LINDA WILLIAMS
Bedford Co. Correspondent
BEDFORD (Bedford
Co.) Over the years, blue skies
and May sunshine have greeted
nearly every first grade class tak
ing an environmental field day trip
to the Wakefield Farm in Friends
Cove.
And so it was this year.
Holding an environmental field
day at the Wakefield Farm was the
idea of Beverly Wakefield, a first
grade teacher at Bedford Elemen
tary School who lives at the farm
with her husband Jim, and Laura
. dg .wwi, gette
Leach explains some of the types of pond life to these Bed
ford Elementary first-grade students.
With two older students manning the station, a group of
first-grade students dumps items into the Super-Duper
Recycling Machine, and then receive items that can be
made from recycled materials.
The station looks at stone tool points made by Native Americans and presents
some techniques of archeology.
Environmental Field Day At Wakefield Farm
Jackson, an environmental teacher
at Bedford High School who
teaches ninth grade students.
Beverly's husband Jim and his
brother Tom ate partners in the
400-acre dairy farm.
The two teachers decided that
allowing some of the ninth grade
students to join in the educational
event by serving as teachers to the
first-graders would be beneficial.
“We decided it would be a great
project for both age groups,"
explained Beverly. "I would bring
my first graders to the farm where
the could learn first-hand how the
From the left, first-grade teacher and dairy farmer wife Beverly Wakefield kneels to
identify and explain some of the pond life in this first grader’s sieve, while others
scoop and look.
This plastic sheet is laid out over top of the lawn and other items and slopes down
hill. The first-grade students dump colored water onto it to demonstrate the concept
of a watershed, and how all areas of the watershed affect the quality of the main receiv
ing body of water. Atthis station, the Chesapeake Bay is the body of waterof concern.
environment and farming relate.
Laura would bring her older stu
dents to assist in teaching.”
This year there were about 200
first grade students and about 70
ninth grade students.
It takes weeks to prepare the
farm for the visit, which includes
erecting a teepee.
(Turn to Page B 31)
Magneto help these first graders learn how to tell the dif
ference between aluminum cans and Iron-based metal
cans.
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