Farm/School Correspondence

Kindergarten classes are corresponding with local Vermont farmers.  The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) connects classes with local farmers.  Our classroom corresponds with Mary and Onan Whitcomb in Williston.  They have a large farm with about 350 dairy cows.  We have written a few letters back and forth at this point.  Our class is very interested in the way Mary and Onan milk their cows.  Their fist letter to us mentioned that they had robots milking their cows.  As you might imagine kindergarten scholars were fascinated by the idea of robots milking cows and wondered what that might look like.  We all wrote back to our farmer friends asking many questions about their farm and especially about their robots.  We asked if the robots had names, how they were made, how the robots knew when the cows wanted to be milked, etc.  We even drew pictures of what we thought a robot milking a cow might look like.  Mary and Onan were nice enough to write back and answer all of our questions.  They even sent pictures of the robots milking the cows.  We are excited to continue writing to our farmer friends and learn more about them, their robots, and their farm.  We hope to visit their farm in the spring.