Agricultural Education Day
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Celebrating the working steer: it’s team work
Download Ag-Ed Day Registration Form (PDF)
Schedule | Student Essay | Integrate the Fair in your Classroom | Bibliography
Schedule: (all groups must enter by Gate 4/vendor gate for free check-in from 8-10AM); 1 chaperone for 2-5 kids; home schools must bring at least 2 kids for chaperone to get in free. Chaperones are age-dependent, pre-schoolers may need 2 for 5-6 kids, teenagers need maybe 1 for 6-8. an average per public elementary schools is 1 chaperone for 4 or 5 students (k-5). Pre-registration is essential with ages of students to make sure the chaperone ratio works.
| FLORAL HALL & THE JUNIOR DIVISION BUILDING: See many exhibits of fancy work, food, canned goods, art and vegetables entered by children and school, as well as many adults.DODGE-GILMAN BUILDING: See vegetables, fruits, largest pumpkin, Christmas trees, wreaths, flowers, and egg judging.VISIT THE SUGAR HOUSE: Check out the maple syrup competition and displays. | The north OVAL, visit Children’s Barnyard for younger children and new Sheep & Goat Barns. Please make sure that the children wash their hands properly after handling any of the animals.THE ANIMAL BARNS: Visit show-cows, horses, chicks, ducks, chickens, sheep, rabbits, pigs, goats and oxen.Please make sure that the children wash their hands properly after handling any of the animals. |
Essay from a Sheep Show Exhibitor
Tunbridge Fair
Written by Nadia McCollister Age 10 Grade Five East Montpelier, Vermont October, 2014
In Tunbridge, Vermont, there is a big fair called Tunbridge Fair. It is held in the fall. I’ve taken my sheep there a lot. We bring the sheep on Wednesday and stay until Sunday. On Thursday I go to my school. Then I miss Dance to go check on the sheep. We give them food and water. After we work with our sheep for a long time, like three hours, my friends and I use our armbands to go on the rides.
Every year the sheep show is on Saturday evening. My friends and I show our sheep in a ring. I’m showing the judge how well I can handle and trim them. I like to show and then get a creamie and go on the rides.
This year when I went to the Sugarhouse to get my creamie, I met one of the maple guys. He was really interested in my ribbons and in learning about my sheep. The next day, he came to my sheep barn, and we talked about my sheep. I walked back to the Sugarhouse with him to get some maple cotton candy. There was a big line so he bought it for me. He went around and into the Sugarhouse and brought out a bag of fluffy white maple cotton candy for me.
On Sunday I walked around the whole Fair with my sheep. Luckily it wasn’t raining. The weather was warm and sunny, but not too hot. I went to History Hill. I met a lot of people and they were interested in my sheep. They asked questions like how old my sheep was (a yearling) and what’s its name. (I had Tap and Amber.)
I saw a friend from my Dance class. She thought it might have been different and cool to walk around the whole Fair with my two sheep. She was walking with her Mom and Dad and her little sister. I felt happy to see her and to have a fun time playing with my sheep at the Fair.
I took my black sheep, Licorice, to the 4-H Steer and Oxen Obstacle Course. The oxen were backing in between two poles on the ground. They were doing figure eights around two cones. They also did a trick that I think the kids, their handlers, had taught them. I saw some pick up their oxen’s feet and some make their oxen move using a crop which they had stored in the yoke. The handlers made the oxen move without touching them.
I took Licorice back into her stall. She stayed there until we took all the sheep home in our trailer. I’ll go back probably next year to walk my sheep all over the Fair again.
Nadia and her sheep live at East Montpelier Center Farm. She and her family produce pastured poultry and pork and grass-fed lamb and wool. They have shown for several years at Tunbridge Fair. Nadia’s family coordinates a 4-H club. They take part in statewide sheep 4-H activities.
Integrate Tunbridge fair into your classroom
Ideas and Web Links:
Resources:
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Bibliography for younger grades
Yesteryear Maple Poultry Fair Horses/Donkeys | Bees Vegetables and Fruits/Apples Crafts and Cooking Farm Life/Barn/Animals |
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