We continued our East Montpelier: Past, Present, and Future unit with visits from special guest speakers, a visit to Fairmont Farm, and our East Montpelier Tour field trip. We are currently working on our “Wonders of East Montpelier” books which will be on display for Technology Night on June 19th.
We visited Fairmont Farm, which currently has about 850 dairy cows. We toured the milking parlor, and the calf barn, which was a big highlight, as we got to meet some of the newest additions to Fairmont Farm. Bonnie Hall taught us about current technology that the farm uses and how dairy farming has changed over time.
Erica Zimmerman from Center Farm visited us with two of her lambs to teach us about her sheep farm and the various products that her farm produces.
Bruce Chapell from Templeton Farm came to our classroom and shared information about his family run farm where they raise cattle and produce maple syrup. He also told us about the history of the earliest permanent settlers in East Montpelier, the Templetons and Dodge families.
Lucy McGibney visited us and shared what it was like to attend the Four Corners Schoolhouse as a child. It was interesting to hear how her school experiences were similar and different to our experiences at EMES today.
This week, we participated in our East Montpelier Tour field trip. Groups of students traveled to many different sites around town, learning about their history and why these places are so important. The sites we visited were:
- Four Corners Schoolhouse
- The Old Meeting House
- The hangar building
- Dudley's store (My former student was a tour guide!)
- East Montpelier Fire Station
- Morse Farm
- The Town Clerk's office
- U-32
A big thank you to all of the parent chaperones and site volunteers who helped make this field trip possible!
