Philadelphia First Graders Delighted by Snipes Farm Field Trip in Bucks County
Petting Goats and Bunnies and Tromping through the Woods Highlighted Elementary Lessons about Farm and Nature
By Larry Teitelbaum
November 2023
A first-grade girl from a Philadelphia charter school picks up a pile of yellow leaves on a farm and nature field trip at Snipes Farm & Education Center in Bucks County. Photo credit: Larry Teitelbaum
In early November as an early frost glazed the fields, dozens of schoolchildren spilled out of three yellow school buses for a Fall Field Trip at Snipes Farm & Education Center in Morrisville, PA.
As each first grader from Mast Charter Community School 2 in NE Philadelphia hit the ground, it was as if they had traveled back in time to a quieter, agrarian era —oddly juxtaposed against the noisy rush of traffic on nearby Route 1.
Bundled against the cold in beanies and hoods, the students bounced up and down, murmured and squealed, hardly able to contain their excitement as they looked forward to a chance to pet the farm animals and tromp through the woods.
Snipes Farm & Education Center, a nonprofit, bills these visits as educational, and this one certainly lived up to that billing on this day.
What did the children learn? Well, they learned that some ducks can’t fly, that rabbits, like mothers, have eyes on the sides of their heads so they can see everything, and that goats butt heads to settle arguments.
Young Doctor Dolittles
Let’s just say the children got along famously with the goats, no butts about it.
For the past 30 years, Snipes Farm has invited groups of school children and their teachers from the surrounding region to enjoy farm and nature field trips in the spring and fall.
Through the years, Snipes Farm has developed a remarkable curriculum that is customized to meet the needs of each visiting class.
How’s this? Like young Doctor Dolittles, students can talk to the animals – bunnies, goats, chickens, quail and ducks – and learn about their anatomy, daily lives, and care.
They learn how food is grown and can enjoy a taste of fresh, farm-grown produce.
They can touch antique carriages, wagons and sleighs in the Ol’ Time Museum and learn about how vital horses were to the development of human commerce.
They can explore the woodlands and the road-less-traveled Nature Trail. They can visit the apiary and learn how bees keep our agricultural and natural ecosystems humming.
And they can view a broad meadow from the farm’s new bird blind. If they are lucky, they might hear the chirping chorus of a migrating flock of birds.
Children from a local day care center get a chance to pet a fuzzy Snipes Farm rabbit during their 2023 field trip.
Connect with Nature
“The overall goal of a field trip is to help children and adults to connect with the farm, to gain more comfort with the outdoors, to be inspired by the work that we are doing but also just by the sheer beauty of nature, and the miracle of it all,” said Melanie Douty Snipes, the nonprofit farm’s director of education. “They also learn what it means to be good stewards of the land.”
“Care of the Earth starts with care of ourselves,” she often tells her visitors. “And one way we can take care of ourselves is getting outside. We need nature in our lives.”
Charlotte Sarkos, a first-grade teacher at the Mast charter school, said all 8 first-grade classes go every year. The day before this field trip, Sarkos said, she talked with her students about animal habitats and the life cycle of a pumpkin in science class. “They were very excited to see the pumpkins. When we were walking in the woods, they were so excited to see the trees.”
Puddles the Duck
On this particular day, I tagged along with Sarko’s class. First up, Puddles the Duck.
Guide Cameron Miller picked up Puddles and cradled him in his arms. The duck didn’t mind. Cameron asked the students what they noticed about him.
“He’s white.”
Boys from the Pine Road Elementary School enjoy hiding out in a tree fort made of branches along the Snipes Farm Nature Trail during their field trip.
“He has connected feet.”
Actually, they’re webbed feet, Cameron explained, which ducks use as built-in flippers for swimming.
When Cameron let go of Puddles, he flapped his wings mightily and briefly went airborne, scattering the children. But alas this duck, like a pig, really could not fly, destined to remain earthbound.
Cameron picked Puddles back up and invited the children to pet him. They did so and said: “He’s soft!”
At the farm’s “Rabbitat”, rabbits twitch their noses and scamper about. On this day, they accepted lots of love from their visitors. Students got in line to pat Lulu, and she soaked it up. Cameron explained that rabbits can only breathe through their noses. Imagine that! He asked the first graders to try breathing — just through their noses.
One student wondered how long bunnies live, then supplied his own answer: “To a hundred in dog years.”
Next up: the chicken coop, where children mimicked the cock-a-doodle cries of their new-found, fine-feathered friends.
For the grand finale, the students were led to a large pen with a 7-year-old goat named Belle. With warnings in place – “please be gentle and don’t stand behind them” – the students entered and stroked the docile creature. The goats were just as curious about the children as they were about the goats.
Off to the Woods
And then it was off to the woods. Remnants of the farm’s recently concluded fall festival and Halloween movie nights dotted the landscape. Think scarecrows and assorted ghoulish creatures. Things that go bump in the night.
A bevy of girls from the Pine Road Elementary School takes a break from their tromp through the woods on the Snipes Farm Nature Trail.
Author Bill Bryson in his popular book A Walk in the Woods, made this observation from his Appalachian Trail adventures: “At some point on each walk there comes a moment when I look up and notice, with a kind of first-time astonishment, the amazing complex delicacy of the woods, the casual ease with which elemental things come together to form a composition that is – whatever the season, wherever I put my besotted gaze – perfect.”
Yes, the path was perfect at Snipes Farm, too, with nature in its full glory, resplendent in crimson and russet tones. Huge gold leaves formed a plush carpet at the entrance to the woods.
Snipes field guide Eddie Sarceno, aka Farmer Eddie, warned the students not to touch anything they didn’t recognize. So, of course, they were immediately distracted by the spindly appearance of a “daddy longlegs,” enough to make a brave man shiver.
Two young children peer through a cutout picture at Snipes Farm following their field trip.
The children then crossed a metal bridge over a creek, encountering nature’s balance beam – a long fallen log. Without fear, several students walked gingerly along the top of the log. No one fell off before the guide told everyone that this impromptu gym class was over. What followed were a series of scattered “bridges” – more like planks – that formed a walkway over the muddy root- and debris-laden forest floor.
And just like that came the call of the wild: lunch. Time to chow down at the picnic tables and reflect on the day’s adventures.
Tom Neveil of NE Philadelphia, who had accompanied his daughter Dylan on the trip, said he considered Snipes Farm to be a kind of hidden treasure in the region.
“The highlight for me was just to see her (Dylan’s) face and see how excited she was to get close to the animals and actually touch them and share the experience with her friends from school,” said Neveil, whose son Thomas, a third grader at Mast Charter Community School 2, has yet to make the trip.
And what did Dylan have to say?
She said she loved the field trip “because I got to pet the bunny.”
Had she ever done that before?
“No,” she admitted with a shy smile.
