We are constantly hearing people say they want to connect to where their food comes from. Here at the Manitoba Canola Growers, we like to start early. After all, our children are the ones who will become the decision-makers of tomorrow.
What better way to teach children about agriculture than in a real farm setting?
At the Canola Learning Centre (CLC), that’s exactly what we do. The CLC is a free farm tour and learning experience where our purpose is to educate urban students and their educators about canola and other Manitoba crops. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to make this connection for themselves. Tours for this summer have been underway for a month.
During May and June we run tours for school age children. For a lot of kids, this will be their first experience on a farm. They have so much fun playing games and occupying themselves with other hands-on activities they don’t realize this isn’t just a day away from school and it’s a fun learning experience.
The tour starts off with some indoor activities will kids learn about Manitoba crops and what they look like. They get the opportunity to match seeds to the plant it comes from and learn what non-edible everyday products are made using some of our local crops.
The canola crush is always one of the favourite activities. Kids learn about grading canola and get to make their own samples of canola oil to take home and show their parents.
Another tour favourite is the outdoor portion. The group is taken to a tour to the fields in a wagon-pulled tractor. Once at the field, they get to see, touch and even taste the plants. They learn the difference between good and bad bugs and even get to do a bug sweep of the fields themselves.
What piques most students’ curiosity is all the farm equipment on site. After learning about what they do, they take joy in sitting in the driver seat on the tractor. “Wow…this is so overwhelming” Vernon, a student from a recent visit was overhead saying with a huge grin on his face as he sat in the tractor and looked around as far as he could see.
That’s the type of reaction we love to see at CLC. A lot of teachers come back with their classes year after year. The tours are curriculum-based and allow teachers to tie the tour into their lesson plans on various subjects so both teachers and students win.
We also run childcare and youth group tours in July and August. We still have some dates available in July and August. To book a tour call for your daycare, call (204) 805-1611 or email [email protected]
Be Well…Wendy
