to 19,900 hours of volunteer time, OMF offers four programs for students. The first is our Day Visit Program, then Special Programs for students with special needs, an After-School Program and lastly, our Summer Program. We have worked long and hard to build this program so your group can be here today.

OMF is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing an educational experience in a hands-on, farm setting to children in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area. We are not a petting zoo! We have an extensive curriculum written and have very realistic and relevant goals in place for your child or this group of children. We are not necessarily teaching children to be farmers but rather using a farm to teach kids good, life skills. Children can learn in the areas of:

· Language Arts - reading, writing and speaking

· Science - animal husbandry, life cycles, agriculture and environmental studies;

· Geography - be introduced and/or further explore world geography;

· Life Skills - respect, safety, kindness, and good values;

· Math - counting, calculation, measurement and estimation

· History - of OMF and of farming

To understand the knowledge and skill level of your group, your teacher/contact person has completed an “Intake Form.” Please be aware that this gives us a general idea for the group as a whole, however, it may not accurately represent each individual child.

The OMF program that reaches the most children is our Day Visit Program, (approximately 700 kids per year). Going into our fourth season with the Day Visit Program, it will clearly not support five or six OMF full-time, paid staff to be a leader of each small group of children. To charge what would be necessary would be prohibitively expensive for groups to attend. What makes more sense is to utilize teachers, staff and parents as “OMF teachers” for our program. This is why we do not charge for “adult educators.” You are asked to read information in the Learning Center Boxes and facilitate small group discussions. Behavior modeling is one of the foremost ways Children learn. Therefore, a positive, “can do” attitude from you is very important. Please help us make this a great educational experience for the kids.

What can you expect? Students will start on their Farm Activity Books, we will then have an orientation to the Farm, then go over Safety Rules where we will let children know our expectations, and past that we will go outside to see some animals and the farm site. Lastly, we will gather again as a large group to have wrap-up, talk time. This is a working farm, not a play ground. Please keep your kids in your small group and watch them carefully, we want everyone to be safe and have a good time.

OMF sincerely thanks you for your interest in our program.

Best wishes,

Stephanie D. Rickert Leslie E. Cochran

Executive Director Education Director